| Lynda Carter | |
|---|---|
Carter at the 2009 Heart Truth fashion show |
|
| Born | Lynda Jean Carter[1] July 24, 1951 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1974-present |
| Known for | Wonder Woman, (1975-1979). |
| Spouse | Ron Samuels (1977-1982) (divorced) Robert A. Altman (1984-present) 2 children |
Lynda Jean Carter (born July 24, 1951) is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman (1975–77) and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1977–79).
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Carter was born Lynda Jean Carter in Phoenix, Arizona.[1] Her father, Colby Carter, is an art dealer of English descent and her mother, Juana Córdova, is of Mexican descent with roots in Chihuahua, Mexico[2] and previously worked in the telephone industry.[3] Lynda speaks fluent Spanish. Carter grew up an avid reader of the Wonder Woman comic books. She went to Arcadia High School in Phoenix and Kachina Elementary School.
During high school, Carter performed in a band called Just Us, consisting of a marimba, a conga drum, an acoustic guitar, and a stand-up bass played by another girl. When she was 17, Lynda joined two of her cousins in another band called The Relatives. Actor Gary Burghoff was the drummer. The group opened at the Sahara Hotel and Casino lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada, for three months; and, because Lynda was under 21, she had to enter through the kitchen. She attended Arizona State University and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. After being voted "Most Talented," she dropped out to pursue a career in music. In 1970, Carter sang with The Garfin Gathering with Lynda Carter. Their first performance was in a San Francisco hotel so new that it had no sidewalk entrance. Consequently, they played mostly to the janitors and hotel guests who parked their cars in the underground garage. She returned to Arizona in 1972.
In 1972, Carter entered a local beauty contest and gained national attention in the United States by winning Miss World USA, representing Arizona;[3] in the international 1972 Miss World pageant, representing the U.S., she reached the semi-finals. After taking acting classes at several New York acting schools, she began making appearances on such TV shows as Starsky and Hutch, Cos, and Nakia and in "B-movies," including her only nude appearance, in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976).
Carter's acting career took off when she landed the starring role in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman as Wonder Woman and her alter ego Diana Prince. The savings her parents had set aside for her to pursue acting in Los Angeles was almost depleted, and she was close to returning to Arizona when her manager informed her that she had won the part. Her earnest performance endeared her to fans and critics, and the series lasted three seasons. Thirty years after first taking on the role, Carter continues to be closely identified with Wonder Woman.
As the program was winding down, Carter told US magazine:
"I never meant to be a sexual object for anyone but my husband. I never thought a picture of my body would be tacked up in men's bathrooms. I hate men looking at me and thinking what they think. And I know what they think. They write and tell me."
She was referring to the feedback she had received for her poster as Wonder Woman.[4]
Carter was also upset with some of the marketing of her image. Warner Bros. worked out a deal with the toy company Mego to create a Wonder Woman doll while the series was still on the air. In 1987, on The Late Show with Joan Rivers,[5] Carter commented:
"I think that you're probably familiar with a problem in Hollywood, and that is that they market you, and they use you. They did a mask of my face and put it on the doll, and they put my name on for the first run of it. And then they took my name off and said they didn't have to pay me anymore. So it's the kind of thing that you can be used so much in this industry. I make nothing. I don't even make anything from the reruns. Don't ever settle for net profits. It's called creative accounting."
In 1985, DC Comics named Carter as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for her work on the Wonder Woman series.[6] In 2007, toy company DC Direct released a 13" full-figure statue of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, limited to 5,000 pieces;[7] it was re-released in 2010.[8] Also in 2010, DC Direct began selling a 5½-inch bust of Carter's rendition of Wonder Woman to celebrate the DC Comics' 75th anniversary.[9]
During the late 1970s, she recorded an album, Portrait. Carter is credited as a co-writer on several songs, and she made numerous guest appearances on variety television programs at the time in a musical capacity. She also sang two of her songs in the 1979 Wonder Woman episode, "Amazon Hot Wax".
In 1977, Carter released a promotional poster through Pro Arts Inc. at the suggestion of her then-husband and manager, Ron Samuels. The poster was very successful despite Carter's dissatisfaction with it. In 1981, during an interview on the NBC television special Women Who Rate a 10, she said:
"It's uncomfortable because I just simply took a photograph. That's all my participation was in my poster that sold over a million copies was that I took a photograph that I thought was a dumb photograph. My husband said, 'Oh, try this thing tied up here, it'll look beautiful'. And the photographer said 'the back-lighting is really terrific'. So dealing with someone having that picture up in their... bedroom or their... living room or whatever I think would be hard for anyone to deal with."[10]
In the early 1980s, Carter performed on the Las Vegas Strip and in Atlantic City, highlighting her musical talent.
Carter's other credits include the title role in a biopic of Rita Hayworth, titled Rita Hayworth, Love Goddess (1983) and a variety of her own TV specials: Lynda Carter's Special (1980), Encore! (1980), Celebration (1981), Street Life (1982), and Body And Soul (1984). She starred in a few short-lived TV series, including Partners in Crime (1984) with Loni Anderson and Hawkeye (1994–95) with Lee Horsley. During this time, she also became a celebrity promotional model for Maybelline cosmetics commercials.
Throughout the 1990s, Carter appeared in a string of tv movies that resulted in a resurgence in television appearances. Also, because of the re-syndication of Wonder Woman on such cable networks as FX and SyFy, Carter even participated in two scheduled on-line chat sessions with fans.[11] It was around this time that Carter created her own production company, Potomac Productions. Throughout the 1990s, she has also appeared in commercials for Lens Express (now 1-800 Contacts).
