Introduction
Lindsay Wagner became a familiar face to millions through one unforgettable role.
Jaime Sommers.
She played the character in The Six Million Dollar Man and later led her own hit series, The Bionic Woman. That role changed her career fast. It also earned Wagner a Primetime Emmy Award.
But there is much more.
She worked in films. She made dozens of TV movies. She wrote books, taught acting, appeared in video games, and spent years speaking about personal growth and wellbeing.
Even decades later, fans still connect her name with one of television’s best-known female action characters.
Quick Facts About Lindsay Wagner
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Lindsay Jean Wagner |
| Date of Birth | June 22, 1949 |
| Age | 77 years old as of September 2026 |
| Birthplace | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Actress, author, teacher and speaker |
| Acting Career | Began professionally in 1971 |
| Famous Role | Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman |
| Major Award | Primetime Emmy Award, 1977 |
| Golden Globe Nominations | 1977 and 1978 |
| Children | Two sons |
| Notable Sons | Dorian Kingi and Alex Kingi |
| Education | David Douglas High School; attended University of Oregon and Mt. Hood Community College |
| Famous Game Role | Amelie in Death Stranding |
| Hollywood Walk of Fame | Received a television star in 1984 |
Who Is Lindsay Wagner?
Lindsay Wagner is an American actress best remembered for playing Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman.
That is the short answer.
Her career, though, is much wider.
Wagner has worked across television, cinema, books, teaching, public speaking and gaming. Her screen credits cover several decades, while her later work has also focused on acting education and personal wellbeing.
She started acting professionally in 1971.
Her big break came a few years later.
Lindsay Wagner’s Early Life
Lindsay Jean Wagner was born on June 22, 1949, in Los Angeles, California.
Her parents were Marilyn Louise Wagner and William Nowels Wagner.
Her parents separated while she was young. Wagner later lived with her mother and eventually moved to Oregon.
She attended David Douglas High School in Portland.
Acting began to matter early.
School performances gave her a place to work with emotions and characters. It was one of the first steps toward the career that followed.
After high school, Wagner spent time in France.
She later attended the University of Oregon. She also studied for a period at Mt. Hood Community College.
Wagner has spoken publicly about having dyslexia. Traditional classroom learning could be tough for her, but creative work gave her another way to learn and express herself.
Her First Work in Entertainment
Acting did not happen overnight.
Wagner first worked as a model.
She also appeared in commercials and gained some early television exposure before getting regular acting jobs.
Her professional acting career began in 1971.
One of her first television appearances was on Marcus Welby, M.D.
Small parts followed.
Basically, she kept working.
She appeared several times on Marcus Welby, M.D. and later made an appearance on The Rockford Files.
Then film roles started arriving.
Lindsay Wagner’s Early Movies
The year 1973 became an important one.
Wagner appeared alongside Peter Fonda in Two People.
She also played Susan Fields in The Paper Chase.
That film gave audiences a clearer look at her dramatic acting.
Still, her career-changing role had not arrived yet.
That came in 1975.
Jaime Sommers Changed Everything
Wagner joined The Six Million Dollar Man as Jaime Sommers.
The character was introduced as someone from Steve Austin’s past. Steve Austin was played by Lee Majors.
Jaime was presented as a professional tennis player.
Then her life changed.
A skydiving accident left her badly injured. Experimental technology was used to replace damaged parts of her body with bionic implants.
The story took a darker turn.
Her body appeared to reject the technology, and Jaime seemed to die.
That could have ended it.
Fans had other ideas.
Viewer reaction to the character was strong. Jaime was brought back, and her popularity helped create a separate television series.
That series was The Bionic Woman.
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman premiered in 1976.
Wagner was now the star.
Her character worked as a government agent while trying to keep parts of an ordinary life.
Jaime could run fast.
She had extraordinary strength.
She also had advanced hearing.
But Wagner did not play her as a cold action machine.
Jaime showed fear. She cared about people. She questioned situations. She could be funny, gentle and tough.
That balance helped the character stand out.
The series originally aired on ABC before moving to NBC for its final season. It ran for three seasons and ended in 1978.
By then, Lindsay Wagner was a major television star.
Lindsay Wagner’s Emmy Award
Her work brought serious industry recognition.
In 1977, Wagner won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for The Bionic Woman.
It remains one of the biggest achievements of her acting career.
She also received Golden Globe nominations in 1977 and 1978 for her work on the series.
