This is NOT Lindsay Wagner here, just a fan wanting to share with other fans.Thank you for taking a look, hope you enjoy.
Biography
Name: Lindsay Jean WagnerDate of Birth: 22nd June 1949 (Lindsay was born on a Wednesday)Place of Birth : Los Angeles, CaliforniaParents: Marilyn Ball (nee Thrasher ) and Bill Wagner (died 1994 aged 65) (parents divorced when Lindsay was aged 7)Siblings: Randall Ball, Cortney Wagner has two step brothers, Curtis and KennySpouse:Lawrence Mortorff (6 May 1990 - June 1993) (divorced)Henry Kingi (1981 - 1984) (divorced) 2 childrenMichael Brandon (19th December 1976 - 1979) (divorced)Alan Ryder (1971 - 1973) (divorced)Children: Dorian Henry Kingi b. 25th Sept. 1982Alex Nathan Kingi b. 7th Sept 1986Lindsay Wagner is an internationally recognised actress, best known for being The Bionic Woman, her hits series in the mid 70s. Today Lindsay appears a calm and relaxed person, a good mimic, with a wicked sense of humour. She revels in the role of motherhood and is immensely proud of her two sons, Dorian and Alex, and leads a full an interesting life. But Lindsay’s life wasn’t always so happy, it is said that the more life experience an actor has to draw on the better the actor they will be. However, as John Lennon said the song ‘Beautiful Boy’ dedicated to his son Sean, ‘life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans’. Not even Lindsay Wagner could have imagined how her life would turn out, how successful she would be in spite of all her difficulties and traumas. We are the sum of our experiences, but it how we use those experiences, to allow the bad overwhelm us, or see them as obstacles that in the end make us the person we are. Lindsay could have chosen to be the continual victim; instead she saw each hurdle as a challenge and met each one head on. Today she uses her life experiences to help others, mostly through her acting, but sometimes in taking a personal interest in a particular charity and doing so in a ‘hands on’ fashion.It all began at 4.30 pm on 22nd June 1949, a Wednesday that according to the nursery rhyme: Wednesday’s child is full of woe/or has far to go. Lindsay would indeed have far to go, far away from her financially poor start in life, to a life spent in the university of life and in entertaining all who saw her or met her. Her burning desire was to communicate, what she needed was the means, a platform or better a medium that would allow her access to a large number of people. But all that was yet to come…Her parents, Marilyn and Bill Wagner, were barely out of school when they found themselves parents to a beautiful daughter. Lindsay’s father Bill Wagner, was a huge sports fan, and was convinced that his first child would be a boy, thus Lindsay was named after a sports star. Bill Wagner made his living as a photographer, while the young Marilyn tried to adapt to her role as wife and mother. Years later mother and daughter would look back and laugh at those early, but difficult years, with Lindsay admitting that ‘I raised her’. Lindsay admits that her family was never ‘Father Knows Best’, that her parents were like so many others simply struggling to do what they had to as best they knew. Nor was her parent’s marriage a happy union and, in spite of their efforts the marriage eventually collapsed and ended in divorce. After the divorce Lindsay saw her father for one day a month by a court order, but it was awkward for Lindsay and her father to build a relationship based on a few snatched hours every four weeks.Life after her parents were divorced was unsettling in another way as Marilyn and Lindsay were constantly moving from place to place. Lindsay’s early schooling was constantly disrupted and as a consequence her poor reading skills initially were put down to all the upheaval of moving from school to school, in fact Lindsay had dyslexiaLike many dyslexics, Lindsay found a way of coping; if she couldn’t access information from a page of text then she would bombard a teacher with questions. Equally she became adept at hiding her poor literacy, as when it came to reading aloud in the classroom, Lindsay would make a note of which way the reading was to be done, and then just before it was she turn would make some excuse to leave the room. It would be many more years before Lindsay finally learned the name of her learning difficulty.It was acting that would eventually give Lindsay a lifeline, and enable her to release some of the hurt she was holding inside. Lindsay never allowed anyone to see what pain she was in, how she was sitting on her feelings. She held it all in, to the extent that at the tender age of fourteen Lindsay began developing ulcers, which became acute and which were not healed until her twenties. One person, however, did somehow seek beyond the happy mask that Lindsay portrayed to the world, that was actor James Best, a