Obituary: Lyle Waggoner

Good-looking actor and later in life sculptor Lyle Waggoner, 84, has passed away.  He is best remembered as being announcer and part of the stock company of The Carol Burnett Show, which ran from 1967 to 1978.  It was part of CBS's powerful Saturday night lineup in the 1970s, perhaps the strongest in broadcast television history.  It consisted of All in the Family, The Jeffersons (for a season or two prior M*A*S*H* before it was moved to a different night), The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Carol Burnett Show.  There was no point having a date on Saturday night during that era given the quality of those programs.

With Lynda Carter back in the day

Anyway, a few years before Burnett's variety show ended, Waggoner left  and  had a co-starring role with Lynda Carter in the hit ABC program Wonder Woman.  It ran from 1975 to 1979.   He served as eye candy for the women--and he did have the looks, no question, plus the height--while Carter was eye candy for the men.   Waggoner did okay in his acting career.

Waggoner  found along the way he enjoyed sculpting, so after he retired from acting, he moved to Jackson, Wyoming, among other places he lived,  and set up shop there, settling with his wife of about 59  years, Sharon Kennedy.  They had two sons.

Born on April 13, 1935, Lyle Wesley Waggoner was a wrestler and a high jumper at Kirkwood High School in Missouri. He briefly attended Washington University in St. Louis before enlisting in the U.S. Army and serving as a radio operator.

Back home, as he worked as a door-to-door salesman, customers kept telling him, "You should be an actor." He appeared in a local production of Li'l Abner, came to California and got into "new talent" programs at MGM and then Fox, where Tom Selleck and James Brolin were also beginning their careers.

Waggoner hosted the syndicated quiz show It's Your Bet in the 1970s and appeared as himself on a 1999 episode of That '70s Show.

In 1979, he launched Star Waggons, which rented motor homes for actors, makeup artists, etc. to use on film and TV sets.

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Fun fact:  You can find a copy of Waggoner's senior high school yearbook at Classmates.  He is in the 1953 volume.  Next to his senior picture, he is described as having been in the choir, including acappella and mixed chorus; wrestling; junior and senior track; and varsity club.  The Hollywood Reporter misspelled his name in the above excerpt, and I corrected it.  He went by his real name professionally.