| Loni Anderson |
|---|
Loni Anderson, 1992 |
| Born | Loni Kaye Anderson
(1945-08-05) August 5, 1945 (age 67)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA |
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| Occupation | Actress |
|---|
| Years active | 1975–present |
|---|
| Spouse(s) | Bruce Hasselberg (m. 1964 – 1966) «start: (1964)–end+1: (1967)»"Marriage: Bruce Hasselberg to Loni Anderson" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loni_Anderson)
Ross Bickell (m. 1973 – 1981) «start: (1973)–end+1: (1982)»"Marriage: Ross Bickell to Loni Anderson" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loni_Anderson)
Burt Reynolds (m. 1988 – 1993) «start: (1988)–end+1: (1994)»"Marriage: Burt Reynolds to Loni Anderson" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loni_Anderson)
Bob Flick (m. 2008) «start: (2008)»"Marriage: Bob Flick to Loni Anderson" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loni_Anderson) |
|---|
Loni Kaye Anderson (born August 5, 1945) is an
American actress who is known for having played the role of
Jennifer Marlowe on the
CBS television sitcom
WKRP in Cincinnati and for playing
Jayne Mansfield and
Thelma Todd in
television movies.
Early life
Anderson was born in
St. Paul,
Minnesota, August 5, 1945, the daughter of Maxine Hazel (née Kallin), a
model, and Klaydon Carl "Andy" Anderson, an
environmental chemist, and grew up in
suburban Roseville. As a senior at Alexander Ramsey Senior High School in Roseville in 1963, she was voted Valentine Queen of Valentine's Day Winter Formal.
[1] She attended the
University of Minnesota.
[2] As she says in her
autobiography,
My Life in High Heels, her father was originally going to name her "Leiloni," but then realized to his horror that when she got to her teen years it was likely to be twisted into "
Lay Loni." So it was changed to just plain "Loni."
Career
Anderson's most famous acting role came as the resourceful receptionist
Jennifer Marlowe on
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982). She was offered the role when producers saw the poster of her in a red bikini; a pose similar to
Farrah Fawcett's.
WKRP's creator,
Hugh Wilson, admitted that Anderson got the part because "She had a body like
Jayne Mansfield and the overall sex appeal of
Marilyn Monroe." She remained on
WKRP until its end in 1982, after four seasons. She and future husband
Burt Reynolds made one film together, the 1983 stock-car racing comedy
Stroker Ace, a box-office failure.
Shortly after her divorce from Reynolds, she appeared as a regular in the final season (1993–1994) on the
NBC sitcom Nurses. Anderson portrayed 1950s actress/sex symbol
Jayne Mansfield in a made-for-TV biopic,
The Jayne Mansfield Story in 1980, with
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mansfield's husband,
Mickey Hargitay. She teamed with
Wonder Woman actress
Lynda Carter in a 1984 television series,
Partners in Crime.
Anderson made a series of
cameo appearances on television shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as the Spellmans' "witch-trash" cousin on
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Vallery Irons' mother on
V.I.P.. In 1991, she played the 1930s comedienne actress,
Thelma Todd, in the TV movie
White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd.
Personal life
Anderson has been married four times; her first three marriages were to: Bruce Hasselberg (1964–1966), Ross Bickell (1973–1981), and actor (and one-time co-star)
Burt Reynolds (1988–1993). On May 17, 2008, Anderson married musician Bob Flick, one of the founding members of the folk band
The Brothers Four.
[3][4] The couple had met at a movie premiere in Anderson's native Minneapolis a few years after Flick's group hit No. 2 on the pop charts with "Greenfields" in 1960. The ceremony was attended by friends and family, including son Quinton Reynolds.
She has two children: a daughter, Deidra Hoffman
[5] (from her first marriage),
[6] who is a school administrator in
California;
[7] and a son, Quinton Anderson Reynolds (born August 31, 1988), whom she and Burt Reynolds adopted.
[8][9] Her autobiography,
My Life in High Heels, was published in 1997.
Anderson has been a spokesperson for the National Lung
Health Education Program’s campaign to increase awareness about
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
[10]
Anderson is currently a practicing
Lutheran.
[11]
Filmography
Selected television work
- S.W.A.T. (1 episode, 1975) – "The Steel Security Blanket" (playing "Miss Texas")
- WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982) (88 episodes)
- The Incredible Hulk (1 episode, 1978) – "Of Guilt, Models and Murder," (playing "Sheila Cantrell")
- Three's Company (1 episode, 1978) – "Coffee, Tea, or Jack," (playing "Susan Walters")
- The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980)
- "Country Gold" CBS TV movie (1982)
- Partners in Crime (1984)
- A Letter to Three Wives (1985)
- Amazing Stories (1 episode, 1985) – "The Guilt Trip"
- Easy Street (1986)
- Blondie and Dagwood (1987, voice)
- Too Good to Be True (1988)
- Sorry, Wrong Number (1989)
- White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd (1991)
- The Price She Paid (1992) TV Movie, she played Lacey.
- Nurses (cast member from 1993 to 1994)
- Without Warning (1994)
- The Mullets (2003–2004)
- So NoTORIous (2006)
References
- ^ "classmates.com yearbooks Ramsey High School 1963". http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Alexander-Ramsey-Senior-High-School-/19778?page=184.
- ^ "Loni Anderson Biography (1945?-)". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Loni-Anderson.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Loni Anderson marries folk singer Bob Flick 15 years after divorce from Burt Reynolds". Star Tribune. May 18, 2008.
- ^ "Loni Anderson". Biography.Com. http://www.biography.com/people/loni-anderson-474322. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
- ^ Dougherty, Margot; Linda Marx, Victoria Balfour, Lois Armstrong (1988-05-16). "Burt & Loni's Wedding Album". People. Time Inc. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20098964,00.html. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ Schindehette, Susan (1993-09-13). "What a Mess!". People. Time Inc. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20106248,00.html. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ Lipton, Michael A. (September 15, 2003). "Red-Hot Grandmama". People. Time Inc. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20141062,00.html. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ "Deidre Hall's Miracle." The American Surrogacy Center, Inc., 1996. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
- ^ BURT AND LONI, AND BABY MAKES GLEE (The Philadelphia Inquirer – September 3, 1988)
- ^ "Ability Magazine: Loni Anderson interview by Chet Cooper and Gillian Friedman, MD". http://abilitymagazine.com/Loni_Anderson.html. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
- ^ Famous Lutherans
External links
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