Loni Anderson — who became one of the most famous TV stars of the late-70s and early-80s with her breakout role on WKRP in Cincinnati — died at noon on Sunday, Aug. 3 at age 79.
The St. Paul, Minn., native died at a Los Angeles hospital surrounded by family, her longtime publicist Cheryl J. Kagan confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. Anderson would have turned 80 on Aug. 5.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” her family said in a statement.
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Born in 1945 to Klaydon Anderson, an environmental chemist, and Maxine Hazel, a model, Anderson attended the University of Minnesota. Having begun her career in musical theater at the age of 10, she landed her first Hollywood job in the 1966 Steve McQueen Western Nevada Smith, only to then struggle for years to find work as an actress.
“Look up the definition of rejection in the dictionary,” she told Ability magazine in 2007, “get really comfortable with it, and then maybe you can go into acting.”
She appeared in early-ʼ70s theatrical productions of Can-Can, Born Yesterday, The Star-Spangled Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof. By the mid-ʼ70s, she had begun to build a career in TV with guest roles on such series as S.W.A.T., Barnaby Jones, The Bob Newhart Show, The Love Boat, The Incredible Hulk, and Three’s Company.
Anderson, a brunette who decided to dye her hair blond, became a household name in 1978 with the debut of ABC sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, on which she played smarter-than-her-boss receptionist Jennifer Marlowe.
“I chose to be blond for WKRP because the guy who created it, Hugh Wilson, said he wanted somebody who looked like Lana Turner but was the smartest person in the room,” she said in her Ability interview. “Very innovative, by the way, for 1978 when we started the show. On TV, nobody sexy was smart, nobody glamorous was smart, especially in comedy.”
Anderson quickly became a fan favorite and the star of the show, scoring a pair of Emmy nominations as well as three Golden Globe nominations. She was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series twice, in 1980 and 1981, but lost to Loretta Swit (M*A*S*H) and Eileen Brennan (Private Benjamin), respectively. The series earned 10 Emmy nominations across its four-season run on CBS and did win once, when Andy Ackerman took home the Outstanding Video Tape Editing For A Series trophy in 1982.
Anderson’s Jennifer was the heart of the fictional WKRP, providing morale, gusto, and endlessly ebullient enthusiasm in an environment dominated by cynical, sometimes lecherous men.
“She was the smartest person in the room. She spoke seven languages and she took care of everybody like she was their mom, and yet she was a bombshell, so it made her so interesting,” Anderson said in a 2023 Us magazine interview. Reflecting on where a woman like Jennifer would be in today’s media climate, Anderson shared, “I do think that she’s running the show somewhere… She is definitely a CEO, because she really ran the station.”
Anderson left the show in a salary dispute in 1980, returning after nabbing a hefty raise. During the hiatus, Anderson headlined the CBS TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story, the first of many forays into revisionist old Hollywood history to come for the actress. She would go on to appear in made-for-TV remakes of two studio-era classics, the Joseph Mankiewicz melodrama A Letter to Three Wives, in which she played the role originated by Linda Darnell, and Sorry, Wrong Number, which originally starred Barbara Stanwyck. She also played the silent comedienne Thelma Todd in 1991’s White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd.
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Her relationship with Burt Reynolds, starting in 1982, multiplied her fame. The couple starred together in the 1983 action-comedy Stroker Ace and wed in 1988. The marriage was Anderson’s third after real estate developer Bruce Hasselberg and actor Ross Bickell. She divorced Reynolds in 1994 and remained single until marrying musician Bob Flick, with whom she remained until her death.
Anderson reprised her role as Jennifer Marlowe on The New WKRP in Cincinnati during the 1991-1992 season, and in 1993, she guest-starred on NBC Golden Girls spinoff Empty Nest and joined the cast of that sitcom’s spinoff, Nurses.
Other memorable roles in Anderson’s four-decade show business career include Barbara Butabi in film A Night at the Roxbury and Teri Carson, the mother of Denise Richards’ Brandi Carson and a pivotal guest player on season 4 of primetime soap Melrose Place. She also guest-starred on shows ranging from Sabrina the Teenage Witch to Clueless to V.I.P. and starred in the short-lived sitcoms The Mullets (2003) and So Notorious (2006), as well as the mystery drama Partners in Crime (1984). She was a regular cast member of LGBTQ web series My Sister Is So Gay.
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Her other movie credits include The Lonely Guy and All Dogs Go to Heaven.
A spokesman for awareness of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Anderson warned frequently about the dangers of smoking. She also wrote a tell-all autobiography, 1995’s My Life in High Heels.
Anderson is survived by Flick; her son, Quinton Anderson Reynolds; daughter Deidra Hoffman and son-in-law Charlie Hoffman; and numerous stepchildren, grandchildren, and step-grandchildren.
