|
|
|
Biography :
Birth Date: June 22, 1949 (Year of the Ox)
Birth Place: Los Angeles, California
Parents: Wagner, Bill Nowels; Wagner, Marilyn (Maiden name: Thrasher)
Height: 5' 9
Weight: 125 to 130 lbs
Hair: Naturally Dark Blond
Eyes: Hazel
At the age of seven, Lindsay and her mother moved to Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles, after her parents divorced. Lindsay's father, Bill Wagner was a professional photographer, and her grandfather, Edward Lee Thrasher, was a councilman in Los Angles. A family friend, James Best, invited Lindsay to join his acting class when she was twelve. She found that acting gave her the freedom to show emotions that she felt unable to express otherwise. The first play Mr. Best gave Lindsay to act in was called, "This Property Is Condemned" by Tennessee Williams. Lindsay went on to study dance as well with James Best's wife, Jody. Not long after she started her studies Lindsay was offered a lead role in a TV series. Mr. Best convinced her that child actors frequently end up having no future in Hollywood, and that it was better to wait until she was more experienced. So instead, she started a modeling career, often working with
her aunt, Linda Gray.
Lindsay went to North Hollywood High School until she and her mother moved to Portland, Oregon with her step-father Ted Ball. There she attended David Douglas High School, and appeared in school plays. For one year Lindsay attended the University of Oregon and Mt. Hood Community College in Portland. Her dyslexia made it too difficult to continue college. Lindsay even had a
brief stint singing career in a rock group around this time (1968). Lindsay was determined to make it in Hollywood as an actress, so she returned to Los Angeles. As a model for the Nina Blanchard Agency in L.A., Lindsay gained early television experience by appearing in commercials and the syndicated Playboy After Dark, a talk/variety show.
When she felt she was ready, Lindsay contacted an old friend at Universal Studios, and was cast for a small part in Marcus Welby, M.D., despite the fact that there was an actor's strike going on at the time. Lindsay then was noticed by Monique James, who is still with Universal today as a casting director. In mid-1971 she was signed as a contract player for $162 a week, appearing in several different productions. Her appearances in these TV shows helped her win roles in the films Two People, The Paper Chase, and Second Wind.
Even though Lindsay was growing in popularity, the Universal Studios decided to drop her as a contract player early in the 70's. It was fine with Lindsay since she decided to move on anyways. Her last appearance in a Universal production was to have been in The Six Million Dollar Man as Jaime Sommers, Steve's girlfriend. Executive Producer Harvey Bennett chose Lindsay for the role of Jaime personally. Lindsay says that she accepted the role for her
half-sister Randi, as a fourteenth birthday present, because The Six Million Dollar Man was Randi's favorite show.
Later when the ratings came in, and the protest letters with viewers wanting Jaime back started showing up, Universal was in trouble. At first, they thought about substituting Lindsay with someone else, but ABC wanted Wagner. Her agent decided to ask for ten times the previous amount she received doing The Six Million Dollar Man episodes, which he was sure they would balk at and refuse. But to everyone's surprise, Universal agreed! So she came back and did the Return of the Bionic Woman episodes. As you can guess, the new Bionic Woman episodes were a big hit again. Universal was forced to re-hire her at a vastly higher salary, and gave her, her own show: The Bionic Woman. Lindsay was the first woman to win an Emmy in the category of "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" for a Science-Fiction related show on September 12, 1977, for her work on the Deadly Ringer episodes of Bionic Woman.
When the Bionic Woman episodes finished, Lindsay felt like she hadn't accomplished much. She had not taken very good care of herself over the three years of work on the Bionic Woman. After it was over Lindsay started to reconsider even being in show business. Then came along an offer to play the role of the first American woman doctor in The Incredible Journey of Dr. Meg Laurel. The change of pace was a wonderful change for her, and she began to find her focus of helping other people through her work. She went on to do other films in Emmy award winning Scruples, Two Worlds of Jenny Logan, Evil In Clear River, Memories Never Die, This Child is Mine, Convicted, I Want to Live, Nightmare at Bittercreek, Child's Cry, Babies, Shattered Dreams, Once In a Lifetime, To Be The Best, Contagious, Their Second Chance, A Mother's Instinct, Voyage of Terror, and just finished Frog and Wombat, which is now available on video. In Lindsay's twenty-eight year career, she already has more than forty films accredited to her name.
Lindsay was married to music publisher Allan Rider from 1971-73. She was married again, to actor/writer Michael Brandon -- whom she met in an acting class -- from 1976-79. Wagner met
stuntman Henry Kingi on the set of Bionic Woman, and was married to him from 1981-84. Kingi appeared in the episodes All For One,
The Pyramid, and Rancho Outcast. He was also the stunt coordinator/stuntman during The Bionic Woman's last season. It was by Henry Kingi, Lindsay had her two sons: Dorian Henry Kingi born: 9/25/82, and Alex Nathan Kingi born: 9/7/86. From 1990-93, she was married to producer Lawrence Mortorff. Lindsay now
has a new love, George Amiotte. Lindsay's current status is unknown.
Lindsay owned a country home in Portland, Oregon for many years. She sold it in 1988 in order to establish a more permanent home in Bakersfield, California for herself and her growing sons. She may still own 160 acres of land in Washington state, from which you can see Mount Hood, with a house and two barns.
When she was young, Lindsay suffered from ulcers, but apparently cured herself of them by the age of twenty using homeopathic medicine. She was also involved in an unfortunate automobile accident with Michael in 1976, in which she received a bad cut on her upper lip along with other fairly serious injuries. Even though Lindsay recovered quickly, production on Bionic Woman had to be shut down for two weeks because of this.
Lindsay's father passed away in 1994. Here is the obituary from The Hollywood Reporter 11/3/94:
"BILL NOWELS WAGNER, the father of actress Lindsay Wagner, died of cancer October 30, 1994, in Los Angeles. He was 65. Wagner is also survived by his father, Virgil Wagner; daughter, Cortney; stepchildren, Curtis and Kenny; and grandchildren, Dorian and Alex."
She is said to be an extremely warm and friendly person, much like the way she portrayed Jaime on Bionic Woman. To paraphrase a comment Lindsay made: "They're trying to write the series Bionic Woman as much like me as possible." Lindsay fought hard to get good scripts on the show, and advocated against the use of violence or guns. She wanted Jaime to be a role model for young girls to look up to. It was also important to her to show that her character had heart and a mind, and didn't always need might to win her battles.
Please rate this site:
Warning: include(../rate/rate.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/lwagner/public_html/html/bio.php on line 258
Warning: include(../rate/rate.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/lwagner/public_html/html/bio.php on line 258
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../rate/rate.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/lwagner/public_html/html/bio.php on line 258
|
|
|
|
I am in no way connected with Universal, ABC, Lindsay Wagner, her official fanclub at Fansource.com, or anyone else associated with the wonderful Bionic Woman show. I am just a big fan. All photos used in and on this website are copyright their respective owners. I have borrowed images I have found on the net at other fansites, from the Official fan site, from other fans, and I have had some made for this site. I do not make any money on this site and all money donated goes back into the site.
This site is copyright 2000-2004 to Jeff B
|
|
|
