Lynda Carter Biography

Lynda Carter (born Linda Jean Córdova Carter; July 24, 1951) is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA in 1972 and as the star of the DC Comics TV series Wonder Woman, which lasted from 1975 to 1979.

Early life

Carter was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She is of English, Mexican, Irish, and Spanish descent. Carter made her public television debut on Lew King's Talent Show at age 5. 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, she 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 for three months; because Carter was under 21, she had to enter through the kitchen.

Carter attended Arizona State University. After being voted "Most Talented", she dropped out to pursue a career in music. In 1970, Carter sang with The Garfin Gathering. 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.

Career

In 1972 Carter entered a local Arizona beauty contest (which she won), and gained national attention in the United States by winning Miss World USA, representing Arizona. 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 several "B-movies."

Wonder Woman

Carter's acting career took off when she landed the starring role in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman as Wonder Woman and her secret identity, Diana Prince. The savings her parents had set aside for her to pursue acting in Los Angeles were almost depleted, and Carter 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, such that Carter continues to be closely identified with Wonder Woman, and the series lasted three seasons.

As the program was winding down, while referring to the feedback she had received for her posters, 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."

Carter also was 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, 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. In 2007, toy company DC Direct released a 13" full-figure statue of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, limited to 5,000 pieces; it was re-released in 2010. Also in 2010, DC Direct began selling a 5½-inch bust of Carter's Wonder Woman to celebrate the DC Comics' 75th anniversary.

Other credits

In 1978, Carter was voted "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" by The International Academy of Beauty and The British Press Organization. During the late 1970s, Carter 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 a 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.

In 1979's Apocalypse Now, she originally was cast in the role of Playboy Playmate Bunny, but the filming of her scenes was interrupted by the famous storm that wrecked the theater set, prompting nearly two months' delay for rebuilding. By the time Coppola was ready to shoot again, Carter's contractual obligations to Wonder Woman forced her back to the states, and her scenes were re-shot with Colleen Camp. The only evidence remaining of Carter's involvement are the Playboy centerfolds that were specially shot by the magazine as movie props. At one point in the Redux version of Apocalypse Now, a glimpse of Carter's pinup is visible, as the only nude work ascribed to the actress outside of Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw.

She also made a guest appearance on The Muppet Show, but did not reprise her iconic character or display superpowers throughout that entire episode. Carter left that performance to Miss Piggy who portrayed "Wonder Pig", a spoof of Wonder Woman.

Her other credits include the title role in a biopic of actress 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 television 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.

Throughout the 1990s, Carter appeared in a string of television 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 participated in two scheduled on-line chat sessions with fans. It was around that time that Carter created her own production company, Potomac Productions. Throughout the 1990s, she also appeared in commercials for Lens Express (now 1-800 Contacts). In 1993, Carter expanded her performance resume to include voiceover work as the narrator for the Sandra Brown book Where There's Smoke.

In 2000, Carter hosted the I Love 1978 episode of BBC2's I Love the '70s. The following year she 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, Carter returned to the DC Comics' television world in the Smallville episode "Progeny" (2007), playing Chloe Sullivan's Kryptonite-empowered mother.

Carter expanded her voice-over work to include 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. 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, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Plush Room in San Francisco, and The Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles. In June 2009, her second album, At Last, was released and reached #10 on Billboard's Jazz Albums Chart. In June 2011, Carter released her third album, Crazy Little Things, which she describes as a delightful mix of standards, country, and pop tunes.

Personal life

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). Carter and her husband have two children: James (born 1988), and Jessica (born 1990), 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 Carter revealed that her mother had suffered from IBS for over 30 years, resulting in Carter touring the country as an advocate and spokesperson. Lynda is also a staunch advocate and supporter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Pro-Choice rights for women, and legal equality for LGBT people. She was the Grand Marshal for the 2011 Phoenix Pride & 2011 New York Pride Parades, as well as the 2013 Capital Pride Parade in Washington, D.C.

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. Carter stated that she "did what anyone would have done."

Later in June 2008 Carter admitted in an interview to People magazine that she had entered a rehabilitation clinic for treatment of alcoholism and had been sober for 10 years. In a statement when asked what the recovery process had taught her, Carter explained that the best measure of a human being is "how we treat the people who love us, and the people that we love."

Filmography

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/Princess Diana/Diana Prince	TV Movie + 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
1983	Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess	Rita Hayworth	TV movie
1984	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
2006	Slayer	Colonel Jessica Weaver	TV movie
2007	Smallville	Moira Sullivan	1 episode
Video game
Year	Game	Role	Notes
2002	The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind	Female Nords
2005	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion	Female Nords and Female Orcs
2011	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Azura, Gormlaith Golden-Hilt

Albums

• 1978: Portrait
• 2009: At Last
• 2011: Crazy Little Things

See also