When Loni Anderson was cast as Jennifer Marlowe in WKRP in Cincinnati in 1978, the part looked like a joke about a glamorous blonde receptionist. Anderson played her as the calmest and cleverest person at a chaotic radio station, a woman who ran the place while the men argued. She died at a hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday, August 3, 2025, after a long illness, her publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan, said. She was 79, two days short of her 80th birthday.
WKRP in Cincinnati
Anderson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on August 5, 1945. After small television roles, she was cast in WKRP in Cincinnati, a sitcom about a failing radio station that switches to rock music. The show ran on CBS from 1978 to 1982 and became a cult favourite in reruns. Her performance earned her two Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe nominations, and her poster sold in huge numbers. In 1980 she played the actress Jayne Mansfield in the television film The Jayne Mansfield Story. Anderson met Burt Reynolds when they co-starred in the 1983 film Stroker Ace, and they married in 1988. They adopted a son, Quinton, and were one of the most photographed couples in Hollywood until a very public divorce in 1994. She wrote about her life in the 1995 memoir My Life in High Heels. After WKRP she starred in the sitcom Easy Street and appeared in television films and guest roles. Her last role was in the 2023 television film Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas. She married the folk musician Bob Flick, of the Brothers Four, in 2008. Her family called her their dear wife, mother and grandmother.
Anderson’s Jennifer Marlowe was written as a pin-up and played as the boss, and that is how WKRP’s fans remember her.