Loni Anderson, the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor has died just days before her 80th birthday.<\/p>\n
Anderson was best known for playing a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy WKRP in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Her longtime publicist, Cheryl J Kagan said she died at a Los Angeles hospital following a prolonged illness.<\/p>\n
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.<\/p>\n
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 to 1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself with rock music.<\/p>\n
The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe.<\/p>\n
As the station’s receptionist, the blonde and high-heeled Jennifer routinely deflected unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr Carlson.<\/p>\n
Her efficiency often kept the station running in the face of others’ incompetence.<\/p>\n
The role earned Anderson two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.<\/p>\n
Anderson starred on the big screen alongside Burt Reynolds in the 1983 comedy Stroker Ace, and the two later married and became tabloid fixtures before their messy break-up in 1994.<\/p>\n
Their son, Quinton Reynolds, was “the best decision that we ever made in our entire relationship,” she said during the unveiling of a bronze bust at Reynolds’s Hollywood grave site in 2021.<\/p>\n
“I think back to the beginning of our relationship, it was so, oh, gosh, tabloidy,” Anderson told The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We were just a spectacle all the time. And it was hard to have a relationship in that atmosphere. And somehow, we did it through many ups and downs.”<\/p>\n
Anderson detailed their tumultuous marriage in the 1995 autobiography, My Life in High Heels, which she said was about “the growth of a woman, a woman who survives”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Loni Anderson was born August 5, 1945. (AP: Matt Sayles)<\/p>\n
“I think if you’re going to write about yourself, you have to do it warts and all,” Anderson told the AP while promoting the book.<\/p>\n
“You may not even tell the nicest things about yourself because you’re telling the truth.”<\/p>\n
She married four times, most recently to Bob Flick in 2008.<\/p>\n
Anderson was born August 5, 1945, in St Paul, Minnesota. Her father was an environmental chemist, and her mother was a model.<\/p>\n
Her first role as an actor was a small part in the 1966 film Nevada Smith, starring Steve McQueen.<\/p>\n
Most of her career was spent on the small screen, and she had early guest parts in the 1970s on S.W.A.T. and Police Woman.<\/p>\n
Anderson remembered as ‘most gracious lady’<\/p>\n
In 2023 she co-starred in Lifetime’s Ladies Of The 80s: A Divas Christmas with Linda Gray, Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild and Nicollette Sheridan.<\/p>\n
“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of the wonderful Loni Anderson!” Fairchild wrote on X.<\/p>\n
“The sweetest, most gracious lady! I’m just devastated to hear this.”<\/p>\n
Anderson is survived by Flick, her daughter Deidra and son-in law Charlie Hoffman, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, grandchildren McKenzie and Megan Hoffman, stepson Adam Flick and wife Helene, and step-grandchildren Felix and Maximilian.<\/p>\n
Kagan said a private family service would be held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loni Anderson, the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor has died just days before her 80th birthday. Anderson was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[36918,17242,64,63,447,10027,10852,134,36916,36919,36920,434,36917],"class_list":["post-41980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-36918","tag-actress","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-cincinnati","tag-dies","tag-entertainment","tag-loni-anderson","tag-radio-station","tag-receptionist","tag-television","tag-wkrp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}