Loni Anderson, Emmy-nominated “WKRP in Cincinnati” star, dies at 79
The Minnesota native helped lead the sitcom to 10 Emmy nominations and one win across its four-season run on CBS.
The actress died at noon on Sunday, Aug. 3, in 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.
Anderson was born in Saint Paul, Minn., in 1945 to Klaydon Anderson, an environmental chemist, and Maxine Hazel, a model.
Her big break came after the actress played uncredited, unnamed, and single-episode roles on series like S.W.A.T., Police Woman, and Barnaby Jones for a decade.
In 1978, Anderson was offered the role that transformed her career and remains her signature character: Jennifer Marlowe, the charismatic, competent receptionist at WKRP in Cincinnati's fictional radio station. Together with costars Gary Sandy, Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders, and Frank Bonner, Anderson helped lead the series to 10 Emmy nominations across its four-season run on CBS.
Anderson 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 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."
While on WKRP, Anderson starred as Jayne Mansfield in the made-for-television 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.
For her first post-WKPR move, Anderson starred opposite Burt Reynolds in the 1983 action-comedy Stroker Ace. The pair began dating shortly thereafter, and wed in 1988, marking Anderson's third marriage after real estate developer Bruce Hasselberg and actor Ross Bickell. She would divorce Reynolds in 1994 and remain single until marrying musician Bob Flick, with whom she remained until her death.
Other memorable roles in Anderson's four-decade career in show business include Barbara Butabi in A Night at the Roxbury; Teri Carson, the mother of Denise Richards' Brandi Carson and a pivotal guest player on season 4 of Melrose Place; a main role on Nurses, a spinoff of Golden Girls spinoff Empty Nest.
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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.
