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SYFY WIRE obituary

James Bond & Charlie's Angels star Tanya Roberts passes away at 65 following erroneous death reports

By Josh Weiss & Benjamin Bullard
Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts, who made an iconic 1980s appearance as one of Special Agent 007’s unforgettable “Bond Girls” and also enjoyed small-screen star turns in both Charlie’s Angels and That ‘70s Show, has passed away at the age of 65 following erroneous early reports about her death.

TMZ initially published a story Sunday that purported Roberts died from health issues (unrelated to COVID-19) after collapsing in her California home on Christmas Eve. The news was then picked up by multiple outlets until the actor's rep set the record straight Monday evening, clarifying that Roberts was actually still alive.

Roberts passed away Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, her partner, Lance O’Brien, confirmed to The New York Times Tuesday.

Roberts’ most notable role is that of geologist and James Bond romantic interest Stacey Sutton, whom she portrayed alongside Sir Roger Moore in 1985’s A View to a Kill —the final installment of the Moore era.

"My fondest memory would probably be how cool he was in the nude scenes," the actress told the Irish Mirror shortly after Moore's passing in 2017. “I was a bit nervous, but he was just very considerate, a total professional and made me feel at ease. I never felt he was looking at me oddly, and he didn’t flirt on set​. Instead he would ease the tension with great stories​ about his career. He may have been a lot older, but he carried himself like a young man. He was very fit still. It never seemed impossible to the audience for us to be together."

Her earlier career included genre-adjacent roles on both the big and small screens, beginning with horror movie Forced Entry in 1975, the Charlie’s Angels TV series in the 1980s, and, more recently, as Midge — the matron of the Pinciotti family — on That ’70s Show.

"It one of the first times ... that women were really in charge and were the detectives," she said of Charlie's Angels in 2009. "And so, it was great for little girls growing up [who] knew that they could be cops and knew that they could get tough and know karate. That was cool ... It just came along at a time when there was nothing like it."

Born Victoria Leigh Blum in New York in 1955, Roberts also starred in the 1982 fantasy film The Beastmaster as Kiri, a slave rescued by protagonist Dar (Marc Singer), as well as the 1984 fantasy movie Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, in which she played the main character. Roberts also appeared in Fantasy Island and Murder Me, Murder You, a 1983 made-for-TV movie themed around crime novelist Mickey Spillane’s iconic Mike Hammer private detective.

She is survived by O'Brien and her sister, Barbara Chase.