Loni Anderson is best remembered for playing Jennifer Marlowe on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati.
Who was Loni Anderson?
Loni Anderson is an American actress whose big moment came in 1978 when she starred on WKRP in Cincinnati. The show made her a sensation overnight.
In 1983, she starred in the slapstick comedy Stroker Ace, where she fell in love with the leading man, Burt Reynolds. Their off-screen romance and later marriage turned them into one of Hollywood’s hottest power couples.
Loni Anderson Biography
- FULL NAME: Loni Kaye Anderson
- BORN: August 5, 1945
- BIRTHPLACE: Saint Paul, MN
- SPOUSES: Bob Flick (married 2008), Burt Reynolds (1988–1994), Rock Bickel (1974–1981), Bruce Hasselber (1964–1966)
- CHILDREN: Quinton Anderson Reynolds, Deidra Hoffman
- ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Leo
Early Life
Loni Anderson Kaye Anderson was born August 5, 1945, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Carl Anderson and Maxine Kallin. Even as a child, she turned heads with her striking brunette hair and bright blue eyes. In her senior year of high school, she earned the title of Valentine Queen at the winter formal, an early sign of her soon-to-be superstar status.
Anderson arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1963 with a passion for art and a plan to pay her way through college. She entered the Miss Roseville pageant and won, earning the chance to represent her small town at Miss Minnesota.
She didn’t snag the crown, but she kept collecting titles: Miss Thermo-Jac Clothing, Miss County Style Ford, and Queen of the Hole-In-One, plus a slew of smaller awards.
At 18, she married Bruce Hasselbeck, a young man from Minnesota like herself. Their daughter, Deidra, arrived a few months after the wedding, but the marriage didn’t stick. By 1966, Anderson was a single mother and back in the job market, teaching art and night classes while finishing her degree.
During her teaching years, Loni Anderson rekindled her childhood dream of acting. She landed small parts in local commercials and live theater. Sporting her still-dark hair, she toured in productions like Born Yesterday, Send Me No Flowers, Can-Can, The Star-Spangled Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof, finding comfort in the footlights as much as in a paint studio.
In 1973, Anderson married another dream-chasing actor, Ross Bickell. The young couple packed their bags and relocated from Minnesota to Los Angeles in 1975, eager to grab more film and TV chances.
While in LA, Loni Anderson brightened her hair to the signature blonde that became her calling card. She appeared in small parts on Barnaby Jones, The Bob Newhart Show, and Three’s Company, all between 1973 and 1977.
Hollywood Starlet?
According to Wikipedia Loni Anderson’s rise in show business started in 1978 when she snagged the role of radio station receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on the hit sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Howard Hesseman, who played Dr. Johnny Fever, and the young star stole the show, becoming the faces everyone wanted to talk about.
Just like that, she was a sex symbol: the bikini pinup of her that hit magazine racks became one of the biggest-selling posters of the decade. But, as she told producers, Jennifer wasn’t just a pretty figure.
She wanted the chance to show the character as smart, caring, and layered. The creators agreed, and the choice paid off. Anderson picked up two Emmy nods and three Golden Globe invites, making critics sit up and notice.
Yet the fast ride to the top came at a cost. The fame that catapulted her onto magazine covers also ended her second marriage, and by 1981, her divorce from Bickell was final. Success glittered on screen, but off it, the pressures were real.
The series ended in 1982, but Loni Anderson rode that wave to keep landing film and TV roles. After she played opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story in 1980, she started her own production company and headlined several made-for-TV features.
Her life took a turn in 1983 when she starred in the racing comedy Stroker Ace. On set she met Burt Reynolds, the biggest box-office draw of the day, and sparks flew.
Critics did not love her turn in the movie, yet by the time she married Reynolds in 1988, the pair had become Hollywood’s most talked about couple.
How’s her personal life and son?
Anderson’s marriage to Reynolds kicked off happily. The couple adopted a son, Quinton, but the union soured fast, leading to a brutal divorce.
The custody fight over Quinton and reports of a toxic, substance-fueled marriage filled the tabloids, finally ending when the divorce was finalized in 1994. Almost immediately after, Anderson jumped back into TV, landing a role in the last season of NBC’s Nurses, which ran from 1993 to 1994.
Anderson popped up on a few sitcoms in the past few years, showing up in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and V.I.P. She also dropped her autobiography, My Life in High Heels, in 1997.
In 2006, she turned heads as Tori Spelling’s spoiled mom in So noTORIous. The show got some heat because Tori’s real mom disapproved.
Then on May 17, 2008, Anderson said “I do” for the fourth time, marrying old friend Bob Flick, a founding member of the folk group The Brothers Four. They settled down together in Hollywood, California.
