Villainess Review: Dawn St. Claire (B.L. Stryker)

The heartbreaking hits keep on coming this year. On Sunday, August 3, 2025, we lost an iconic name in TV and in cinema, as Loni Anderson passed away at the age of 79. Anderson did so much in TV and film, with her greatest claim to fame being the hit sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati, where she shined as bombshell Jennifer Marlowe--a role she briefly reprised years later in The New WKRP in Cincinnati. Anderson appeared on several different TV series such as Police Woman, Barnaby Jones, Three's Company, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (as one of Sabrina's country witch cousins), and V.I.P. (as the mother of Pamela Anderson's central character).

Loni Anderson also played her share of villainous roles as well, including playing villainess Medusa in 1998's 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain (I still, to this day, remember being enraptured by Anderson in the trailer to that film right before I turned 13). I also learned about another villainess role, Sheila Cantrell in a first season episode of The Incredible Hulk--an episode I watched online after watching Super Bowl LIV.

And then, there was this role, the subject of this review, in honor of what would have been Loni Anderson's 80th birthday today.

I had learned about the B.L. Stryker series thanks to a video that centered on various masked villainesses. It was one of those mystery TV series where the episodes are movie length long (similar to Columbo), and the star was Burt Reynolds as the titular PI himself, Buddy Lee "B.L." Stryker. The series lasted just two seasons on ABC, and last night, I watched the one I had been looking for online for a good bit: "Grand Theft Hotel." In this episode, Stryker, co-hort Oz Jackson, and assistant Lyynda Lennox headed to a jewelry convention in the Bahamas on a tip that a cat burglar/jewel thief would hit the place. The episode's opening showed the burglar committing one of their thefts, and the trio looked to catch the criminal in the act, especially since the prestigious Queen Isabella necklace was the centerpiece of the thief's plans.

However, something, or should I say "someone" else caught Stryker's eye. Enter Dawn St. Claire; lovely, gorgeous, and quite on the mysterious side. All Stryker could get from Dawn in their first encounter was her love of jelly beans, especially green ones (an affinity that Stryker shares). Meanwhile, the burglar made an appearance, and it was a violent one, as a body dropped: Ronald Ott, who was a friend of Stryker's ex-wife, Kimberly Baskin. Stryker and company continue their investigation, even with the beautiful distraction known as Dawn St. Claire, who Stryker learns is actually a woman named Thelma Olsen, a cattle owner from Wyoming.

Dawn admits to her past to Stryker in charming fashion, all the while, we get another casualty, as the thief sneaks in to Charlie's room and shoots him to death. Stryker and police chief Matthew McGee reluctantly work together on the case, and they turn their suspicion to a man named Jason Stone. But as the pair chase their man, the real burglar makes a play for the necklace.

And lo and behold:

So, of course, the villainous burglar is none other than Dawn St. Claire herself, and with the protection over the necklace removed, she takes the chest, and fires a stun gun at Oz when he appears. Oz sends people in Dawn's direction, and regarding Stryker, he pursues Dawn on the rooftop, with Dawn giving an evil smirk right before she gets away in her chopper. Dawn succeeded in taking the Queen Isabella necklace, or so she thought. When the villainess opened the chest, she saw a necklace, all right... made out of green jelly beans. Dawn couldn't help but chuckle incredulously as the chopper flies away at episode's end.

"Grand Theft Hotel," episode 2.04 of B.L. Stryker, aired on ABC on February 24, 1990, and the episode saw Loni Anderson absolutely shine as the evil Dawn St. Claire. I've seen three villainous roles from Anderson, and this is her best one by far. Dawn was cunning, greedy, shifty, and quite seductive; and I loved Dawn's attire throughout the film, as well as her scenes with then-husband Burt Reynolds. We would see Dawn in the elegant gowns and outfits when she's playing up the socialite persona, but Dawn's heel persona sees her in a killer outfit and masked for the most part, with the mask removed in her climactic reveal. Dawn St. Claire was a deliciously wicked and cunning villainess, and all I have to say is, thank you, Loni Anderson, for (among other things) giving this longtime fan and enthusiast of villainesses such a wonderfully epic and villainous femme fatale in Dawn St. Claire.

Loni Anderson's final acting role aired on December 2, 2023; it was the Lifetime holiday movie, Ladies of the 80s: A Divas Christmas. Anderson co-starred with a lot of big-named "divas" from that era: Linda Gray, Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild, and Nicollette Sheridan. Anderson played Lily Marlowe, with the name being a partial homage to her most memorable character, Jennifer Marlowe, from WKRP in Cincinnati. Loni Anderson: forever legendary, forever iconic, those are facts.

Check out Dawn St. Claire's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!