Los Angeles (AP) – Loni Anderson, who played an empowered receptionist from a radio station in the successful television comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati”, died on Sunday, a few days before his 80th birthday.

Anderson died in a Los Angeles hospital after a “prolonged” disease, said his publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.

“We are disconsolate when announcing the death of our beloved wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.

“WKRP in Cincinnati” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982 and was located in a lagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent himself with rock music.

The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, along with Anderson as the sexy and intelligent Jennifer Marlowe.

Loni Anderson, here in a promotional photo for the television movie
Loni Anderson, here in a promotional photo of the television movie “Sizzle”, is died at age 80.

Walt Disney television photo archives through Getty Images

As a receptionist from the station, Jennifer Rubia and high heel used her sexual attraction to divert unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr. Carlson.

Its efficiency often kept the station running in the face of the incompetence of others.

The role won its Emmy award and three Golden Globe nominations.

Anderson starred in the big screen next to Burt Reynolds in the 1983 comedy “Stroker Ace” and both later married and became accessories of the tabloids before divorcing in 1994.

Anderson is survived by her husband Bob Flick, her daughter Deidra and the son of the Charlie Hoffman Law, the son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, the grandchildren McKenzie and Megan Hoffman, the stepson Adam Flick and his wife Helene, the Fielix and Maximilian grandchildren.