Born Luana Margo Anderson on May 12, 1938, Luana Anders began her show-business career as a bike messenger at MGM along with fellow thespians Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight and future film producers George Edwards and Fred Roos. She convinced Nicholson to join her in her improv acting class with legendary teacher and veteran character actor Jeff Corey; her other classmates included Sally Kellerman, Richard Chamberlain, director/producer Roger Corman and screenwriter Robert Towne. Luana began her acting career in her teens in such 1950s "B" movies as Reform School Girl (1957) (alongside her lifelong friend Sally Kellerman) and Life Begins at 17 (1958), in which she co-starred with actor (and future producer) Mark Damon. She also worked with Damon in Roger Corman's The Young Racers (1963). The sound man on "The Young Racers" 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).
