NAME THE COUPLE! The Bionic Woman and the Future Dempsey

The couple in this photograph are Lindsay Wagner and Michael Brandon—two actors whose careers would take them in very different directions after their marriage, yet both would become strongly associated with memorable television characters.

The clues make the identification particularly compelling. The woman is the Emmy-winning star of The Bionic Woman, where she played Jaime Sommers, one of the most recognizable television heroines of the 1970s. The man beside her is Michael Brandon, the New York-born actor who would later become internationally familiar as Lieutenant James Dempsey in the British crime series Dempsey and Makepeace. (Lindsay Wagner)

There is, however, one small dating wrinkle worth mentioning: photographs of Wagner and Brandon are sometimes dated differently in archival collections. Getty Images, for example, catalogs photographs of the couple as dating to around 1978, while other images and captions are associated with their 1977 Emmy-era appearances. Their marriage itself began in December 1976 and ended in 1979. (Getty Images)

So let’s look back at the careers of the two people behind this fascinating Hollywood pairing.

Lindsay Wagner: From Young Actress to Television Icon

Long before Jaime Sommers became a household name, Lindsay Wagner was steadily building an acting career.

Born in Los Angeles in 1949, Wagner began working professionally in the early 1970s. She appeared on television programs including Adam-12 and Marcus Welby, M.D., and earned attention for her performance as Susan Fields in The Paper Chase. Her official biography describes her early career as a period of gradually developing experience before the role that would change everything arrived. (Lindsay Wagner)

That role was Jaime Sommers.

In 1975, Wagner appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man as Jaime, the girlfriend of Steve Austin, the bionic hero played by Lee Majors. The character was originally intended to have a tragic fate. Jaime suffered catastrophic injuries and was given bionic enhancements, but her body rejected them.

The audience, however, wasn’t ready to let her go.

The reaction was enormous. According to Wagner’s official biography, the public response helped persuade Universal to bring Jaime back. The character eventually received her own series, The Bionic Woman, which premiered in 1976. (Lindsay Wagner)

Suddenly, Wagner wasn’t simply another promising television actress.

She was a star.

The Birth of The Bionic Woman

What made The Bionic Woman particularly significant was that Jaime Sommers was more than a female counterpart to Steve Austin.

She was intelligent, compassionate, independent and capable. Her extraordinary physical abilities were important to the stories, but the character was not defined exclusively by superhuman strength.

Wagner also had a say in how Jaime was portrayed.

Her official biography notes that she worked with the show’s creative team and wanted the character to have emotional depth rather than simply becoming a female action figure. That helped give Jaime a distinctive personality and contributed to the show’s enduring appeal. (Lindsay Wagner)

The series became a major television success, and in 1977 Wagner received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

That achievement was particularly notable because the science-fiction television genre was not traditionally regarded as an awards powerhouse. Wagner’s victory demonstrated that a performer in a genre series could receive one of television’s most prestigious acting honors.

Her official website describes the Emmy as one of the major milestones of her career. (Lindsay Wagner)

By the time of the photograph, Wagner was therefore at the height of her fame.

And Then There Was Michael Brandon

Michael Brandon followed a very different path.

Born Michael Feldman in Brooklyn in 1945, he became involved in acting after working a variety of jobs and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He began accumulating stage and screen credits during the late 1960s and early 1970s. (michaelbrandon.dempseyandmakepeace.de)

Among his early films were Lovers and Other Strangers, Jennifer on My Mind, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet. He also appeared in The Red Badge of Courage and the 1976 television film James Dean: A Legend in His Own Time, where he played William Bast.

Brandon’s career was already active when he met Wagner, but his biggest television role was still several years away.

Interestingly, his future success would take him across the Atlantic.

The Role That Made Michael Brandon Famous in Britain

In 1985, Brandon landed the role that would define a major chapter of his career: Lieutenant James Dempsey in Dempsey and Makepeace.

The series was a British police drama created for ITV and produced by London Weekend Television. Brandon played Dempsey, a tough, streetwise New York police officer who is sent to London and paired with Detective Sergeant Harriet “Harry” Makepeace, played by Glynis Barber. (dempseyandmakepeace.de)

The contrast between the two characters was central to the show’s appeal.

