Lynda Carter

From singer to superhero

Lynda Carter started out singing in lounges and with bands, then entered pageants and won Miss World USA in 1972. Acting classes in New York followed, and a few small television roles. She was close to broke when she was cast as Wonder Woman in 1975, reportedly chosen from a very large field of hopefuls.

The pilot aired on ABC in late 1975, with the first season set during the 1940s. When the show moved to CBS for its second season, the setting jumped to the present day of the late 1970s, which gave the series its best-known look.

The spin

In the comics, Diana Prince changed into Wonder Woman in ways that were hard to film without slowing the story down. Carter suggested that she simply spin in place, and the production added a flash of light at the moment of change. The spin became the show's signature and is still the first thing many people picture when they think of the character.

Carter did many of her own stunts in the early episodes, including some that would be handed to professionals today, which added to the sense that she really was the hero she played.

Why the show endured

Wonder Woman ran for three seasons and roughly 60 episodes, but its influence outlasted its run. For a generation of viewers it was the first time a woman led an action series as the strongest person in the room, with kindness rather than menace as her defining trait.

Carter has often said that she tried to play Wonder Woman as someone who believed in people, not someone who wanted to beat them. Fans at conventions still tell her what the role meant to them growing up.

After the lasso

Carter went back to music, recording albums and performing live, and took acting roles in films and television for decades. In 2018 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She returned to the world of Wonder Woman in 2020 with a cameo in Wonder Woman 1984, a passing of the torch that connected the 1970s show to the modern films.

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