Sunday, January 5, 2014

Luana Anders

Thanks to the low budget movies of Roger Corman and television shows like The Rifleman, Ben Casey, Dragnet, The Outer Limits, That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show and Hawaii Five-O, Luana Anders was one of the many good actors that had steady work throughout her thirty plus years in the business. That being said, she never quite got the recognition that she deserved.

Her career started promising enough with major roles in Reform School Girl, Life Begins at 17, The Pit and the Pendulum and Francis Ford Coppola's directing debut, Dementia 13. However, those were small independent films which didn't have the clout that they have today, thus labeling her a B-movie actress working in a town long before Quentin Tarantino made B-movies popular.


Jack Nicholson shared Luana Ander's low budget movie background and they even appeared together in The Trip. He never forgot his B-movie roots and cast her in memorable small roles in some of his films like The Missouri Breaks, Goin South and The Last Detail. And when he won the Oscar for his work in As Good As It Gets, he even thanked her.

Sadly, Luana Anders is no longer with us, having lost her battle to Cancer in 1996. She leaves behind a huge list of film and television roles. And should you ever stumble upon one of her performances, you will understand why she is my pick of the day for Not Very Famous...but should be.

1 comment:

  1. Luana is absolutely charming as the sweet-natured "other woman" in Curtis Harrington's unnerving 1961 mermaid chiller, NIGHT TIDE.

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