Loni Kaye Anderson is an American actress who is known for her four-year run as Jennifer
Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati, for playing Jayne Mansfield and Thelma Todd in television
movies, and for playing Pamela Anderson's mother in one episode of V.I.P..
Early life Anderson was born on August 5, 1945 in Saint
Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Maxine Hazel, 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.
She attended the University of Minnesota.
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 situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati in 1978.
She was offered the role when producers saw the poster of her in a red bikini; a pose
similar to Farrah Fawcett's famous 1976 pin-up.
The sitcom's creator, Hugh Wilson, later admitted that Anderson got the part because "She had
a body like Jayne Mansfield and the overall sex appeal of Marilyn Monroe".
Although the series suffered in the Nielsen ratings, it was popular with teenagers, but
most especially with disc jockeys.
Owing to her rising popularity as the show's so-called "main attraction," Anderson walked
out on the sitcom during the 1980 summer hiatus of the show, requesting a steep salary increase.
After renegotiating her contract, she returned and remained on the series until its end in
1982, after four seasons.
She and future husband Burt Reynolds made one live-action film together, the 1983 stock
car racing comedy Stroker Ace, a box office failure.
They also worked together for the 1989 animated children's classic, All Dogs Go To Heaven,
in which Loni played the romantic interest, rough collie Flo, of Burt's character, Charlie
B. Barkin.
Shortly after her divorce from Reynolds, she appeared as a regular in the final season
on the NBC sitcom Nurses.
Anderson portrayed 1950s actress/sex symbol Jayne Mansfield in a made-for-TV biography,
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 series 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.
She played the 1930s comedienne actress Thelma Todd in the made-for-TV biography White Hot:
The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd in 1991.
Personal life Anderson has been married four times; her
first three marriages were to: Bruce Hasselberg, Ross Bickell, and actor Burt Reynolds.
On May 17, 2008, Anderson married musician Bob Flick, one of the founding members of
the folk band The Brothers Four.
The couple had met at a movie premiere in Anderson's native St. Paul 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, who is a school administrator in California;
and a son, Quinton Anderson Reynolds, whom she and Burt Reynolds adopted.
Her autobiography, My Life in High Heels, was published in 1997.
Growing up with parents who smoked and were affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, Anderson became the spokeswoman for the National Lung Health Education Program’s
campaign and COPDTogether to increase awareness about COPD and caregiver support.
Anderson was raised as a Lutheran.
Filmography Vigilante Force
Stroker Ace The Lonely Guy
All Dogs Go to Heaven Coins in the Fountain
Munchie 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
A Night at the Roxbury Selected television work
S.W.A.T. –
"The Steel Security Blanket" WKRP in Cincinnati
The Incredible Hulk – "Of Guilt, Models and Murder"
Three's Company – "Coffee, Tea, or Jack" The Jayne Mansfield Story
Sizzle Country Gold
Partners in Crime A Letter to Three Wives
Amazing Stories – "The Guilt Trip" Easy Street
Blondie and Dagwood A Whisper Kills
Too Good to Be True Sorry, Wrong Number
White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd
The Price She Paid TV Movie, she played Lacey.
Nurses Without Warning
The Mullets So NoTORIous
References
External links Loni Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
Loni Anderson at the TCM Movie Database Loni Anderson at AllMovie