The success pushed her far beyond the science-fiction audience.
She had become a recognised leading actress.
Life After The Bionic Woman
Some actors struggle after one huge role.
Wagner kept moving.
Television movies became a major part of her career.
She appeared in many productions dealing with difficult real-life subjects, including domestic abuse, child abuse, medical issues, terrorism and family problems.
Her official career record says she appeared in more than 60 television films, films and miniseries.
That is a lot of screen work.
Projects included:
The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel
I Want to Live!
Child’s Cry
The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story
Evil in Clear River
Shattered Dreams
Fighting for My Daughter
Thicker Than Water
Four Extraordinary Women
These roles helped Wagner move away from being seen only as Jaime Sommers.
She became especially well known for television movies.
Lindsay Wagner in Scruples
In 1980, Wagner starred in the television miniseries Scruples.
She played Billy Ikehorn.
The role was very different from Jaime Sommers.
There were no bionic powers here.
Instead, viewers saw Wagner in a glamorous drama based around business, relationships and ambition.
The project became another notable point in her post-Bionic Woman career.
Nighthawks With Sylvester Stallone
Wagner moved back onto the big screen in Nighthawks.
The 1981 crime thriller starred Sylvester Stallone.
She played Irene DaSilva.
The film added another major movie credit to her résumé and showed that Wagner could move between television drama and theatrical films.
Other Lindsay Wagner Movies and TV Shows
Her career grew across different genres.
Some notable projects include:
The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan
Callie & Son
Princess Daisy
Voice of the Heart
Jessie
A Peaceable Kingdom
Contagious
Voyage of Terror
Billy: The Early Years
Warehouse 13
Alphas
NCIS
Fuller House
Grey’s Anatomy
Samson
Mingle All the Way
Christmas on the Range
Christmas at the Ranch
Blood & Treasure
When Jack Came Back
She kept taking new roles.
Some were small.
Others brought her back into the spotlight.
Lindsay Wagner in Grey’s Anatomy
Wagner appeared in Grey’s Anatomy as Helen Karev.
Helen is the mother of Alex Karev.
The appearance introduced Wagner to viewers who may never have watched The Bionic Woman during its original run.
It also showed how long her acting career had lasted.
Different generation.
Same actress.
Returning to Jaime Sommers
Wagner never completely left Jaime Sommers behind.
She reunited with Lee Majors for several television movies based on the original bionic characters.
These included:
The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman
Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman
Bionic Ever After?
Fans got to see what happened to Jaime and Steve years after the original shows.
For longtime viewers, those reunions mattered.
Lindsay Wagner and Death Stranding
Then came something very different.
Video games.
Wagner became part of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding project.
Her likeness was used for the character Amelie, and she took part in performance work connected with the game.
Kojima had been a longtime admirer of her acting.
The game put Wagner alongside performers including Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen and Léa Seydoux.
Suddenly, another generation knew her face.
That is quite unusual.
An actress strongly associated with 1970s television had found a place in a major modern gaming franchise decades later.
Lindsay Wagner as an Acting Teacher
Wagner has also shared what she learned behind the camera.
In 2013, she joined San Bernardino Valley College as an adjunct faculty member.
She taught acting and directing.
For students, this meant learning from someone with decades of professional camera experience.
She could talk about more than theory.
She had actually done the work.
Television.
Movies.
Close-ups.
Long production days.
Character work.
All of it.
Teaching became another part of her later career.
Lindsay Wagner’s Books
Wagner also became an author.
Her published work reflects her interest in health, food and personal wellbeing.
Books associated with her include Lindsay Wagner’s New Beauty: The Acupressure Facelift and The High Road to Health: A Vegetarian Cookbook.
The cookbook was written with Ariane Spade.
Her interest in these subjects did not begin as a quick celebrity project.
Wagner has spoken for years about food, wellbeing and how people handle their emotional lives.
Wellness and Human-Potential Work
Outside acting, Wagner has spent years speaking about personal growth.
She developed workshops known as Quiet the Mind & Open the Heart.
The sessions were linked to her personal study of emotional awareness, perspective and mind-body practices.
These ideas should be understood as Wagner’s personal wellness approach, not as medical treatment.
That difference matters.
She has talked about how people respond to stress, relationships and past experiences.
Basically, her work asks people to look at their own reactions more closely.
Work Connected With Domestic Violence
Wagner’s interest in social issues also moved beyond acting roles.