relative of Lindsay’s. Lindsay was a babysitter for the Best family. James Best saw that Lindsay was a much ‘too’ serious child who was holding in all her emotions. But rather than try to coax Lindsay to talk about what was troubling her, he chose a different method. James Best felt that acting could help Lindsay find a way of releasing what she was feeling, that is under the disguise of a character, and so encouraged her to join his acting workshops, which were aimed at adults. He gave her a part in the play 'This Property is Condemned' by Tennessee Williams; it was a deliberate choice on the part of James Best. In the Lindsay played the part of a troubled little girl who was locking away her feelings, whether Lindsay was aware of what James Best had done is not known, nevertheless his idea worked, for in Lindsay’s words: 'lancing a wound', finally through taking on the role of a character in a similar situation to herself, she was able to show others how much she was hurting inside, but equally could remain hidden behind it – James may have helped Lindsay find a way of dealing with her emotions, but not yet how to express them as just Lindsay, not Lindsay portraying a character. In the audience was a talent scout from MGM, he immediately spotted her talent and quickly offered her a role in a new television series. No one could doubt it was a marvellous opportunity, and it would also mean some financial security for mother and daughter. However it was James Best who saw it as a backward step, he advised Lindsay against taking the role, explaining to her that few child actors progressed beyond teen roles. James Best believed that the more life experience a budding actor acquired, then the more they would have to give, not only as an actor, but also as a person. So Lindsay turned down the opportunity, but she knew that one day she would be a professional actress, but only when she was ready.There were to be more changes in Lindsay’s life. Her uncle, Ed Thrasher married the then model, Linda Gray in 1962. Linda immediately spotted Lindsay’s potential as a model and introduced her to Nina Blanchard, even though Lindsay was only 13, she could (because of her height) look much older. Linda said that Lindsay had a ‘sophistication about her’. The modelling work helped boost the family income, Lindsay gave her earnings to her mother who was working in the post office.Lindsay’s life suddenly had meaning, even if she didn’t enjoy the modelling, she was earning money, and she had her acting. Then her life was turned upside down again when her mother remarried and soon after a new baby completed the family set up. Lindsay continued her modelling, and her acting classes, she appeared in school plays at her school (North Hollywood High), and she enjoyed looking after her new baby sister. Her settled existence came to an abrupt end when her step-father decided to take the family to Portland, Oregon, his home town. Lindsay was horrified at the prospect of moving away from all she knew, she felt at first as though she was being punished by being taken away from the city. Much later she would acknowledge that the move to the country had saved her by allowing her contact with 'God's World', and Mother Nature in all its glory. Previously Lindsay's only contact with nature had been a cemetery that backed on to her home in Los Angeles. In Portland Lindsay attended the David Douglas High School in Portland and it was there that her poor reading skills were finally identified, though it would be a long time before her dyslexia would be properly recognized. She continued to study acting, under the guidance of one of her high school teachers, who, like James Best, also saw Lindsay’s potential as an actress. Lindsay grudgingly settled into her new life, even taking time to sing with a rock band, after graduating from high school Lindsay travelled to Europe, her first real vacation that also allowed her time to think about her future.On her return she enrolled at the University of Oregon to study theatre, and teaching. Her dyslexia, however, made studying difficult at university level. After just a year at college Lindsay quit and headed back to Los Angeles. Once back in L.A. Lindsay resumed her modelling career and took acting classes. She was still restless to make her professional debut as an actress but felt that the time was not yet right.Modelling was something Lindsay hated even though it paid handsomely it gave her no satisfaction on a personal, intellectual or emotional level. Eventually she could stand it no more and quit, only taking the occasional modelling assignment to supplement her income. Lindsay knew that it was her destiny to be an actress and that one day she would realise her dream.Her big break came in 1969, she decided that it was time to realize her dream of being an actress so she called a