Loni Anderson
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.
Photos
Movies (38)
Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas
2023 · Lily Marlowe
I Am Burt Reynolds
2020 · Self - Interviewee
Valerie
2019 · Self
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
2012 · Self
Annul Victory
2009 · Self
A Night at the Roxbury
1998 · Barbara Butabi
3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
1998 · Medusa
Amazing Stories: The Movie III
1998 · Love
Deadly Family Secrets
1995 · Martha
Munchie
1992 · Cathy Dobson
The Price She Paid
1992 · Lacey
A Party For Richard Pryor
1991 · Self
White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd
1991 · Thelma Todd
Coins in the Fountain
1990 · Leah Crawford
All Dogs Go to Heaven
1989 · Flo (voice)
Blondie & Dagwood: Second Wedding Workout
1989 · Blondie Bumstead (voice)
Sorry, Wrong Number
1989 · Madeleine Stevenson
Too Good to Be True
1988 · Ellen Berent
Whisper Kill
1988 · Liz Bartlett
Necessity
1988 · Lauren LaSalle
Blondie & Dagwood
1987 · Blondie Bumstead (voice)
Stranded
1986 · Stacy Tweed
A Letter to Three Wives
1985 · Lora Mae Holloway
My Mother's Secret Life
1984 · Ellen Blake
The Lonely Guy
1984 · Herself (uncredited)
Stroker Ace
1983 · Pembrook Feeney
Country Gold
1982 · Mollie Dean Purcell
Night of 100 Stars
1982 · Self
Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny
1982 · Self
Magic with the Stars
1982 · Self - Host
All-Star Party for Burt Reynolds
1981 · Self
Sizzle
1981 · Julie Davis
The Jayne Mansfield Story
1980 · Jayne Mansfield
The Fantastic Funnies
1980 · Host
The Muppets Go Hollywood
1979 · Self (uncredited)
Three on a Date
1978 · Angela Ross
Vigilante Force
1976 · Peaches (uncredited)
Nevada Smith
1966 · Brunette Saloon Girl (uncredited)
TV shows (42)
Love You More
2017 · Jean
My Sister is So Gay
2016 · Frances
Baby Daddy
2012 · Nana Lyle
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009 · Self - Guest
Back to the Grind
2007
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
2006 · Self
So NoTORIous
2006 · Kiki Spelling
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
2005 · Self
The Mullets
2003 · Mandi Mullet-Heidecker
Duck Dodgers
2003 · Herself (voice)
V.I.P.
1998 · Carol Irons
Fast Track
1997
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
1996 · Racine
Clueless
1996
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Women of the House
1995 · Self
Burke's Law
1994 · Claudia Loring
Intimate Portrait
1993 · Self
Melrose Place
1992 · Teri Carson
Nurses
1991 · Casey MacAfee
The New WKRP in Cincinnati
1991
B.L. Stryker
1989
Easy Street
1986
Amazing Stories
1985 · Love
Partners in Crime
1984 · Sydney Kovack
The Big Show
1980 · Self
Siegfried and Roy - Superstars Of Magic
1980 · Self
The Magic of David Copperfield
1978
WKRP in Cincinnati
1978 · Jennifer Marlowe
The Incredible Hulk
1977 · Sheila Cantrell
The Love Boat
1977 · Kitty Scofield, Barbie, Kim Holland / Doris Wilson
Three's Company
1977
The McLean Stevenson Show
1976
The Invisible Man
1975 · Andrea Hanover
S.W.A.T.
1975
Police Woman
1974 · Waitress
Harry O
1974
Barnaby Jones
1973 · Joanna Morgan
The Bob Newhart Show
1972 · Leslie Greely
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962 · Self
The Bob Hope Show
1950 · Self
Golden Globe Awards
1944 · Self - Nominee