Melody Anderson

Melody Anderson
File:10.17.09MelodyAndersonByLuigiNovi.jpg Anderson at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 17, 2009.
Born	(1955-12-03) December 3, 1955 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Actress, social worker, Public speaker
Years active	1977–1995
Website	www.counselingbymelody.com

Melody Anderson (born December 3, 1955) is a Canadian social worker and public speaker specializing in the impact of addiction on families. She is a retired actress, whose most high-profile role was playing Dale Arden in the 1980 adaptation of Flash Gordon. While doing singing, she also trained as an actress, leading to roles in films and television during the 1970s and 1980s.

Career

Acting

Her first national exposure was as a guest star in the 1977 series Logan's Run and as a "Sweathog" in an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter. She made numerous guest appearances on television, including Archie Bunker's Place, Battlestar Galactica, Dallas, T. J. Hooker, the pilot episode of The A-Team, and The Fall Guy. She had recurring roles on St. Elsewhere and Jake and the Fatman. She was the female lead of the NBC 1983 series Manimal, was a guest star in Murder, She Wrote, Prediction: Murder in 1989 and appeared in All My Children in the 1990s.

In 1983, she played the title role in a made-for-television film called Policewoman Centerfold, in which her character, a divorced police officer, is fired after posing nude for a men's magazine (based loosely on the true story of Springfield, Ohio patrolwoman Barbara Schantz, who was subsequently fired from her job after posing nude in Playboy magazine in the early 1980s). She also starred in the 1986 made-for-television movie Beverly Hills Madam, which starred Faye Dunaway. From 1992-1993, Anderson portrayed Natalie Marlowe, and briefly her twin sister Janet Dillon also, on the soap opera All My Children.

She starred as Edie Adams in the television film Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, opposite Jeff Goldblum as Ernie Kovacs and played the coveted role of Marilyn Monroe in the 1993 television movie Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair. Her last television appearance was in 1995 as a guest star in the short-lived CBS revival of Burke's Law. Besides playing Dale Arden in the cult classics Flash Gordon and female lead in Dead and Buried, she also appeared with Nicolas Cage in The Boy in Blue.

Anderson has made appearances at genre conventions, such as the October 2009 Big Apple Convention in Manhattan.

Social work career

Anderson graduated from New York University in 1997. That same year, she began to develop and became Coordinator the "Family & Friends Program" and "Intensive Out-Patient Program (IOP)" at Hazelden New York. She is a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) in the states of New York and California,with private practices in Manhattan and West Los Angeles. She also facilitates therapy groups at several treatment centers in the LA area. Anderson is currently working on a book for parents with kids who use drugs and alcohol while continuing to paint, sculpt and sell her work.

Anderson holds an Honors bachelor's degree in Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and Masters of Social Work from New York University's Shirley Ehrenkrantz School. Her post-graduate studies include family training at the Ackerman Family and Training Institute in New York and certification in trauma treatment as a Level II-EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) specialist.

Anderson is an international lecturer and media spokesperson on addictions and the family, and has presented about substance abuse and other mental health-related areas of study.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Flash Gordon	Dale Arden
1981	Dead & Buried	Janet Gillis	aka Dead and Buried (UK)
1983	Manimal	Brooke Mackenzie	TV series
1986	The Boy in Blue	Dulcie	aka Race des champions, La (Canada: French title)
1986	Firewalker	Patricia Goodwin
1989	Speed Zone!	Lea Roberts	aka Cannonball Fever (Australia)
1991	Under Surveillance
1992	Landslide	Clair Trinavant
1992–1993	All My Children	Natalie Marlowe/Janet Dillon	Contract role
1993	Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair	Marilyn Monroe

External links

• Counseling by Melody
• Melody Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Melody Anderson at AllMovie
• Biography from the website of a speakers bureau
• Biography from the Dragon Con 2006 website