LOS ANGELES (AP) – Richard Anderson, the tall, handsome actor best known for costarring simultaneously in television’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman” in the 1970s, has died at age 91.
Anderson died of natural causes on Thursday, family spokesman Jonathan Taylor said.
“The Six Million Dollar Man” brought a new wave of supernatural heroes to television. Based on the novel “Cyborg” by Martin Caidin, it starred Lee Majors as U.S. astronaut Steve Austin, who is severely injured in a crash. The government saves his life by rebuilding his body with atom-powered artificial limbs and other parts, giving him superhuman strength, speed and other powers.
Anderson played Oscar Goldman, Majors’ boss at the secret government spy agency the astronaut went to work for after becoming a cyborg.
The show began as a TV movie in 1973 and when it proved a hit it was turned into a weekly series the following year. Its popularity led to a 1976 spinoff show, “The Bionic Woman,” starring Lindsay Wagner. Anderson took on the Oscar Goldman role in that show, too, sometimes appearing from week to week in both series.