Why did Loni Anderson’s career go down the shitter?

There’s Lifetime or Hallmark and that Candice Cameron network. Surely she could get a role on that, maybe even a starring one. All those Christmas movies and mystery shows.

Because she sucks.

THREAD CLOSED

She's a terrible actress who lucked out with WKRP. She had the perfect blonde, big boobed look that was very popular back then. Then she married Burt.

Even during the TV movie years, she was often a third-stringer who only got lead roles because of her last-minute availability. Then Burt would visit her sets and the shit would hit the fan, and they spent years fighting like cats and dogs even after the divorce. Offscreen drama became her full-time job.

Because she had the audacity to remake two of the greatest film noir melodramas in history; SORRY, WRONG NUMBER and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN ( released as TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE). Her career SHOULD go down the shitter as she was ghastly in both. Horrible actress with the ugliest shade of blonde hair ever.

Burt and his crew didn’t think much of her. But she made him marry her anyway.

I actually think she's very underrated. She was hilarious as Tori Spelling's mom on Tori's mid-00s sitcom. She also did an Amazon pilot with Bridget Everett a few years ago where she played a lonely older woman who becomes Bridget's roommate. Even THR said they were astounded by how good she was.

I never saw her show with Linda Carter though I thought the premise was cute. Was it any good? It didn't last long.

I really liked her in the Jayne Mansfield Story.

Big-boobed blondes have a shelf-life. Her tits got more airtime than she did. Remember, she was already almost 35 when she was on WKRP.

There were a lot more beautiful actresses who also stalled in their careers - Cheryl Ladd for example.

There are only a few bombshells that seem to extend their career - for some unknown reason, Sofia Vergara has been able to hold on to popularity a lot longer than she should.

I think with Loni, she took a breather when she was with Burt and had a kid. Then Burt's career is on major decline and she's now in her 40's. Back then, female careers would slow down in their 40's and 50's as they would take mom roles - but no one's mom looked like Loni Anderson.

She couldn't transfer out of the blonde bombshell.

R5 = Jan Smithers.

She had a trashy beautician/waitress/all girl look. Those eyebrows were straight outta trailer park. I was most disappointed in the Beef Stroganoff recipe she shared in TV GUIDE in the 1980s. She used ketchup!

When she married Burt.

I was wondering what happened to her. Maybe she looks like a puffer fish filled with filler and her boobs fell?

R8 It's all on YouTube.

I loved how lacquered and fake she looked, like a something out of an old Loony Tunes cartoon. Whenever I watched her on WKRP as a kid, I was reminded of Bugs Bunny in drag.

She was quite charming in last year's "A Diva's Christmas."

I know she's not an actor's banquet but is her acrimonious and long divorce with Burt Reynolds part of why her career wanted? Burt was very connected in the industry, and I could see how she would be seen as radioactive.

Most female sitcoms sidekicks have about a 10 year career on TV, then they’re done. I knew someone whose sister had recurring roles on some MTM shows and she went to a financial advisor who told her exactly that and put her in an allowance so she would invest money instead of spending it. He was right. She pretty much disappeared at the end of the 1990s.

MTM was an exception to the rule as she was lucky enough to get 2 fairly long running tv shows and enough clout to start her own production company that produced some big hits. She was kind of the Lucille Ball of the 195

Finishing my sentence from my post which inexplicably posted itself while I was typing….MTM was the Lucille Ball of the 60s/early 70s.,

I’ve been watching Law and Order reruns and I’m like, whatever happened to that person…hey, I remember her…what was her name again?….”

Well known 1990s/early 2000s faces disappeared by 2010.

[QUOTE] Well known 1990s/early 2000s faces disappeared by 2010.

We're still here, we just have different faces.

Granted she had a “look”, but very little talent.

She was quite good on WKRP in Cincinatti, but it became hard to cast her afterwards. The public loved Burt and her and after a bitter divorce, her career petered out.

I'm surprised no one mentions the Cagney and Lacey rip-off she did with Lynda Carter in the 80's.

r23 Is that the same as r8 mentioned?

An acquaintance who worked as various performers' assistants knew Loni and Burt. When they were together neither one would leave the house without being in full makeup. She was great in WKRP, but it was a one note role on a show with excellent writing and direction.

She was a brunette in one of her first roles and she was actually homely. Bleaching her hair improved her.

Didn't she just do something in the last year or so? It had a bunch of washed up has beens in it.

R5 Don’t forget “A Letter to Three Lives”.

In the Linda Darnell role no less!

^ Damn! I was so outraged I forgot to proof.

Three Wives of course

She also played Jayne Mansfield and Thelma Todd

Square face and helmet hair

She was terrible at both. She simply isn’t credible as a dramatic actress. With the hair and makeup she has always looked like a clown version of a pretty woman. If you look up “Frau” in the dictionary a photo of her is next to the definition.

She looks cute here.

Loni Anderson, Richard Dean Anderson, and Peter Krause all went at different times to the same public high school in the Twin Cities suburbs.

