R.I.P.: Lyle Waggoner, Actor, Comic Performer

Lyle Waggoner, best remembered as the announcer and a comic performer in the early years of “The Carol Burnett Show” and for playing opposite Lynda Carter on the 1970s television versions of “Wonder Woman,” died from cancer complications on Tuesday at his home in Westlake Village, Calif.

Lyle Waggoner

He was 84, The NY Times reports.

Waggoner’s dulcet voice, square jaw and muscular physique made him seem cut out to be a leading man. But his most recognizable parts were in support of others — Ms. Burnett on her hit comedy-variety show, and Ms. Carter, who played Wonder Woman on ABC and then CBS in the 1970s.

Mr. Waggoner started on “The Carol Burnett Show” when it began in 1967 and stayed with the program for seven seasons, going from eye-candy announcer to important player in an ensemble cast that also included Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, in addition to Ms. Burnett.

Ms. Burnett said he was hired as her show’s announcer not just because he was handsome but also because “he was funny and didn’t take himself seriously.”

“It was Carl Reiner’s suggestion that we get a hunk of an announcer,” Ms. Burnett told The Los Angeles Times in 2015, when a collection of the show’s early episodes was released on DVD. “Lyle walked in, and it was practically no contest. He was funny and didn’t take himself seriously. He was hired on the spot, and we started using him in sketches.”

Waggoner’s good looks led to other employment as well. In 1973 he was the centerfold model for the first issue of Playgirl magazine.

He parted ways with “The Carol Burnett Show” in 1974, and appeared the next year on “Wonder Woman,” which began as an ABC television movie before becoming a regular series.

Lyle Wesley Waggoner was born on April 13, 1935, in Kansas City, Kan., to Marie (Isern) and Myron Waggoner. His father worked for the Southwestern Bell telephone company.

When his acting career quieted down in the 1980s, Mr. Waggoner founded Star Waggons, a company that supplies custom-made trailers for actors on film and television shoots. Star Waggons employs around 100 people and is now run by his sons.