Two days ago, on March 17, 2020, actor Lyle Waggoner passed away. It has taken me a few days to process this. I feel like, in many ways, Lyle has been a larger part of my life and career than most people could imagine. Without Lyle, my career might be very, very different.
I probably saw Lyle as the "handsome announcer" on The Carol Burnett Show when I was young, though I have no real recollection of that. But on November 7, 1975, when he first appeared as Steve Trevor in The New, Original Wonder Woman TV pilot, I fell into his smile. I watched him regularly through all three seasons of the series, though his role shrank as the series went on; the audience was tuning in for Lynda Carter, and the role of the male Lois Lane seemed less important over time.
A decade later, I went to college and got an art degree to be an artist, to draw comics. While there though, I gravitated to writing courses, and my focus shifted. In August 1985, my first professional writing was done for Fantagraphics, and I was soon toiling away on their fan magazine, Amazing Heroes. For issue #106 (November 1, 1986) I wrote my first major retrospective of the Wonder Woman television show, with a history, and interviews with writer Stanley Ralph Ross and Lyle Waggoner. That interview connected me not only to an actor from Wonder Woman — and a nice, humble, self-effacing guy at that — but to Hollywood.
Eventually, the kid from Kalispell, Montana was doing more interviews with Hollywood types, leading to a regular column, Andy Mangels Backstage. That column outlasted Amazing Heroes, leading to Wizard magazine, Hero Illustrated magazine, Overstreet's Fan magazine, and Italy's Edizione Star magazine (all with Andy Mangels' Hollywood Heroes), England's Fantazia magazine (Andy Mangels' Behind The Camera), Marvel Age and Marvel Vision (Andy Mangels' Reel Marvel), and RetroFan (Andy Mangels' Retro Saturday Mornings), among others. Lyle, meanwhile, left acting and founded his own famed custom trailer business in Hollywood, also branded with his own name — Star Waggons — and was visible at every major movie set in the business.
The connections I made through my columns led me to writing books and comics based on Hollywood properties; to not only appearing on documentaries, but also to producing, directing, and writing over 40 documentaries; and to producing DVD sets. I also became friends with Lynda Carter and stuntwoman Jeannie Epper from Wonder Woman and interviewed other cast and crew. I spoke with Lyle a few times more, but he mostly wanted to stay away from talking about Steve Trevor. I tried to set up a meeting with him once to give him the original animation art for one of the frames of the Wonder Woman opening credits, but he was unable to meet; sadly, we never did get to meet face to face.
Lyle did sign some photos for me, and on one of them he wrote "Good research, Andy."
It was an interesting thing to write, as the 35 years of my career have been all about doing good research, to make sure that I get the characters right, or portray the Hollywood talent correctly. Without that 1986 interview with Lyle, who knows what path my career might have taken?
In 2016-2017, I finally got to put words in Lyle's mouth when I wrote Wonder Woman '77 Meets The Bionic Woman for Dynamite and DC Comics. I even tried to give him some heroic moments that he rarely got on the show, and with the help of Judit Tondora's artwork (colors by Roland Pilcz, letters by Tom Orzechowski, Lois Athena Buhalis, and Kathryn S Renta), let him smile that dazzling Lyle Waggoner smile.
It was my way to say "thank you" for being a part of my life — and my career — for so long.
Rest In Peace Lyle Waggoner, 1935-2020.