Reports of Tanya Roberts' death have been greatly exaggerated, says rep who reported it

By Patrick Gomez  |  January 4, 2021 | 11:54pm
Aux Features RIP
Reports of Tanya Roberts' death have been greatly exaggerated, says rep who reported it
Tanya Roberts in 2008 Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil

UPDATE, January 3 @ 4:22 p.m. CT: Y’all. This is a wild one. Tanya Roberts’ rep, who had sent a press release out announcing the death of the former Bond Girl and That ‘70s Show actress, now tells TMZ he was given bad information. “The rep had told us she died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A.,” reads a new story from TMZ. “He told us Tanya’s husband had informed him that Tanya had passed. We even got a quote from the rep from Tanya’s husband, Lance, saying, ‘As I held her in her last moments, she opened her eyes.’” Now the rep tells the outlet that Roberts’ husband got a call just after 10 a.m. Monday from the hospital saying Tanya was still alive.

UPDATE January 3 @5:50 p.m. CT: Inside Edition—who reports Lance O’Brien is Roberts’ boyfriend (and not husband, as rep had stated)—has video of O’Brien getting a call from what he says was from the ICU unit at he hospital informing him that Roberts is still alive. The call reportedly came during a virtual interview with O’Brien.


Maybe 2020 had nothing on the craziness of 2021. We’ll continue to update this story as things develop. Here is our original piece paying tribute to Roberts, with a few visible edits.

Tanya Roberts—who played a Bond Girl in A View to a Kill opposite Roger Moore and Donna’s mom on That ‘70s Show—has died. The Sheena and The Beastmaster actress appeared perfectly healthy before collapsing after walking her dogs on Christmas Eve, her rep told TMZ on Sunday. Roberts was taken to the hospital and put on a ventilator but her condition, which the rep says was not COVID-related, never improved and the actress died January 3 at age 65.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Roberts—or Victoria Leigh Blum, as she was known then—left high school at age 15 to hitchhike across the country. Upon returning to New York, she began working as a model and then actress. After starting off in commercials and off-Broadway dramas, Roberts made her film debut in the 1975 horror movie Forced Entry.

In the summer of 1980, Roberts was chosen to replace Shelley Hack on the fifth season of Charlie’s Angels, but the series would be canceled a year later. Roberts next starred as Kiri in the 1982 adventure fantasy film The Beastmaster, which she followed up with more fantasy and B-movie fare including Sins Of Desire, Legal Tender, Deep Down, Inner Sanctum, Night Eyes, Almost Pregnant, Favorite Deadly Sins, Tourist Trap, and Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle. The latter was a box-office failure and garnered Roberts a nomination for “Worst Actress” at the Razzie Awards.

Roberts followed up that flop with one of her most memorable roles, geologist Stacey Sutton in 1985's A View To A Kill. The actress would become known to a whole new generation of fans when she joined the cast of Fox’s That ’70s Show as Midge, the mother of Donna (Laura Prepon), in 1998. Roberts left the series in 2001 after her first husband, Barry Roberts, was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She returned to the series as a guest star in 2004 but did not have any acting credits after her husband’s death in 2006. Roberts’ final most recent role was as Ellie Palmer on Showtime’s Barbershop: The Series.

Roberts is survived by her husband, Lance, and sister, Barbara Chase.

 
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