LOS ANGELES • For more than three decades, Lynda Carter - a one-time beauty queen turned actress and singer, best known for playing Wonder Woman in a 1970s television series - has cut a famously glamorous figure.
Carter, 66, is currently touring for her fourth studio album and channelling her own #MeToo memories into a message of empowerment.
On Tuesday, she got a star on the Walk of Fame, with introductory speeches from CBS chief executive Les Moonves and Patty Jenkins, director of the movie version of Wonder Woman (2017).
"It seems impossible, but I have been in entertainment for more than 50 years - do the math," Carter told the audience at the ceremony along Hollywood Boulevard. "I have loved it all!"
She had been a singer long before she auditioned for an acting role. Then she signed with a modelling agency and, within the span of a month, was crowned Miss Phoenix, Miss Arizona and Miss World USA.
She returned to music before moving to Los Angeles, where she took acting lessons with well-known coach Charles Conrad. That was where she met Moonves, then a young aspiring actor who became her scene partner and close friend.
Then came Wonder Woman in 1975, which turned Carter into a household name, international sex symbol and the forerunner of empowered heroines.
After the resurrection of Wonder Woman as a blockbuster movie franchise, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce offered Carter a star on the Walk of Fame.
Jenkins had offered her a cameo in the movie, but Carter was on the road with her band and too busy to make the filming schedule work. She and Jenkins met in person for the first time at the United Nations in 2016, at an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Wonder Woman character. They hit it off right away and realised they even had the same birthday, July 24.
On Tuesday, Jenkins said Carter had inspired her as a girl and showed her she did not have to choose between being rebellious or feminine, and attractive or strong.
"Her Wonder Woman made me believe I could have whatever I wanted and, even more importantly, it made me unashamed to want it," the director said.
Carter is married to former lawyer Robert A. Altman. They have a son and a daughter, both also lawyers. At times choked with emotion, she thanked her friends and family for their support as well as the men who stand behind women's stories.
"From all of the wonder women out there, we love our men who stand with us and champion our causes and our voices," she said. "This is a day that I shall never forget."
NYTIMES, REUTERS
