Richard Anderson, popular TV actor, dies at 91

LOS ANGELES » Richard Anderson, the tall, handsome actor best known for costarring simultaneously in the popular 1970s television shows “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman,” has died at age 91.

Anderson died of natural causes on Thursday, family spokesman Jonathan Taylor told The Associated Press.

“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.

“Richard became a dear and loyal friend, and I have never met a man like him,” Majors said in a statement Thursday, adding the two first met when they filmed several episodes of another hit television show, the 1960s western “The Big Valley.”

“I called him ‘Old Money.’ His always stylish attire, his class, calmness and knowledge never faltered in his 91 years,” Majors said, adding Anderson was “still the sweet charming man” when they spoke just a few weeks ago.

“The Six Million Dollar Man” 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 the 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.

“I can’t begin to say how much I have always admired and have been grateful for the elegance and loving friendship I was blessed to have with Richard Anderson,” Wagner said in a statement.

In “The Bionic Woman,” Wagner was a tennis pro whose body was rebuilt after a near-fatal skydiving accident. After obtaining powers similar to those of “The Six Million Dollar Man,” she went to work for the same government agency run by Anderson’s character.

In real life, Majors recalled, it was Anderson who embraced tennis, traveling the world to play in tournaments.

“He loved his daughters, tennis and his work as an actor,” he said.

Anderson, who stood 6-feet-4, began his career in 1949 with a small role as a wounded soldier in “12 O’Clock High.”