Biography of Lindsay Wagner

The Bionic Woman is now a cult American TV show, originally aired from 1976 to 1978, running for three seasons. It started life as a spin off from another iconic show, The Six Million Dollar Man. Its lead actor was Lindsay Wagner who starred as Jaime Sommers, a professional tennis player and girlfriend of the Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin who had a sky diving accident which left her critically injured. Steve persuaded Oscar Goldman to use the same bionic methods to treat Jaime as he had used on him. The surgery resulted in Jaime now possessing a right arm with heightened strength, legs allowing her to run faster than a car at high speed and amplified hearing in her right ear. A condition of Jaime`s operation being carried out was to commit her to become a member of the same Office of Scientific Intelligence as Steve belonged to.

Jaime`s body rejects her bionic implants and Jaime dies. However the character was so popular with viewers they reworked the script to bring her back to life in the second season. Jaime had been kept in suspended animation until she could be cured. Amnesia causes her to forget her relationship with Steve and Steve has no choice but to let her live her own life as an OSI Agent. Lindsay Wagner won an Emmy for her role as The Bionic Woman. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe awards and a Cable ACE Award. She was born in 1949 and started out as a model but left it and tried acting as she did not like life as a model. Her acting career started with appearances in Night Gallery, The Bold Ones: The Lawyers and Marcus Welby M.D. Her work on these T.V shows led to two movie roles in Two People and The Paper Chase. Her role in The Six Million Dollar Man followed in 1974 and eventually the spin off series, The Bionic Woman. After The Bionic Woman Lindsay starred in numerous miniseries and made for T.V films. She has starred in thirty of them.

Outside her acting career Lindsay has co-written a vegetarian cookbook and also Lindsay Wagner`s New Beauty: The Acupressure Facelift. She has a keen interest in holistic healing and has produced a meditation CD as well as organising workshops. She works in the fields of human rights, domestic violence, animal welfare and the environment. She has also been Chair of Inter Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect for twenty-five years. She has been married and divorced four times and has two children with Henry Kingi, her third husband.

A 2007 remake of The Bionic Woman starring Michelle Ryan produced nine episodes before production was halted by the Writers Guild of America strike. The remaining four episodes were never produced and the series was cancelled in 2008 as a result of low ratings. The remake was criticised for being too serious and depressing, with poor casting and script writing. Die hard fans of the original and even some fans of the remake obsess about the programme and pounce on eagerly on signed memorabilia and merchandising produced. The Bionic Woman lives on for many people today and it still acquires new fans coming across it for the first time.