Cast Wonder Woman through the ages

[Vinsanity]

40's to 50's - Kathryn Grayson, Olivia de Havilland, or Dolores del Rio

60's - Sophia Loren, Jean Simmons, or Elizabeth Taylor

70's - idk Jacqueline Bisset?

80's - idk Kim Cattrall? I'm really bad at this. Oh Sigourney Weaver

90's - Jennifer Connelly or Nicole Kidman. Nicole has the height.

00's - Marion Cotillard, Catherine Zeta-Jones or Charlize Theron

10's - Rebecca Ferguson.

I'm really bad at this.

[Largo161]

Cher's not just a music legend, she is an Oscar winning actress.

Valid point. But somehow her celebrity, her "Cher-ness" overrides her acting chops in my mind.

[Confuzzled]

80's-90's Cher would have been Circe come to life. I think current Cher too is better suited to play a scenery chewing character like The Queen of Fables rather than Hippolyta.

[Largo161]

I'm going to go with Katherine Hepburn in the 40s. Her reported height (5'7.5") was a big factor. Those forties actresses were beautiful, but few of them appeared very athletic.

Shelley Winters as Etta in the 50s.

Steve McQueen as Steve in the 60s.

Jane Fonda as Diana in the 60s.

Catherine Zeta Jones as Diana in the 90s.

Brad Pitt as Steve in the 90s.

[Largo161]

Redford as Trevor in the 70s.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm going to go with Katherine Hepburn in the 40s. Her reported height (5'7.5") was a big factor. Those forties actresses were beautiful, but few of them appeared very athletic.

Yeah, but Diana wasn't that tall in the 1940s. And movies always make people look a different height than they actually are. Robert Redford is not that tall (neither are Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone).

I might want to switch Dorothy Lamour for Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s. I had Lamarr in the 1950s, but reading about her, Hedy was just as active in the 1940s and maybe looks a bit more like H.G. Peter's Wonder Woman. She was active in the war effort, a woman of many talents, a scientific genius--a real life Wonder Woman. Plus she appeared in a lot of sword and sandal epics.

[Largo161]

Yeah, but Diana wasn't that tall in the 1940s. And movies always make people look a different height than they actually are. Robert Redford is not that tall (neither are Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone).

I might want to switch Dorothy Lamour for Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s. I had Lamarr in the 1950s, but reading about her, Hedy was just as active in the 1940s and maybe looks a bit more like H.G. Peter's Wonder Woman. She was active in the war effort, a woman of many talents, a scientific genius--a real life Wonder Woman. Plus she appeared in a lot of sword and sandal epics.

You make a good case for Lamarr. She really does look like Peter's Diana (and she was above average height at 5'7"!). But I'm going to stick with Hepburn because of her acting skill and persona as an independent, capable woman.

[Bosch]

Can anyone top Chloris Leachman's Hippolyta? That was camp at its finest.

[Largo161]

Deborah Kerr as Hippolyta in the 50s.

Veronica Lake as Priscilla Rich in the 40s.

Natalie Wood as Donna Troy in the 50s.


It just occurred to me that my pick Shelley Winters was probably too old in the fifties to play a college-aged Etta.

[Jim Kelly]

It just occurred to me that my pick Shelley Winters was probably too old in the fifties to play a college-aged Etta.

Shelley Winters was only in her thirties in the '50s--and it was common for older actors to be cast as college students in those movies (actually it's still pretty common). But Winters was still quite slender in the '50s and she got leading lady roles. It was in the '60s and '70s, when she got a bit older and packed on a few pounds, that she was type-cast as a character actor.

As an aside, I remember that Bernard Slade got the idea for his play "Same Time, Next Year" from the annual affair that Shelley Winters had with William Holden for many years.

I didn't bother trying to think of a 1950s Etta Candy because I think she had pretty much disappeared from the comics by that point. Now General Darnell, he was still around. I could see Walter Pidgeon playing him.

[Largo161]

Shelley Winters was only in her thirties in the '50s--and it was common for older actors to be cast as college students in those movies (actually it's still pretty common). But Winters was still quite slender in the '50s and she got leading lady roles. It was in the '60s and '70s, when she got a bit older and packed on a few pounds, that she was type-cast as a character actor.

You're right--Winters was smaller than I thought she was in the 50s. So scratch that casting idea.

I also just realized that Donna Troy wasn't around in the 50s, so scratch Natalie Wood. In the sixties I think she looked old enough to be Diana (but I prefer Jane Fonda).



Barbara Stanwyck as the Baroness in the 40s.

Burt Lancaster as Steve Trevor in the 40s.

Sophia Loren as Circe in the 50s.

Elizabeth Taylor as Hippolyta in the 60s.

Peter Lorre as Dr. Psycho in the 40s!

[Jim Kelly]

In the early 2000s, THE GILMORE GIRLS were my Wonder Woman cast.

Lorelai: Diana
Rory: Donna
Emily: Hippolyta
Sookie: Etta
Luke: Steve

[Troian]

I think Alexandra Daddario would fit for the New 52 pre rebirth. New 52 was younger, sometimes thanks to the Finches, drawn more innocent looking which Daddario sometimes looks a tad younger than what she really is.. and those eyes. :P.

[Mel Dyer]

Lauren Bacall, 1940s
Jane Russell, 1950s
Lee Meriwether, 1960s
Lynda Carter, 1970s
Sarah Douglas, 1980s
Jennifer Beals and Famke Janssen, 1990s
Lucy Lawless, 2000s
Gal Gadot, 2010
Jaimie Alexander, 2020s