Loni Kaye Anderson (born August 5, 1945) is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Marlowe on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and as a former wife of Burt Reynolds (from 1988–1993). Her divorce from Reynolds was a bitter, well-publicized debacle.

Early life

Anderson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Maxine Hazel (née Kallin), a model, and Klaydon Carl "Andy" Anderson, an environmental chemist. 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 liable to be twisted into "Lay Loni". So it was changed to just plain "Loni".

Career

Anderson's most famous acting role came as receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati. Her pinup photo in a bikini became one of the best-selling wall posters of the 1970s. She and Reynolds made one film together, the 1983 stock-car racing comedy Stroker Ace, a huge 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 actress Jayne Mansfield in a made-for-TV biopic with Arnold Schwarzenegger as her husband, Mickey Hargitay. She teamed with 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..

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. The couple had met at a movie premiere in Anderson's native Minneapolis a few years after Flick's group hit #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 (from her first marriage), who is a school administrator in California; and a son, Quinton Anderson Reynolds (born August 31, 1988), whom she and Burt Reynolds adopted.

Her autobiography, My Life in High Heels, was published in 1997.

Filmography

• Vigilante Force (1976)
• Stroker Ace (1983)
• The Lonely Guy (1984)
• All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) (voice)
• Coins in the Fountain (1990)
• Munchie (1992)
• 1992 TV Movie, she played Lacey.
• 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain (1998)
• A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

Selected television work

• WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982)
• The Incredible Hulk, "Of Guilt, Models and Murder" [1.5], March 24, 1978 (playing "Sheila Cantrell")
• Three's Company, "Coffee, Tea, or Jack" [2.25], May 16, 1978 (playing "Susan Wallace")
• Partners in Crime (1984)
• A Letter to Three Wives (1985)
• Easy Street (1986)
• Blondie and Dagwood (1987, voice)
• Too Good to Be True (1988)
• Sorry, Wrong Number (1989)
• Nurses (cast member from 1993 to 1994)
• Without Warning (1994)
• The Mullets (2003–2004)
• So NoTORIous (2006)

References

1. According to the State of Minnesota. Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002. At Ancestry.com
2. http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Loni-Anderson.html
3. "Deidre Hall's Miracle." The American Surrogacy Center, Inc., 1996, retrieved September 7, 2006
4. BURT AND LONI, AND BABY MAKES GLEE (The Philadelphia Inquirer – September 3, 1988)

External links