Nobody was asking for more Loni Anderson roles. She was mediocre at best.

I just realized that Jennifer Marlowe was a call girl.

I detest her look in all its iterations including Pam Anderson

Heaven help us if they ever have a Loni Anderson Film Festival.

Or Jaclyn Smith.

Are there any pics of her before she got a breast reduction?

I’ve never seen Loni in anything but WKRP. She was actually very good as Jennifer.

She was fine until her brother Louie died.

She’s not Bette Davis but she could certainly carry a role. Extremely pretty. Amazing boobs — she had work done but it was to make them SMALLER.

She had a real rep in Hollywood for being a very nice person. Well, she’s from Minnesota. The drama of the marriage to Reynolds was bad for her career.

What happened with Burt and Loni? Was it his addictions?

I'm sure it was his whorish ways, r43

[quote]What happened with Burt and Loni? Was it his addictions?

Yes. Most of their issues, including those epic financial feuds, were because of his pain pill addiction. But they never should've married in the first place because he rarely treated his partners with any respect. (I read their memoirs, and Sally Field's, so you don't have to.)

[quote]Why did Loni Anderson’s career go down the shitter?

Lack of range and she aged out.

Possibly because she wasn't even moderately talented. Her whole career was built on her fake looks.

She was wonderfully of her time. Then times changed. No everyone in showbiz is supposed to have a lengthy career.

[quote]Lack of range and she aged out.

She didn't have Suzanne's business acumen.

How did Burt and Loni’s son turn out?

She was overshadowed by her teeth?

r50 I googled that because I was curious as well.

Well? R50?

Or r52?

[quote]There were a lot more beautiful actresses who also stalled in their careers - Cheryl Ladd for example.

Cheryl Ladd has a recurring role on the show, Las Vegas 2003-2008.

Cheryl had the cachet of being an Angel. Loni's cachet was being Mrs. Burt Reynolds. But they divorced...and he died.

I expect that Loni will have one of those late in life career resurgences ala Jessica Tandy and Maggie Smith. I'm sure she'll get offered some really meaty part akin to Lady in a Van or Cocoon and pick up quite a few awards. I could see her in reboot of Travels with My Aunt, Auntie Mame, or Lady for a Day. She's got the chops, she just needs the right vehicle. Loni's not finished yet...

I always thought she looked like Elsie the cow if Elsie were human.

She looked cheap and not in a good way. The hair was AWFUL.

In another thread, I said she looked like Jayne Mansfield, another actress who looked CHEAP, IMO. Some helpful DLer let me know that Loni played Jayne in a movie.

I admit she's perfectly cast for the mother of Tori Spelling, another cheap-looking actress.

Burt Reynolds was probably a diva. You can only have one diva per household and she maybe was a diva, too. She should have married some rich, generous, non-famous man.

R33 She looks negro in that picture. Perhaps Hollywood found out that she was the bastard child of a whorish white woman and a negro man of loose morality. It almost happen to Ava Gardner, but luckily, she could suck chrome off a tail pipe.

Ah yes, that famous mulatto, Loni Anderson.

She was actually almost thrown out of a motel restaurant in the South while traveling with her family in the 50s because the owner thought she was black. Her parents had to intervene. Or something like that…

Burt & Loni's son Quinton Reynolds has actually done quite a bit of work in the industry, at least since he started in 2015. He seems to have stalled out in 2018, but did a little work on a short in 2023.

Apparently he's a cameraman by profession. I read he had a trust fund so I assume he's able to live on that, or he has some other way of making money.

Scroll down to see Loni’s naturally brunette hair. She was very cute. She was 1sr runner up to Miss Minnesota in 1964 and ended up marrying the winner of the pageants older brother whose the father of her daughter.

Because she said things like this:

"In your craft, you should appreciate everybody who is a part of the team. They are all a part of your art, and you need to appreciate and understand what it is that they do to help you excel."

She has a striking resemblance to Carol Channing.

Her attempt at starring in a TV remake of Leave Her to Heaven was an embarrassment of massive proportions.

She had a lot of tit meat.

Like Morgan Fairchild, Loni reportedly has a high IQ. She received an Education Degree from the University of Minnesota and wanted to be a teacher. Both she and Morgan had to resort to starring in Fred Olen Ray moved in the mid-Nineties when they could not get any work (so did Karen Black!).

Can anyone recommend an in-depth interview with her? I'd love to see that intelligence in action. It seems, from my searching, that she's happily married and works hard to keep a low profile.

Why do I think she starred as Mae West?

[quote]Why do I think she starred as Mae West?

That was Ann Jillian (and it's currently on Tubi). But Loni was in "Sizzle" around the same time and had a West look for part of it.

OP, she never seemed 'nice enough'. I never picked up a 'nice person' vibe from her. Ever.

R74: La Keller has joined the chat

[Quote] Both she and Morgan had to resort to starring in Fred Olen Ray moved in the mid-Nineties

It’s sad to watch someone have a stroke as they post on DL.

Sizzle.

