While many pageant title holders never become more famous than they were when they were crowned, others go on to impressive careers in the entertainment industry. One of those winners is Lynda Carter, who was Miss World USA in 1972, just a few years before she was cast as Diana Prince, a.k.a. the title character, in the live-action Wonder Woman TV series. Before that, she’d made some guest appearances in other shows, but it was her time as the DC superhero that cemented Carter as a star. Today, the 70-year-old icon is still acting—and paying tribute to her most famous role. Read on to find out more about her life today.
Carter got her start as an entertainer in music. Instead of going to college, The New York Times reports, the future star decided to take to the road, making money singing in various touring bands. But she didn’t see a bright future if she continued on that path, so she returned to her home state of Arizona and signed with a modeling agency. That’s how Carter started her pageant career.
In the early ’70s, however, pageants were not exactly in vogue. “You have to visualize the time. Women’s lib! Burn the bra! Gloria Steinem!” Carter told the Times in 2018. “And I had some guy telling me I needed a chaperone and had to go cut a ribbon somewhere. It wasn’t me.” From there, she concentrated on acting, and soon landed the role of her lifetime.
Carter married her former agent, Ron Samuels, in 1997, but the couple divorced in 1982. In 2018, when Closer Weekly asked the star what advice she’d give to herself at 20 years old, she answered, “Don’t marry the first person that proposes to you!” She continued of Samuels, “”He was a lot older, and I was just stupid.”
In 1984, she married lawyer and executive Robert A. Altman, and the couple welcomed two children together: James Altman, 33, and Jessica Altman, 31. Carter and Altman were married until his death in early 2021 of complications from a medical procedure.
“Robert is the love of my life and he always will be,” Carter wrote in an Instagram tribute. “Our 37 years of marriage were an extraordinary gift. We shared the passion I hope everyone is lucky enough to experience in their lifetime. We protected each other and were each other’s champions always.”
Carter has stayed engaged with the Wonder Woman fandom, not only by supporting the new big screen iteration of the hero but by taking part in various events and documentaries paying tribute to the character.