Luana Margo Anderson, also known as Luana Anders, was a talented actress who began her career as a bike messenger at MGM. She joined fellow actors Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight, George Edwards, and Fred Roos, and eventually convinced Nicholson to join her in an improv class with legendary teacher Jeff Corey.
Anders started her acting career in B-films such as Reform School Girl (1957) and Life Begins at 17 (1958),alongside her lifelong friend Sally Kellerman. She also worked with actor Mark Damon in Roger Corman's The Young Racers (1963).
Francis Ford Coppola, the sound man on The Young Racers (1963),asked Anders to star in his debut feature, Dementia 13 (1963),in which she played the conniving and duplicitous Louise Haloran. She also appeared in Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) as Vincent Price's sister, Catherine Medina.
Anders acted in three films for director Curtis Harrington, including Night Tide (1961),Games (1967),and The Killing Kind (1973). She achieved cult status as groovy hippie commune dweller Lisa in Easy Rider (1969) and appeared as a streetwalker in Robert Altman's That Cold Day in the Park (1969).
Anders frequently acted in films with her friend Jack Nicholson, including The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975). She also starred in Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972) and terrorized by Mickey Rooney in the unreleased film The Manipulator (1971).
Anders had a recurring part on the daytime soap opera, Santa Barbara (1984),and appeared in a number of TV shows, including Hunter (1984),Ben Casey (1961),and The Rifleman (1958). She co-wrote the comedy Limit Up (1989) and was uncredited in scripting the action/adventure romp Fire on the Amazon (1993).
A lifelong Buddhist and supporter of the American chapter of Soka Gakkai International, Luana Anders died on July 21, 1996.