Dempsey was the brash American outsider.

Makepeace was the sophisticated British detective.

Their different personalities created plenty of friction, humor and chemistry.

Brandon’s performance gave Dempsey a distinctive personality. He could be tough and sarcastic but also vulnerable and occasionally surprisingly warm. The role allowed him to combine the qualities of an American action hero with the lighter, wisecracking style that British television audiences embraced.

The show ran from 1985 to 1986 and became one of Brandon’s best-known credits. (dempseyandmakepeace.de)

And there was an interesting twist to his story.

His Dempsey and Makepeace co-star Glynis Barber eventually became his wife. The two married in 1989 and remain together, making Brandon’s career unusually connected to two prominent actresses through different chapters of his personal life. (Wikipedia)

Wagner and Brandon’s Marriage

Wagner and Brandon married in December 1976, during the period when Wagner’s career was exploding thanks to The Bionic Woman. (IMDb)

Their relationship also produced one particularly frightening incident.

During the first year of The Bionic Woman, Wagner was involved in a serious automobile accident with Brandon. According to biographical accounts, Brandon suffered a significant eye injury, while Wagner sustained a serious cut to her upper lip. Production on the television series was interrupted for a period as a result. (Wikipedia)

Their marriage lasted until 1979.

Although the relationship eventually ended, both continued to build substantial careers.

Wagner remained one of television’s most recognizable actresses and subsequently appeared in numerous television movies, miniseries and feature films. Her official biography notes that she went on to star in more than 60 socially relevant television movies and miniseries over the following decades. (Lindsay Wagner)

Brandon, meanwhile, continued working in film, television and theater.

A Career Beyond Dempsey and Makepeace

It would be easy to assume that Brandon’s career began and ended with Dempsey.

It didn’t.

His film credits include FM, Promises in the Dark, A Change of Seasons, Rich and Famous, The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson, The Lost Battalion and Captain America: The First Avenger. His television work has also remained extensive. (Wikipedia)

The stage was another important part of his career.

Brandon appeared in the original Broadway production of Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and later worked extensively in London’s West End, including the acclaimed production Jerry Springer: The Opera. (Wikipedia)

That theatrical experience helped demonstrate that he was much more than the wisecracking detective audiences knew from Dempsey and Makepeace.

He was a versatile working actor whose career crossed genres and countries.

Why the Photograph Is So Fascinating

What makes a photograph like this particularly interesting is knowing what came afterward.

At the moment captured, Wagner was already a major television star, while Brandon was an established actor whose most internationally recognizable television role had yet to arrive.

Neither could have known exactly how their careers would unfold.

Wagner’s Jaime Sommers would become one of the defining female television characters of the 1970s. Her Emmy-winning performance would ensure that her name remained permanently connected with the golden age of American science-fiction television. (Lindsay Wagner)

Brandon would eventually cross the Atlantic and reinvent himself for British audiences as Dempsey, a role that would become one of the signature performances of his career.

And there is an especially entertaining piece of television history in the fact that Brandon’s future wife, Glynis Barber, would become his Dempsey and Makepeace partner on screen.

The Answer

So, the couple is:

Michael Brandon and Lindsay Wagner.

Wagner was the unforgettable Jaime Sommers, the heroine of The Bionic Woman, and her 1977 Emmy win cemented her status as one of television’s biggest stars. (Lindsay Wagner)

Brandon was the American actor who would later cross the Atlantic and become beloved as Lieutenant James Dempsey in Dempsey and Makepeace. (dempseyandmakepeace.de)

Their marriage was relatively brief, lasting from 1976 to 1979, but both went on to enjoy remarkably long careers. Wagner became a television icon whose influence extended far beyond the bionic heroine, while Brandon established himself as a respected performer across American and British film, television and theater.

And that is what makes this vintage photograph so much fun: it captures two talented actors at an early chapter of their shared story, before one became permanently associated with a bionic heroine and the other became a wisecracking New York cop solving crimes on the streets of London.