HOLLYWOOD (KFS) - Exit Carrie Snodgress from Universal. Enter Lindsay Wagner — new to you and "U"
— the girl most likely to step into Carrie's shoes (and scripts) now Carrie has defected to
motherhood and Neil Young.



Don't get any ideas that the girls are alike in appearance or personality. Carrie was put under starring contract when odd-ball actresses were at the height of their vogue. Off screen she wore long gingham dresses and Granny glasses and liked going barefoot, then the "in" type.



Lindsay is something else. She's the "now" type - tall, cool, casually but correctly groomed, blonde hair long but styled in place, just the slightest make-up on hazel eyes and wellshaped
mouth.



Someone described her as a "Lauren Bacall type - but fresher." Bacall hasn't looked like Lindsay since she was 10.



I caught up with her when she had just ended a promotional tour plugging Universal's "Two People," and was preparing a similar duty for "The Paper Chase" (which she made on loanout to
20th Century-Fox, co-starring with Timothy Bottoms). Important talks with director Robert Wise were scheduled to be wedged in between trips. Wise, who directed "Two People," plans to use her in two more films.



In these days of thin opportunities for new young actresses, there's no argument that Lindsay is well on her way.



She startled the studio publicist lunching with us by saying for openers, "It's unfortunate that 'Two People' got middling or indifferent reviews. I do not feel they were justified. I think the picture had something to say about a modern problem (a love affair between a Vietnam deserter and his girl), and said it well. I loved the role, it was very real to me other than being my first feature film. I'm very grateful to Robert Wise and glad I am going to work with him in the
future."



This was Point 1 that Lindsay speaks her own mind. New actresses aren't supposed to call attention to middling or indifferent critiques of their first film flings.



She is equally frank about her private life. She has been married to record director Allan Rider for a year and a half and even this early in the marriage they have been confronted with a problem.



"More and more films are being made away from here, which means I would be away from Allan and our home often. We believe these separations are dangerous. We really want to be together. So we talked the whole thing out. Allan feels that perhaps my work is more meaningful than his. So he has resigned his top post with the record company to be free to go with me. He is also writing a
novel which, of course, he can work on wherever we are. He refuses to look on what he did as a sacrifice," she said, obviously very proud of her bridegroom.



Lindsay is that rare thing, a native of Los Angeles (born in June,1949), the daughter of Bill
Wagner, a professional photographer, and the former Marilyn Thrasher. Her grandfather, Edward Lee Thrasher, was a Los Angeles councilman for 15 years.



After her parents were divorced, and as early as age 13, Lindsay knew which way she wanted to go — an acting career. She knew she was too young to try to make a start, but not too young to prepare with dancing lessons, singing, and (in Hollywood High School) school plays and musicals. Her formal education went as far as the first year at the University of Oregon before she decided "the time has come."



Her first jobs were small roles in top TV dramas before she hit the jackpot, with a brief appearance in a "Marcus Welby, M.D.". segment on the Universal lot. This brought her to the attention of Monique James, West coast executive of Universal's New Talent Development Program who convinced the studio heads that they should get this girl under contract. They did. And kept
their promise to bring her along slowly — but importantly.



Lindsay doesn't feel she is stepping into anyone's place -- even Carrie Snodgress'. "That isn't
fair. We're nothing alike. It was just fate that I started coming along as Miss Snodgress and the studio parted."



But a very nice fate it was.

Dorothy Manners