Lindsay Wagner

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Lindsay Jean Wagner (born June 22, 1949) is an Emmy Award winning actress.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Wagner was born in Los Angeles, California. When she was seven years old, her parents divorced and her mother moved with her to the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock, near Pasadena. Wagner might have been able to begin her acting career as a teenager. She was offered a lead role in a TV series at age 13, but was advised by family friend James Best to wait until she was older.

Another move with her mother and stepfather (Ted Ball) brought her to Portland, Oregon where she attended David Douglas High School and appeared in a number of school plays. She studied at the University of Oregon, overcoming dyslexia to become a successful student.

[edit] Career

She worked as a model in Los Angeles and gained some television experience by appearing in Playboy After Dark. However, it wasn't until she contacted a friend at Universal Studios and was cast for a small part in Marcus Welby, M.D. that her acting career took off. Her appearances helped her win roles in the films Two People and as the girlfriend of a Harvard Law School student in The Paper Chase.

Wagner then played Jaime Sommers, a former tennis pro who was the childhood sweetheart of The Six Million Dollar Man. Jaime was critically injured in a skydiving accident, and at the urging of Steve Austin, was equipped with bionic limbs. But Jaime's body rejected the bionics, and she died.

This was intended to be Wagner's last role under her Universal contract, but public response was so overwhelming that Jaime was brought back to life with her own spin-off series, The Bionic Woman. This role earned her an Emmy Award in 1977. Like Steve Austin, Jaime became an agent for the fictitious U.S. Government agency, the O.S.I., though, suffering from amnesia, she could not remember her love for Austin.

Wagner continues to act. Her largest roles have been in several made-for-TV movies about Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers. Recently, she appeared in infomercials for Select Comfort's Sleep Number bed.

In 1987, she wrote a series of books with Robert M. Klein about using acupressure to achieve results akin to a surgical facelift.

[edit] Personal life

Wagner has been married four times. From 1971–73, she was married to music publisher Allan Rider. From late 1976–1979, she was married to the actor and writer, Michael Brandon. Then in 1981, she married Henry Kingi, a stuntman whom she met on the set of The Bionic Woman. Wagner bore two sons with Kingi: Dorian (b. 1982) and Alex (b. 1986). Lindsay married TV producer Lawrence Mortorff in 1990, but then divorced a couple of years later.

She is related to Dallas star Linda Gray by marriage, as Gray's husband is one of Lindsay's uncles. She and Gray played romantic rivals, both in love with Marc Singer in the television movie, The Two Worlds of Jenny Logan (1979).

[edit] Civic activities

Wagner is on the board of directors of the Teen Talking Circle Project and is an active supporter of Girls Talking Circles.

[edit] Trivia

Wagner made her motion picture debut in director Robert Wise's anti-Vietnam War drama Two People (1973), opposite Peter Fonda. She played a famous fashion model while Fonda played a Vietnam War deserter she falls in love with on a trip through Morocco. In his autobiography, Fonda wrote that Wagner spent a night comforting him, but emphasized that there was "no sex" involved.

She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for The Bionic Woman in 1977. She also was nominated twice for the Golden Globe as Best TV Actress - Drama for The Bionic Woman in 1977 and '78.

Wagner was known for displaying a natural beauty by wearing no makeup at all. It was rumored that she fought with the TV execs for The Bionic Woman to allow her with no makeup because she felt her character shouldn't be running around looking like a fashion model ala Charlie's Angels.

Wagner was scheduled to be a passenger on American Airlines Flight 191 from Chicago to Los Angeles on May 25, 1979, but she felt uneasy about flying that day. Wagner skipped the flight, which crashed only moments after takeoff, killing everyone on board.[citation needed]

She played convicted killer Barbara Graham in a 1983 version of I Want to Live!.

[edit] Books

  • High Road to Health: A Vegetarian Cookbook by Lindsay Wagner and Ariane Spade (1994) ISBN 0-671-87277-X
  • Lindsay Wagner's New Beauty: The Acupressure Facelift by Lindsay Wagner and Robert M. Klein (1987) ISBN 0-13-536806-5
  • 30-Day Natural Face Lift Program by Lindsay Wagner and Robert M. Klein (1988) ISBN 0-86188-779-4

[edit] External links

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