Once upon a time, Superman or Batman were the first heroes that sprung to mind when anyone mentioned DC Comics. These bad-guy betting legends definitely have their place, but today, there’s a new hero on the block. And it’s a woman. Wonder Woman, to be precise. This heroine was an Amazonian princess from an island nation known as Diana de Temiscira or Princess Diana of Themyscira. In regular society, she goes by the name Diana Prince. She has superhuman strength, unbeatable combat skills, a leather Lasso of Truth, indestructible bracelets, and a weaponized tiara.
Since Israeli-born actress Gal Gadot blew everyone away with her appearance in Wonder Woman in 2017, this hero for modern women has been on everyone’s radar. But did you know there was actually a string of Wonder Women before Gadot got her break-out roles? Probably the most famous among them is Lynda Carter, who many would argue is the most famous live-action comic heroine of all time. In fact, representations of Wonder Woman in TV and film date as far back as the late 1960s! In this video, we dig deep into the archives of everything Wonder Woman, revealing tantalizing tidbits about on and off-screen antics and all the fun fan facts you’ve ever wanted to know. If you’re a DC Comics devotee or just curious to learn more about this iconic superhero, watch on!
Ellie Wood Walker and Linda Harrison (Joint Honors)
While it’s true that Ellie Wood Walker and Linda Harrison were, jointly, technically the first actresses to Wonder Woman, there’s a bit of a strange story behind their claim to fame. The year is 1967, and producer William Dozier has an idea for a new sitcom. If you don’t know already, he’s the man behind the iconic Adam West Batman series of the 1960s.) Anyway, he committed this idea to film the same year, screening a five-minute pilot for a proposed TV show called Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince? The plot of the film centered around the comedic interactions between the young, beautiful, but awkward Diana Prince, played by Ellie Wood Walker, and her difficult mother. Trying to take some power back in the relationship, Diana dons a Wonder Woman costume, appearing as another, better version of herself, played by Linda Harrison, when she does.
Jane Webb
Though that first live-action screening of Wonder Woman didn’t get off the ground, the next best thing came along in the early 1970s: the first animated version of our favorite comic heroine. A cartoon Wonder Woman featured in the Saturday morning kids’ show The Brady Kids, which ran from 1972 to 1973. This Wonder Woman, voiced by Jane Webb, appeared in only an episode called “It’s All Greek to Me.” Our caped hero is transported back to the past alongside the Brady children, where they have to compete with ancient Greecian athletes. Webb was a voiceover wonder woman (pun intended) at the time. She appeared on variety shows like the Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters, voiced a Star Trek alien in the sci-fi franchise’s animated series, and was the voice of both Ginger and Mary Ann in the Gilligan’s Island spin-off cartoon, The New Adventures of Gilligan.
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Shannon Farnon
If you were a kid in the 1970s and 1980s, there’s no way you weren’t watching DC Comics Super Friends. It was basically the little kid-friendly version of the Justice League, after all. And guess who appeared in that cartoon? Why, Wonder Woman, of course! She didn’t appear in every episode, but between 1973 and 1984, she was voiced by none other than the Hanna-Barbera voiceover staple, Shannon Farnon.
Farnon is an actress and voice actor hailing from Canada. Outside of voicing Wonder Woman in numerous cartoons, she’s also starred in a host of memorable TV commercials. Farnon is a regular guest at comic conventions around the world and she’s always happy to engage with fans. That’s because she’s admitted to being super proud of her role as Wonder Woman, once saying that she grew up with the comic books and was thrilled to become a strong, feminine role model for young girls.
Cathy Lee Crosby
Given Wonder Woman’s famous athletic prowess, it’s probably not too far-fetched that one of the early iterations of this heroine was played by a former professional tennis player. Cathy Lee Crosby retired from tennis in 1974 and decided her passion lay in acting. She’d already had one successful film role in The Laughing Policeman, a feature by director Walter Matthau. Not long after, an absolute dream role landed at her feet: she was asked to play Wonder Woman in a TV movie by the same name. (Word on the street is, it’s still available on DVD!) Weirdly, though, Warner Bros was running the show and was looking to create more of a James Bond-style feature than a classic superhero saga.
