Matinee Classics - Loni Anderson Biography & Filmography

Loni Anderson ACTOR

LONI ANDERSON BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Loni Anderson was born on August 5th, 1945 in St. Paul, Minnesota with the middle name Kaye, born to Maxine Hazel and Klaydon Carl Anderson. After graduating from Alexander Ramsey High School she went on to study art at the University of Minnesota. In her spare time she entered a number of beauty contests and was the runner-up for "Miss Minnesota".

After college she found work as a teacher and then developed an interest in acting working on a number of stage productions as well as some small commercial roles. Some of her earlier stage credits were in the plays, "Send Me No Flowers", "Can-Can", "The Star-Spangled Girl", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Threepenny Opera".

Along with developing herself as a stage actress, Loni also began working on such television series as, "S.W.A.T." (1975), "The Invisible Man" (1975), "Harry O" (1975), "Phyllis" (1975) and "Three's Company" (1976) starring John Ritter.

Loni's initial foray into films was the highly dramatic western movie "Nevada Smith" (1966) starring Steve McQueen. In 1978 she was cast in her break out role on the television series, "WKRP in Cincinnati" playing Jennifer Marlowe. She followed his role with a variety of television movie roles, "The Jayne Mansfield Story" (1980), "White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd" (1981), "Country Gold" (1982), "A Letter to Three Wives" (1985), "Coins in the Fountain" (1990), "The Price She Paid" (1992) and "Deadly Family Secrets" (1995).

More recently Loni has appeared on, "Nurses" (1991), "V.I.P" (1999), "The Mullets" (2003), "So noTORIous" (2006) and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (2010).

Although her professional career was quite successful she always had the reputation of a 'bombshell beauty' and has had a hard time getting away from that to show her true talent as an actress. She has also constantly been the focus of media attention for her number of high profile marriages.

Loni Anderson has married four times with her first marriage ending in divorce before she was even twenty one years old to Bruce Donald Hasselberg from 1964 through 1966. She then married Ross Bickell in 1974 and this marriage came to an end in 1981. Her third marriage was to actor Burt Reynolds is 1988 and they have one adopted son. This marriage also came to an end in 1994. Her fourth and final husband is Bob Flick and they remain together today.