5 Things You Didn’t Know About Lindsay Wagner, TV’s Beloved ‘Bionic Woman’
The Bionic Woman star Lindsay Wagner knew she wanted an acting career early on. Born in L.A. on June 22, 1949, Wagner dropped out of college to roll the Hollywood dice and got good early notices in the Oscar-winning 1974 film, The Paper Chase. Still, the blond beauty never dreamed she’d became TV’s first female cyborg superhero — and the idol of a jillion little girls — when she guest-starred as the title character’s doomed girlfriend, Jaime Sommers, in The Six Million Man.
Bionic implants killed, instead of saved, Jaime Sommers in that show. But fans fell hard for Wagner and her spunky character, howled in protest at the death, and the 26-year-old actress scored a series of her own, earning an Emmy in the process.
20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection
The Bionic Woman only lasted three seasons, but, by then, Wagner was famous enough to land roles in dozens of well-received TV movies and miniseries, plus other feature films. She and Six Million star Lee Majors returned to their better … faster … stronger bionic characters for a trio of TV movies in 1987, 1989 and 1994, and Wagner continues to act today. But she also spends her time advocating for mental health causes and positivity approaches, and teaches acting and camera technique.
To honor this true superwoman’s 76th birthday, here are five fun facts about the actress who made heavy metal limbs sexy … but once had to move because heavy metal star Eddie Van Halen was just too loud.
1 She was a contestant on The Dating Game
In 1969, 20-year-old Wagner was working as a model and hostess in L.A. when she appeared as the bachelorette on an episode The Dating Game. The clearly nervous Wagner’s prospects were a guitar-playing med student, a babyfaced but well-traveled teacher, and Gunsmoke actor Roger Ewing.
Ewing probably didn’t need The Dating Game to get a date and looked like he knew it — which was a good thing, because Wagner chose the teacher.
2 Wagner’s Jaime Sommers originally didn’t survive her bionic implants
Kenneth Johnson, producer of The Bionic Woman and a writer on its predecessor The Six Million Dollar Man, said he created the Jaime Sommers character after seeing the winsome Wagner guest on The Rockford Files. Sommers was the childhood sweetheart of Six Million’s title character, Steve Austin, who suffered a near-fatal skydiving accident. Equipped with implants just like Austin, Sommers failed to become bionic and died of her injuries instead.
Audiences immediately protested, and not only did Wagner return to The Six Million Dollar Man, but she scored her own Johnson-created spinoff, The Bionic Woman, too. Wagner won the “Outstanding Lead Actress” Emmy in 1977.
3 She married four times
Gallant Entertainment/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Wagner seemed to be a fan a marriage — walking down the aisle four times between 1971 and 1990 — but the unions never lasted. In ’71, the 22-year-old Wagner married a man named Allan Rider, reportedly a music publisher. The union ended two years later. In 1976, she wed Thomas & Friends voice actor Michael Brandon, with whom she was in a serious car accident. The crash halted production on The Bionic Woman for several weeks and left Wagner with a scar on her upper lip. The duo split in 1979.
Two years later, she married Bionic Woman stuntman Henry Kingi with whom she had sons, Dorian in 1982, and Alex in 1986, two years later, she and Kingi divorced. Her final marriage, to Lawrence Mortorff, a producer on the Hellraiser movie franchise, lasted just 3 years.
4 Eddie Van Halen was Wagner’s noisy neighbor
David Tan/Shinko Music/Getty Images
In the early ’80s, Wagner lived next door to Van Halen rocker Eddie Van Halen and his wife, One Day at a Time star Valerie Bertinelli. Eddie built a recording studio behind his home and Van Halen set about recording its iconic album, 1984, there. The racket proved too much for Wagner, who promptly moved out. To prevent the wrath of another neighbor, Van Halen purchased Wagner’s home.
But it wasn’t the only time Wagner encountered Van Halen the band firsthand. Rather than haul cast and crew to Monaco to film the Monte Carlo-based 1977 Bionic Woman episode “Jaime and the King,” producers opted for a 14,000 square foot mansion in nearby Pasadena. The Pasadena palace belonged to Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth‘s doctor dad, Nathan, and the band reportedly wailed away in the basement as the episode was filmed.
5 Wagner’s oldest son, Dorian, played a superhuman Demogorgon on Stranger Things
Like his dad (and his brother), Dorian Kingi, now 43, is a skilled and sought-after stuntman. Since the mid ’90s, Dorian has performed stunts in such high-profile TV shows as 24, Alias, ER, iCarly and The Book of Boba Fett. But before Wagner appeared alongside her boy at a 2024 fan con, she touted Dorian’s appearances on the Netflix smash Stranger Things as one of its pedal-headed killer monsters.
The Bionic Woman vs. the Demogorgons? We’re so there for it!
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