Loni Anderson
Acting • Born 1945-08-05 – Died 2025-08-03
Biography
Loni Kaye Anderson (August 5, 1945 – August 3, 2025) was an American actress who played the role of Jennifer Marlowe on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. 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. 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 liable to be twisted into "Lay Loni." So it was changed to just plain "Loni." 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 husband Burt 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. 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 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 (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. She died at a Los Angeles hospital following a “prolonged” illness on August 3, 2025.
Filmography
82 credits
Blondie & Dagwood
Movie • 1987
Blondie Bumstead (voice)
Nevada Smith
Movie • 1966
Brunette Saloon Girl (uncredited)
All Dogs Go to Heaven
Movie • 1989
Flo (voice)
3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
Movie • 1998
Medusa
The Fantastic Funnies
Movie • 1980
Host
A Night at the Roxbury
Movie • 1998
Barbara Butabi
Stroker Ace
Movie • 1983
Pembrook Feeney
Munchie
Movie • 1992
Cathy Dobson
Too Good to Be True
Movie • 1988
Ellen Berent
Magic with the Stars
Movie • 1982
Self - Host
Blown Away
Movie • 1990
Lauren
Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas
Movie • 2023
Lily Marlowe
The Price She Paid
Movie • 1992
Lacey
The Jayne Mansfield Story
Movie • 1980
Jayne Mansfield
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
Movie • 2012
Self
Vigilante Force
Movie • 1976
Peaches (uncredited)
A Letter to Three Wives
Movie • 1985
Lora Mae Holloway
Necessity
Movie • 1988
Lauren LaSalle
Amazing Stories: The Movie III
Movie
(archive footage)
Stranded
Movie • 1986
Stacy Tweed
Country Gold
Movie • 1982
Mollie Dean Purcell
White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd
Movie • 1991
Thelma Todd
Blondie & Dagwood: Second Wedding Workout
Movie • 1989
Blondie Bumstead (voice)
Whisper Kill
Movie • 1988
Liz Bartlett
Sorry, Wrong Number
Movie • 1989
Madeleine Stevenson
Deadly Family Secrets
Movie • 1995
Martha
Coins in the Fountain
Movie • 1990
Leah Crawford
My Mother's Secret Life
Movie • 1984
Ellen Blake
Sizzle
Movie • 1981
Julie Davis
Annul Victory
Movie • 2009
Self
Valerie
Movie • 2019
Self
All-Star Party for Burt Reynolds
Movie • 1981
Self
Three on a Date
Movie • 1978
Angela Ross
I Am Burt Reynolds
Movie • 2020
Self - Interviewee
The Muppets Go Hollywood
Movie • 1979
Self
The Lonely Guy
Movie • 1984
Herself (uncredited)
Night of 100 Stars
Movie • 1982
Self
Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny
Movie • 1982
Self
Duck Dodgers
TV • 2003
Herself (voice)
WKRP in Cincinnati
TV • 1978
Jennifer Marlowe
Amazing Stories
TV • 1985
Love
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Kitty Scofield
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
TV • 2005
Self
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
Clueless
TV • 1996
Three's Company
TV • 1977
Nurses
TV • 1991
Casey MacAfee
Melrose Place
TV • 1992
Teri Carson
So NoTORIous
TV • 2006
Kiki Spelling
Harry O
TV • 1974
The Mullets
TV • 2003
The New WKRP in Cincinnati
TV • 1991
S.W.A.T.
TV • 1975
The Big Show
TV • 1980
Self
Back to the Grind
TV • 2007
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
TV • 2006
Self
The McLean Stevenson Show
TV • 1976
Easy Street
TV • 1986
Partners in Crime
TV • 1984
Sydney Kovack
B.L. Stryker
TV • 1989
Siegfried and Roy - Superstars Of Magic
TV • 1980
Self
The Magic of David Copperfield
TV • 1978
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
TV • 1996
Racine
Intimate Portrait
TV • 1993
Self
Baby Daddy
TV • 2012
Nana Lyle
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self
The Bob Hope Show
TV • 1950
Self
Barnaby Jones
TV • 1973
Joanna Morgan
Love You More
TV • 2017
Jean
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
TV • 2009
Self - Guest
Burke's Law
TV • 1994
Claudia Loring
Women of the House
TV • 1995
Self
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Barbie
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Kim Holland / Doris Wilson
The Incredible Hulk
TV • 1977
Sheila Cantrell
Police Woman
TV • 1974
Waitress
The Invisible Man
TV • 1975
Andrea Hanover
V.I.P.
TV • 1998
Carol Irons
Golden Globe Awards
TV • 1944
Self - Nominee
The Bob Newhart Show
TV • 1972
Leslie Greely
My Sister is So Gay
TV • 2016
Frances
Fast Track
TV • 1997