Joan Lunden

A multi-talented blonde TV personality, Joan Lunden is best known for her hosting duties on ABC's "Good Morning America." She started her broadcasting career in 1973 as a weathergirl and consumer reporter at KCRA-TV in her hometown of Sacramento. Within six months, Lunden was promoted to co-anchor of the noon news broadcast. In 1975, she moved to WABC-TV in NYC and the following year she co-anchored the weekend newscasts. Lunden began her association with ABC's "Good Morning America" in 1976 as a consumer reporter. She began to act as substitute host from 1978 to 1980, when she became a permanent host. Her contract at the time caused some controversy for its child care clause that allowed her to bring her children to work and required the network to provide a nursery.

Lunden expanded her hosting duties to include two additional series on parenting, the Lifetime cable series the award-winning "Mother's Day" (1984) and the syndicated "Everyday With Joan Lunden" (1989). Despite having appeared in one film, "Macho Callahan" in the non-speaking role of a saloon keeper, Lunden turned down the opportunity to appear in Robert Benton's "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). She had made cameo appearances as herself in "What About Bob?" (1991) and "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home" (1995). Lunden has authored several books on parenting and also hosted videos dealing with parenting and fitness.

On September 5, 1997, after twenty years with "Good Morning America," Lunden left the show to pursue other interests. Having left the show on good terms, she occasionally returned to the GMA desk as a guest host or special correspondent after relinquishing her hosting duties. She also appeared as herself on various television shows, including "Murphy Brown" (CBS 1988-1998) and the Al Franken-created news satire "LateLine" (NBC 1998-99). She also appeared in Richard Donner's thriller "Conspiracy Theory" (1997) as a news anchor. She returned to TV full time as the host of reality competition series "Wickedly Perfect" (ABC 2004-05), though the series lasted only one season. The following year, she appeared as herself in Jason Reitman's political satire "Thank You For Smoking" (2005). On June 24, 2014, Lunden appeared on "Good Morning America" to reveal that she was undergoing aggressive treatment for breast cancer. She chose to return to her former TV home for the announcement in part because GMA co-hosts Robin Roberts and Amy Robach had undergone breast cancer treatment themselves.