In 2001, Carter was cast in the independent comedy feature Super Troopers as Vermont Governor Jessman. The writers and stars of the film, the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, with Jay Chandrasekhar directing, had specifically sought Carter for the role. Inspired by the character detour from her usual roles, she agreed to play a washed-up former beauty queen in The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park (2004), directed by Christopher Coppola. Carter made her first appearance in a major feature film in a number of years in the big-screen remake of The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), also directed by Chandrasekhar. She also appeared in the comedy Sky High (2005) as "Principal Powers", the head of a school for superheroes. The script allowed Carter to poke fun at her most famous character when she states: "I can't do anything more to help you. I'm not Wonder Woman, y'know." In 2006, she guest-starred in the made-for-cable vampire film Slayer. The following year, Lynda returned to the DC Comics' television world in the Smallville episode "Progeny" (2007) playing Chloe Sullivan's Kryptonite-empowered mother.
Carter has also done voiceovers for video games, performing voices for the nord and orsimer (orc) females in three computer games of The Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. These games were developed by Bethesda Softworks; her husband, businessman Robert A. Altman, is Chairman and CEO of Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media.
From September to November 2005, Carter played Mama Morton in the West End London production of Chicago.[12] In 2006, her rendition of "When You're Good to Mama" was officially released on the Chicago: 10th Anniversary Edition CD box set. In May 2007, Carter began touring the U.S. with her one-woman musical cabaret show, An Evening with Lynda Carter. She has played engagements at such venues as Feinstein's At Loews Regency in New York, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In June 2009, her second album, "At Last", was released and reached #10 on Billboard's Jazz Albums Chart.[13]
In June 2011, Carter released her third album, "Crazy Little Things", which she describes as delightful mix of standards, country, and pop tunes.[14]
Carter has been married twice. Her first marriage was to her former talent agent Ron Samuels from 1977 to 1982. In January 1984, Carter married Washington, D.C., attorney Robert A. Altman, law partner of Clark Clifford (and now CEO of ZeniMax Media). The Altmans have two children, James (born 1988[15]) and Jessica (born 1990[16]),[3] and live in Potomac, Maryland.
In 1992, after a lengthy and highly publicized jury trial stemming from his involvement with the BCCI, Carter's husband was acquitted. Carter was seen on the TV news with her arm around him, shouting, "Not guilty! Not guilty!" to the gathered reporters.
In 2003 Lynda revealed that her mother had suffered with IBS for over 30 years. Carter used her celebrity to spotlight the condition, touring the country as an advocate and spokesperson.[17] Lynda is also a staunch advocate and supporter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure,[18] Pro-Choice rights for women,[19] and legal equality for LGBT people.[20]
In early June 2008, while rowing out of the Potomac Boat Club, Carter spotted a body floating in the Potomac River. She called out to some fishermen and waited for the police to arrive.[21] That same month, she admitted in an interview to People magazine that she had entered a rehabilitation clinic for treatment of alcoholism.[22]
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1976 | Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw | Bobbie Jo Baker | |
| 1993 | Lightning in a Bottle | Charlotte Furber | |
| 2001 | Super Troopers | Governor Jessman | a.k.a. Broken Lizard's Super Troopers |
| 2004 | The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park | Lynette | a.k.a. Creature |
| 2005 | Sky High | Principal Powers | |
| The Dukes of Hazzard | Pauline | ||
| 2006 | Tempbot | Mary Alice | Short film |
| 2007 | Tattered Angel | Hazel Anderson | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1974 | Nakia | Helen Chase | 1 episode |
| 1975 | Matt Helm | Bobbi Dee | 1 episode |
| 1976 | A Matter of Wife... And Death | Zelda | TV movie |
| Starsky and Hutch | Vicky | 1 episode | |
| 1975-79 | Wonder Woman | Wonder Woman | 59 episodes |
| 1980 | The Last Song | Brooke Newman | TV movie |
| The Muppet Show | Herself | 1 episode | |
| 1981 | Born to Be Sold | Kate Carlin | TV movie |
| 1982 | Hotline | Brianne O'Neill | TV movie |
| 1984 | Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess | Rita Hayworth | TV movie |
| Partners in Crime | Carole Stanwyck | 13 episodes | |
| 1987 | Stillwatch | Patricia Traymore | TV movie |
| 1989 | Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All | Helen Durant | TV movie |
| 1991 | Daddy | Charlotte Sampson | TV movie a.k.a. Danielle Steel's Daddy |
| Posing: Inspired by Three Real Stories | Meredith Lanahan | TV movie a.k.a. I Posed for Playboy |
|
| 1994-95 | Hawkeye | Elizabeth Shields | 22 episodes |
| 1996 | When Friendship Kills | Kathryn Archer | TV movie a.k.a. A Secret Between Friends: A Moment of Truth Movie |
| She Woke Up Pregnant | Susan Saroyan | TV movie a.k.a. Crimes of Silence |
|
| 1997 | A Prayer in the Dark | Emily Hayworth | TV movie |
| 1998 | Someone to Love Me | Diane Young | TV movie a.k.a. Someone to Love Me: A Moment of Truth Movie a.k.a. Girl in the Backseat |
| 1999 | Family Blessings | Lee Reston | TV movie a.k.a. LaVyrle Spencer's 'Family Blessings' |
| 2003 | Terror Peak | Dr. Janet Fraser | TV movie |
| Hope & Faith | Summer Kirkland | 1 episode | |
| 2005 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Lorraine Dillon | 1 episode |
| Law & Order | Lorraine Dillon | 1 episode | |
| Sky High | Principal Powers | Movie | |
| 2006 | Slayer | Colonel Jessica Weaver | TV movie |
| 2007 | Smallville | Moira Sullivan | 1 episode |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Brucene Smith |
Miss World USA 1972 |
Succeeded by Marjorie Wallace |