Anderson was born in Billings, Montana. A Theatre Master's degree graduate of San Jose State University in the sixties, he began his professional acting career in 1967. Prior to 1990 and his work in film and television, Anderson had spent twenty-three years in over two-hundred productions as a professional actor working at Arena Stage, ACT, The Actors Company, and the California Shakespeare Festival, among others.

Well known to TV fans for his role as Drew Carey's father "George Carey" on The Drew Carey Show, Anderson began his study of acting after returning from two years of military Service in Korea. After undergraduate and graduate work at San Jose State University, where he appeared in sixteen productions, he and his wife, Actress Judith Long moved to Seattle, Washington, where they spent three years at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. After two years at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, Anderson headed to Washington, DC to join the prestigious Arena Stage. His debut with Arena Stage was in the starring role of "Randall P. McMurphy" in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Anderson went on to spend seventeen years with Arena Stage, appearing in nearly a hundred of their productions. During the years he was active in Arena Stage, Anderson lived w/ his wife and their son in Springfield, Virginia. In the mid-2000s they moved to the Los Angeles area of California.