Lynda Carter: 1951—: Actress

Although Wonder Woman was still pulling in decent ratings, CBS let the series go after the 1979 season. The series left Carter financially secure, but with a comic book character monkey on her back. For the next several years she worked hard to shed the image of Wonder Woman and be accepted as a serious talent. Pouring $200,000 of her own money into the project, Carter produced her own Las Vegas variety show staged at Caesars Palace, which was based around her singing and dancing. To the surprise of some, the show was a popular and financial success. Carter followed up her career in television with several variety show specials airing on CBS in the early 1980s, including Lynda Carter: Encore, Lynda Carter's Special, Lynda Cart-er's Celebration, and Lynda Carter: Street Lights. Although People Weekly panned it, her last special, Lynda Carter: Body and Soul, received an Emmy nomination.

Carter's first starring role in a made-for-television movie came in 1980 in CBS's The Last Song. She followed that with Born to Be Sold, which aired on NBC in 1981. In 1983 Carter stretched her acting skills by portraying Rita Hayworth in CBS's Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess. "I knew I'd be subject to a lot of criticism for the part," Carter told People Weekly in 1983. "But I really, really wanted the challenge. … We both had Hispanic backgrounds. We were both in show business at an early age. We both sing and dance. We were both married to our managers." Around the time of the filming of the Hayworth movie, Carter's life was changing. Raised Catholic, she was led by her sister to religious renewal that filled a spiritual void in her life. She also met her next husband, Robert Altman, a Washington, D.C., lawyer. The two were married on January 29, 1984; they have two children: James, born in early 1988, and Jessica, born in late 1989.

In 1984 Carter appeared in her second—albeit short-lived—television series, Partners in Crime, costarring Loni Anderson. Carter and Anderson portray ex-wives of a recently deceased private detective who left his agency and posh San Francisco house to both of them. The two, armed only with their charms and designer wardrobes, set off to solve crimes and corral bad guys. Even though the series was quickly cancelled, Carter remained very busy, including a long-standing relationship as a spokesperson for Maybelline. She and Altman, who was the president of First American Bank, built a 20,000-square-foot home in Potomac, Maryland, and Carter loved to play hostess to many well-known financiers with whom her husband associated. She continued to appear in television movies, including Stillwatch, Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All, Danielle Steel's Daddy, and Posing: Inspired by Three Real Stories.