Popular actress on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ was 79

LOS ANGELES — Loni Anderson, who performed a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died Sunday, simply days earlier than her eightieth birthday.

Anderson died at a Los Angeles hospital following a chronic sickness, mentioned her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.

“We’re heartbroken to announce the passing of our expensive spouse, mom and grandmother,” Anderson’s household mentioned in an announcement.

“WKRP in Cincinnati” aired from 1978 to 1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station making an attempt to reinvent itself with rock music. The solid included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, whose attractiveness had been matched by her intelligence.

Because the station’s receptionist, the blonde and high-heeled Jennifer routinely deflected undesirable enterprise requires her boss, Mr. Carlson. Her effectivity typically stored the station working within the face of others’ incompetence.

The function earned Anderson two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.

Anderson starred on the large display alongside Burt Reynold s within the 1983 comedy “Stroker Ace,” and the 2 later married and have become tabloid fixtures earlier than their messy breakup in 1994.

Their son, Quinton Reynolds, was “the very best resolution that we ever made in our whole relationship,” she mentioned through the unveiling of a bronze bust at Reynolds’ Hollywood grave web site in 2021.

“I believe again to the start of our relationship, it was so, oh, gosh, tabloidy. We had been only a spectacle on a regular basis. And it was laborious to have a relationship in that ambiance. And one way or the other, we did it by many ups and downs,” Anderson told The Associated Press.

Anderson detailed their tumultuous marriage within the 1995 autobiography, “My Life in Excessive Heels,” which she mentioned was about “the expansion of a lady, a lady who survives.”

“I believe if you happen to’re going to jot down about your self, it’s a must to do it warts and all,” Anderson informed the AP whereas selling the guide. “Chances are you’ll not even inform the nicest issues about your self, since you’re telling the reality.”

She married 4 occasions, most just lately to Bob Flick in 2008.

Anderson was born Aug. 5, 1945, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father was an environmental chemist, and her mom was a mannequin.

Her first function as an actress was a small half within the 1966 movie “Nevada Smith,” starring Steve McQueen. Most of her profession was spent on the small display with early visitor elements within the Seventies on “S.W.A.T.” and “Police Lady.” After “WKRP,” Anderson starred within the short-lived comedy sequence “Straightforward Road” and appeared in made-for-TV motion pictures together with “A Letter to Three Wives” and “White Sizzling: The Mysterious Homicide of Thelma Todd.”

In 2023 she co-starred in Lifetime’s “Women Of The 80s: A Divas Christmas” with Linda Grey, Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild and Nicollette Sheridan.