So Crosby’s Wonder Woman didn’t have any magical weapons or battle-hardened athleticism fans had come to expect. And she was blonde, not brunette. Importantly, though, she was still dedicated to righting the wrongs in the world. And what more could you want?
Lynda Carter
Lynda Carter is arguably (actually, probably definitively) the most famous Wonder Woman actress of all time. Carter first appeared in this iconic TV role in 1975. Anyone who was quite literally alive at the time will remember that theme song, not to mention the actions. Go on, spin around now and see if you’ll magically transform into a superhero. We know you want to! According to Carter, the best thing about getting to play Wonder Woman on TV for all those years was the fact that she wasn’t a guy. And in an entertainment industry dominated by male role models, that meant a lot—to her and her many female fans.
Connie Caulfield
For a few episodes of the 1984 DC Comics cartoon hit Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, Wonder Woman was voiced by Connie Caufield instead of Shannon Farnon, who played the heroine for ten years. It’s never been clear why Farnon stepped away from the role for those few episodes, nor why Connie Caufield never stuck around. There’s not much written about Caulfield. She apparently landed the role, beating out 300 actresses because the casting team “liked the little crinkle in her voice.” But it wasn’t to be, as the part was handed on again to B.J. Ward not long after. Caulfield went on to become a voice-over and commercial acting teacher and a theatrical and literary agent.
B.J. Ward
Aside from taking over from Connie Caufield as the voice of Wonder Woman in Super Friends, B.J. Ward also voiced the character in one episode of the 1988 animated series, Superman. The episode was enticingly titled “Superman and Wonder Woman Versus the Sorceress of Time.” B.J. Ward became a staple of cartoon voice acting, lending her talent to popular shows like G.I. Joe, some of the animated Scooby-Doo movies, and she even voiced Betty Rubble in the 1980s and into the 2000s. More recently, she’s moved into video game character voicing, and, sort of weirdly, she also appeared in a solo theatre production called Stand-Up Opera.
Megan Gale (Sort Of…)
Some say there’s a curse surrounding those who play Wonder Woman, given how many actresses only get half a shot at the role. And fate played its wicked hand again for Aussie model and actress Megan Gale. In the late 2000s, Gale was cast as Wonder Woman in what was shaping up to be a memorable DC Comics film, Justice League: Mortal. D.J. Cotrona was also cast as Superman and the now controversial Armie Hammer as Batman, and Mad Max director George Miller headed the whole thing.
You may query why we even include this blip in Wonder Woman’s film and TV story here since many fans dismiss Gale’s part in it. However, it turns out that casting images with actors in full costume were released before the production was canceled. And meaning we know exactly what the possible Gale Wonder Woman would have looked like. And in our humble opinion, she would have rocked the role!
Adrienne Palicki
In 2011, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Wonder Woman might once again grace our television screens. A Wonder Woman series produced by David E. Kelly of Doogie Howser, M.D. and Ally McBeal fame was in the works. He cast American actress Adrianne Palicki in the role of the iconic heroine. The pilot was presented to NBC, but it didn’t get any further than that, and the series was canceled immediately. Apparently, Palicki just wasn’t Wonder Woman material.
Gal Gadot
Since the 2016 release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman has been played by Gal Gadot. And after Lynda Carter, she’s probably the actress who best captures the sense of adventure, bravery, good looks, and general badassery the character exudes. Just a year later, in 2017, she took up the role again in the genre-breaking Wonder Woman and controversial Justice League, followed by Wonder Woman 1984 in 2020. With more films in the works for this now mega-star actress, it looks like Gadot is here to stay!
Do you think the early iterations of Wonder Woman outpace what the heroines we see today? Or are you more enamored by NBC’s Adrienne Palicki or the most recent Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot? If you want to watch more videos like this one, head over to the FactsVerse channel and subscribe. Hit that notification bell while you’re there. Oh, and don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up and share it with your friends and family.
