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 Actress Loni Anderson made her mark playing the sassy
Jennifer Marlowe on the television series "WKRP in Cincinnati". In the
process, she proved that audiences would respond to a female character
whose humor, smarts and strength were as prominent as her curves.
You might say that Loni Anderson was slotted into ultra-femal roles
right from the start. Born on August 5, 1945, she grew up in a small
town in Minnesota, where her first taste of fame was participating in a
series of beauty pageants, culminating with the Miss Minnesota
competition. That's where Anderson met Bruce Hasselberg, her first
husband. They wed when she was still a teenager.
The marriage was short lived, and Anderson moved back with her parents
and became a single mother to a daughter, Deidra. For the next few
years, Anderson concentrated on motherhood and on studying to become a
teacher. But the show business bug bit her again, and she began working
in regional theater and TV commercials. After tying the knot with a
fellow actor, Ross Bickell, Anderson moved west to Los Angeles to try
her luck in Hollywood.
She guest-starred in shows such as "Three's Company" before landing a
permanent role on "WKRP," a comedy about a radio station in Cincinnati,
in 1978. Anderson agreed to play the role of secretary Jennifer Marlowe
under one condition — that she be allowed to reshape the character
beyond the confines of a dumb blonde stereotype.
Her
funny, sharp-tongued portrayal helped make the show a big hit, and
it won her nominations for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 1981.
After "WKRP" was canceled in 1982, Anderson continued working steadily
on various projects, including a TV movie, "The Jayne Mansfield Story,"
in which she starred opposite then-newcomer Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Off screen, things were not as rosy: Anderson's second marriage broke
down and her father, the man she called "my hero," died. It was at this
juncture that Anderson began her most famous relationship — with
Hollywood stud Burt Reynolds. Their whirlwind courtship was straight
out of a romance novel, replete with flowers, jewelry and gushing
interviews with the press. Behind the scenes, however, things weren't
picture-perfect. At the same time that her mother was succumbing to
breast cancer, Anderson was shouldering the burden of helping Reynolds
overcome an addiction to painkillers. He eventually kicked the habit,
and, at 42, Anderson became a bride for the third time. Soon after, the
couple adopted a baby boy, Quinton. After Reynolds served her divorce
papers a few years later, Anderson endured a bitter and very public
divorce, and she withdrew from the limelight. In fact, she stayed
completely mum about the painful break-up until the 1995 publication of
her book, "My Life in High Heels."
After a
roller-coaster life of love and heartbreak, success and
failure, Anderson, 54, has found peace. She now shares her life with
attorney Geoff Brown, and son, Quinton; she is also a grandmother to
two girls, Megan and McKenzie.
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