Loni Anderson

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.

Acting

2020

I Am Burt Reynolds
Movie

Self - Interviewee

2019

2012

Baby Daddy
Tv

Nana Lyle

2006

So NoTORIous
Tv

Kiki Spelling

1998

1998

V.I.P.
Tv

Carol Irons

1996

Clueless
Tv

Unknown

1994

Burke's Law
Tv

Claudia Loring

1992

Munchie
Movie

Cathy Dobson

1991

Nurses
Tv

Casey MacAfee

1990

1989

Sorry, Wrong Number
Movie

Madeleine Stevenson

1988

1988

Whisper Kill
Movie

Liz Bartlett

1987

Blondie & Dagwood
Movie

Blondie Bumstead (voice)

1985

1984

Partners in Crime
Tv

Sydney Kovack

1984

The Lonely Guy
Movie

Herself (uncredited)

1983

Stroker Ace
Movie

Pembrook Feeney

1978

WKRP in Cincinnati
Tv

Jennifer Marlowe

1977

The Love Boat
Tv

Kim Holland / Doris Wilson

1977

The Love Boat
Tv

Kitty Scofield

1977

1976

Vigilante Force
Movie

Peaches (uncredited)

1972

1966

Nevada Smith
Movie

Brunette Saloon Girl (uncredited)

1944

Golden Globe Awards
Tv

Self - Nominee

Infos

Full Name
Loni Anderson
Gender
Female
Date of Birth
8/5/1945
Date of Death
8/3/2025
Also Known As

Loni Kaye Anderson