From 2003 to 2006, her official biography says she worked with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and co-facilitated a support group connected with family reunification and domestic violence.
Her screen career had already touched the subject.
The television film Shattered Dreams dealt with domestic abuse, and Wagner also served as a co-producer on the project.
This was one area where her acting work and off-screen interests met.
Lindsay Wagner’s Marriages
Wagner has been married four times.
Her first marriage was to Allan Rider.
They married in 1971 and divorced in 1973.
She later married actor Michael Brandon in 1976. Their marriage ended in 1979.
In 1981, Wagner married stunt performer Henry Kingi.
They divorced in 1984.
Her fourth marriage was to producer Lawrence Mortorff. They married in 1990 and divorced in 1993.
Reliable current sources do not establish a present spouse, so no unsupported relationship claim should be made.
Lindsay Wagner’s Children
Wagner has two sons with Henry Kingi.
Their names are Dorian Kingi and Alex Kingi.
Both later found work in the entertainment business.
Dorian Kingi has worked as a stunt performer, actor and creature performer.
His credits include large film and television productions.
Alex Kingi has also worked in stunt performance and acting.
Entertainment clearly stayed in the family.
Some online databases conflict over certain personal dates connected with Wagner’s children, so those disputed details are better left out unless stronger documentation appears.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Wagner received another major career honour in 1984.
She was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her star is located at 6767 Hollywood Boulevard and is listed in the Television category.
The ceremony took place on December 13, 1984.
By then, Wagner had already moved far beyond her original bionic role.
Still, Jaime Sommers remained part of her public identity.
Why The Bionic Woman Still Matters
Jaime Sommers arrived on television at an interesting time.
Male action heroes dominated many shows.
Then audiences saw a woman leading her own weekly science-fiction action series.
Jaime could fight.
But she was not written only around fighting.
She had friendships. She showed emotion. She made mistakes. She cared about people.
Wagner’s acting helped keep those sides together.
That is one reason the role still gets attention decades later.
Fans did not simply remember the bionic powers.
They remembered the person.
Lindsay Wagner’s Life in 2026
As of September 2026, Lindsay Wagner is 77 years old.
She remains connected with fans through public events and appearances.
Her official schedule has included UK convention appearances during the 50th anniversary period of The Bionic Woman.
Her career now stretches across more than five decades.
Think about it.
She moved from modelling and small TV parts to Emmy-winning television, theatrical films, TV movies, books, teaching, speaking and a major video-game franchise.
Few careers follow that exact path.
Is Lindsay Wagner Still Acting?
Wagner has continued accepting screen projects into her later years.
Her later work has included films, television appearances and video-game performance.
She has also remained active through fan events and appearances linked to The Bionic Woman.
So she has never completely disappeared from public life.
Her workload has simply changed with time.
What Is Lindsay Wagner’s Net Worth?
Many celebrity websites publish supposed net-worth figures for Wagner.
Those numbers vary.
There is no reliable public financial record confirming an exact personal net worth, so quoting a specific figure as fact would be misleading.
Her verified career history is clear.
Her private finances are not.
Final Thought
Lindsay Wagner could have been remembered for one role.
Instead, she kept working.
The Bionic Woman made her famous, but films, television movies, books, teaching and later projects built the rest of the story.
Jaime Sommers still follows her.
And honestly, that makes sense.
The character became part of television history. Yet Wagner’s career did not stop when the bionic sound effect faded out.
More than five decades after her first professional acting work, people still watch her, meet her at events and discover her through entirely different forms of entertainment.
That is a long career.
And a very unusual one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Lindsay Wagner?
Lindsay Wagner was born on June 22, 1949. She is 77 years old as of September 2026.
What is Lindsay Wagner famous for?
She is best known for playing Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man.
Did Lindsay Wagner win an Emmy?
Yes. She won the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for The Bionic Woman.
Does Lindsay Wagner have children?
Yes. She has two sons, Dorian Kingi and Alex Kingi.
Who was Lindsay Wagner married to?
She was married to Allan Rider, Michael Brandon, Henry Kingi and Lawrence Mortorff. All four marriages ended in divorce.
Was Lindsay Wagner in Grey’s Anatomy?
Yes. She played Helen Karev, the mother of Alex Karev.
Is Lindsay Wagner in Death Stranding?
Yes. Wagner’s likeness and performance were used for Amelie in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding.
Is Lindsay Wagner still alive?
Yes. As of September 2026, she is alive and continues to make public appearances.