friend who worked at Universal Studios, her timing couldn't have been worse, there was an actors strike. It looked briefly as though Lindsay's acting ambitions would have to be put on hold, but then her friend called her back, there was one show that had got a waiver from the actors union, the show was Marcus Welby M.D., they were casting for a part, Lindsay went along and landed the role. A casting agent, Monique James also spotted Lindsay's talent and signed her up, Lindsay became a contract player for Universal Studios, her salary was $162 per week, a lot less than she had earned as a model, but at last she felt ‘connected’ and was fulfilling her dream.For the next two years Lindsay appeared on many popular TV shows, after guest-starring in some thirteen different series she was picked by Robert Wise to star in the film ‘Two People’, the first film to tackle issues relating to the Vietnam War, which had become a very contentious issue in the USA. Lindsay starred alongside Peter Fonda (son of actor Henry Fonda), the film told the story of two disenfranchised young people, one a disillusioned model (Lindsay) and the other a USA Army deserter who had decided it was time to turn him in. The two stumble into each other first at a restaurant, and then later on the train. The story starts in Marakesh, and moves to Paris, where the two unlikely lovers consummate their relationship. The film received mixed reviews, but it can claim to be the first anti Vietnam War movie, released at a time that was unsettling for many Americans.Around the same time Lindsay married Alan Ryder, a musician who at the time seemed prepared to put his career on hold for that of his new wife. Lindsay’s star seemed to be in the ascendancy, Robert Wise had been very impressed with her and wanted to work with her again. And he kept his promise; Lindsay took on the co-starring role in The Paper Chase, working alongside Timothy Bottoms and John Houseman. This film was better received, and John Houseman walked off with the Oscar for best supporting role.After working on two feature films Lindsay returned to Universal, and was brought back down to earth when once again she found herself being offered ‘guest-starring roles’ in yet more TV series. Lindsay dug her heels in; she wanted more feature work, not yet more episodic television work. For a while it seemed neither party, Lindsay or Universal, would budge, both were being as stubborn as the other. The stalemate could not continue for ever and at last a compromise was found, all Lindsay had to do was do one more TV series and then Universal would call it quits. The show – The Six Million Dollar Man. A sci-fi series that had been enjoying healthy ratings, until someone put a situation comedy against it on a rival channel. The Six Million Dollar Man was in trouble, it was a case of role reversal, this time it would be the damsel who would save the man in distress.Lindsay had never heard of the show, she didn’t even own a television set. She called her mother, explained the deal Universal had offered, any last reluctance on Lindsay’s part to refuse the role of Jaime Sommers soon disappeared when she learned that it was Randi (her young sister) favourite show. So Lindsay agreed, all she had to do was film a two parter, play a woman who would lose three limbs, have them replaced using something called bionics, do some action/adventure stuff and then die. After that she would be free to pursue her career. No more television series, with there demanding schedules and endless re-writing of scripts.What no-one, not even Lindsay, had reckoned with, was the audience’s reaction to Jaime Sommers. The astute producers of the SMDM had realised that in order to boost the ratings it was necessary to give Steve Austin a love interest, but also to add some drama, so have him meet his childhood sweetheart again, fall in love, lose her, save her and then lose her again. It allowed Lee Majors the chance to explore the character of Steve Austin and also to humanize him.The two part episode did what it was supposed to – it boosted the ratings. Yet the audience felt cheated, they did not want a dead Jaime, they wanted more of Jaime. The SMDM being a sci fi show anything was possible, so Jaime was put on ice, that is until someone could convince Lindsay to reprise her role. By this time Lindsay was in Canada making another feature ‘Second Wind’, along with her future husband, Michael Brandon. Her marriage to Alan Ryder had floundered and they divorced. Lindsay also had a new manager, Ron Samuels, a hard headed businessman. Universal may have got Lindsay on the cheap initially to play Jaime, but they weren’t going to a second time, if they wanted her that badly then they would have to pay her what she was worth.To be continued©Lindsay Wagner UK 2006
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