生于加拿大艾伯塔省卡尔加里市，当过建筑工人。最初为西部片明星巴克·琼斯主演的动作片和弗里德·克茂莱主演的影片当替身演员，1939年开始在派拉蒙电影公司的影片里扮演小角色。他体格健壮，渐渐在西部片和动作片中崭露头角。四十年代中期，他在环球拍片，由于同伊冯娜·德·卡洛合作的《莎乐美》（1945）而升为主角。之后又合演了《铁骑劫美》（1945）和《河上夫人》（1948）。五十年代又出演了电视连续剧《城市侦探》等。
罗伯特·J·安德森(Robert J. Anderson )在一个电影世家中长大。他的父亲基恩，是一名助理导演，后成为制片人。导演威廉姆·波丹(William Beaudine)和詹姆斯·弗朗德(James Flood)是他的叔叔，而他的兄弟中，有的成为了电影编辑，有的成为了制片人。 ...
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).
