Born Luana Margo Anderson, Luana Anders began her career as a bike messenger at MGM, along with fellow actors, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight and future film producers George Edwards, and Fred Roos. She convinced Nicholson to join her in her improv class with legendary teacher and veteran character actor Jeff Corey. Luana began in such B-films as Mannstoll und gefährlich (1957) (alongside her lifelong friend Sally Kellerman) and Life Begins at 17 (1958), in which she costarred with actor (and future producer) Mark Damon.
Luana also worked with Damon in Roger Corman's Schnelle Autos und Affären (1963). The sound man on Schnelle Autos und Affären (1963) asked her if she wanted to star in his first directing effort. The sound man was Francis Ford Coppola, and Anders played the conniving and duplicitous Louise Haloran, in Coppola's debut feature, Dementia 13 (1963).
She played Vincent Price's sister, Catherine Medina in Corman's Das Pendel des Todes (1961).
Anders acted opposite Charles Grodin, in Sex and the College Girl (1964). Luana appeared in 3 films for director Curtis Harrington; ingenue Ellen Sands, in Night Tide (1961), a cameo as a party guest in Satanische Spiele (1967), and repressed librarian Louise in the perverse Von mörderischer Art (1973).
Anders achieved cult status as groovy hippie commune dweller Lisa in Easy Rider (1969). Robert Altman frequently credited Luana with getting his career started. She appeared as a streetwalker Sandy Dennis picks up in Altman's Ein kalter Tag im Park (1969).
Friend Jack Nicholson made a point of seeing and commenting on the movie during the Cannes film festival where Easy Rider (1969) won the Palme D'or; the subsequent publicity gave Altman the notoriety to launch his career.
She frequently acted in films with good friend Nicholson; she was especially memorable as a Buddhist chanting party girl in Das letzte Kommando (1973). Luana was terrorized by a deranged Mickey Rooney on an abandoned studio back-lot in the unreleased gonzo oddity The Manipulator (1971) and starred in Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972).
Anders appeared in Shampoo (1975), a film reportedly based on her romance with hairdresser Richard Alcala; the picture was written by her friend and fellow Corey classmate Robert Towne.
She had a recurring part on the daytime soap opera, California Clan (1984).
Amongst the series Luana appeared on, are Hunter (1984), Ben Casey (1961) and
Westlich von Santa Fe (1958).
Anders co-wrote the comedy Limit Up - Zum Teufel mit den Kohlen (1989), and was uncredited in scripting the action/adventure romp Mord in der grünen Hölle (1993), which was Sandra Bullock's debut film for Corman. She appeared in a number of movies with collaborator Richard Martini, including Man(n) hat's nicht leicht (1988), about which Variety declared, "It's about time we see the great Luana Anders back on the screen".
She was a member of the improvisational comedy stage group, The Committee.
A lifelong Buddhist and supporter of the American chapter of Soka Gakkai International, Luana Anders died on
July 21, 1996.
