Biography
Lanna Saunders was an American actress. Born Svetlana Nikolaevna Saunders in New York City on 22 December 1941, she began her career on Broadway as a teenager and appeared in productions including Sunrise at Campobello (1958), Milk and Honey (1961), The Changeling (1964) and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1966). She studied with Elia Kazan and joined his Lincoln Center Company.
Saunders was best known for playing Marie Horton on the soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1979 to 1985. Her film and television credits include Body Heat (1981) as Roz Kraft, The Six Million Dollar Man (1978) as Vera Cheraskin, Fantasy Island (1978), Hart to Hart (1983) and The Waltons. She was married to actor Lawrence Pressman; their son David Pressman is also an actor. She died on 10 March 2007 in Los Angeles from complications of multiple sclerosis.