Thoughts and prayers for Loni.

There were recent photos of her online, earlier this month after she celebrated her 79th birthday. She has a 'Picasso' face these days, not unlike Joan Van Ark.

wasnt she is a movie with the iconic Linda Gray and beautiful Donna Mills last Christmas. I dont see how a daytime soap or a sitcom requiring a recurring Mom role, wouldnt jump at Loni...huge name recognition.

quite big tits

R65 She looks just like Fran Drescher in those pictures of her as a brunette.

How come nobody has mentioned that Arnold Schwarzenegger played Mickey Hargitay in the Jayne Mansfield Story.

We prefer to forget r82.

Mickey was a handsome guy, Arnold, less so.

Burt tells all.

What was the made for tv movie, where Loni was being seduced by Steve Forrest and Loni tells him, "Oooh, my bacon strip is sizzlin..."

She did guest star on S.W.A.T. R86…could that be it?

I know that Burt was no free lunch but Loni sounds like a greedy cunt. Can’t justify hitting a woman but I wonder if his frustration with her got to him and he lashed out.

Who the fuck spends 45,000USD in half an hour? Greedy cunts do, that’s who.

She’s ….not a nice person.

R89 She was a white trash bimbo with minimal talent who got into show business knowing she had a limited shelf life, then managed to bag the dude who was once America's hottest male sex symbol.

She achieved her goal of marrying a rich and famous guy, and she took full advantage of it.

Except she was neither white trash, nor a bimbo.

No talent

R92 Oh, yes, she was.

Just lousy…

These "down the shitter" threads never fail to inspire unflattering images of the people in question on the toilet. Maybe it's me and the weed.

She came out in the late 70s / early 80s when Hollywood was cranking out wiggle-n-jiggle blond actresses for television ratings: Loni, Suzanne Somers, Linda Evans, Heather Locklear, Charlene Tilton, Farrah Fawcett, Donna Mills, Cheryl Ladd, Susan Anton (they tried so hard to make her happen)...

Loni has had some bad plastic surgery too.

Sweet bejeebus on a cracker! She remade A LETTER TO THREE WIVES too? Waterboard this hag!

Forgot about the link….

R96, Linda Evans had been around Hollywood for close to 20 years at that point and made a name for herself.

Wasn't Burt gay?

Burt had teh AIDS, right?

R100 Linda Evans was in mothballs after BIG VALLEY ended. It was Aaron Spelling who gave her a second life with a sexy new blond hairstyle and tits that stuck out for miles. No acting was required; she just had to walk into a scene with her arms hanging straight by her side, and bark out her lines like a rabid dog.

Actually, Linda Evans had just played the female lead opposite Steve McQueen in his final movie the year before Dynasty premiered.

And no one remembers that movie, at all. Not even Evans. But everyone remembers Krystle Grant Jennings Carrington.

[quote] Why did Loni Anderson’s career go down the shitter?

Ah, down the shitter - possibly because she was a shit actress

Robert Evans = weirdly obsessed with young, nubile blond, tall, big-titty women (Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, Bo Derek).

[quote] And no one remembers that movie, at all. Not even Evans. But everyone remembers Krystle Grant Jennings Carrington.

Sweetheart, admit you mis-included Evans in your little jiggle group. You made a mistake. Own it. There's no reason to go to the mat this hard for an obvious error.

R108 No one made an error. Do better next time.

[quote] She came out in the late 70s / early 80s when Hollywood was cranking out wiggle-n-jiggle blond actresses for television ratings: Loni, Suzanne Somers, Linda Evans, Heather Locklear, Charlene Tilton, Farrah Fawcett, Donna Mills, Cheryl Ladd, Susan Anton (they tried so hard to make her happen)...

Evans did not come out in the late 70s/early 80s. Not only are you a fucking idiot, but you really don't know when to give up.

^ I’m didn’t know Linda Evans was Lebanese!?!?????!!

[R110] You still struggle with comprehension, I see.

I didn't say Evans came out in the late 70s / early 80s; I said Hollywood was cranking out wiggle-n-jiggle blond actresses for television ratings. Loni Anderson came out at that time. Can you comprehend that ?

Evans disappeared from television audiences after 'Big Valley'. She was not cast as a regular on any show after that - until Spelling offered her the role on DYNASTY - as Hollywood was cranking out wiggle-n-jiggle blond actresses for television ratings. Do you comprehend now ?

Not only are you a fucking idiot, but you really don't know when to give up.

I hope R76 gets sucked into a sinkhole.

Where was Loni's Phaedra, her Lady Macbeth?

Loni and Burt did Shakespeare's Lovers at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre.

I never could figure what was going on with her hair. She bangs, curls, tendrils, buns, toppers, feathered. Since episodes it looked like a fried unnatural blonde helmet.

She seems nice, though.

Loni hooked up with Burt because he had the best Korean wigmakers.

I always get her confused with Loni Love. They have similar features, like being female.

Loni looked like she'd be no fun in bed based on the wedding cake proportions of her hairdo.