Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts (born Victoria Leigh Blum; October 15, 1949 – January 4, 2021) was an American actress. Some of her credits include playing Julie Rogers in the final season of the television series Charlie's Angels (1980–1981), Stacey Sutton in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, Kiri in The Beastmaster (1982), Sheena in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (1984), and Midge Pinciotti on That '70s Show (1998–2004).

Early life and education Tanya Roberts was born Victoria Leigh Blum in 1949 (although long given as 1955) in Manhattan, New York City, to Oscar Blum (1912–1971) and his wife Dorothy (née Smith). Oscar Maximilian Blum was born in New York City. Oscar's father, Theodor Blum, did pioneering work in local anesthesia and the use of X-rays in dental care. Theodor was born in Vienna, Austria, and immigrated to New York in 1904. In 1940, Roberts's father was working as an assistant manager for a music publishing house in New York City. He married Dorothy Leigh Smith from Oldham, England, in Weymouth, England, in 1945. In April 1945, at the age of 22, Dorothy arrived in New York City. In 1948, Dorothy returned to New York from a trip to England with Roberts's two-year-old sister, Barbara. Roberts's father was of Jewish descent and her mother was of English or Irish descent. It has also been erroneously reported that her father was of Irish descent and her mother was Jewish. She had one older sister, Barbara. The 1950 U.S. census shows that, as of April 1950, the Blum family lived in the hamlet of Hewlett in Hempstead, New York and that Oscar Blum was a sales executive for a pen manufacturer. Later in the same month in 1958 Roberts's parents obtained a mortgage to buy a property in neighboring Greenburgh, New York, and later sold it in July 1961.

After meeting psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line for a movie, Victoria Blum proposed to him in a subway station and they were soon married in 1973. While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter, she began to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen under the name Tanya Roberts.

Career 1970s: Early career and Charlie's Angels Roberts began her career as a model in TV ads for Excedrin, Ultra Brite, Clairol, and Cool Ray sunglasses. She played serious roles in the off-Broadway productions Picnic and Antigone. Racquet, Despite the hype of Roberts's debut in November 1980, the series continued to draw dismal ratings and was canceled in June 1981.

1982–1984: B-movies

Roberts played Kiri, a slave rescued by protagonist Dar (Marc Singer) in the adventure fantasy film The Beastmaster (1982). (also known as I paladini – Storia d'armi e d'amori and Paladins – The Story of Love and Arms), based on the Renaissance epic poem Orlando Furioso.

She portrayed Velda, the secretary to private detective Mike Hammer, in the television film Murder Me, Murder You (1983), based on crime novelist Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer private detective series. The two-part pilot spawned the syndicated television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Writing in The New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael described Roberts as "[having] a staring, comic-book opaqueness" and "a walking, talking icon". Roberts's other 1980s films include Night Eyes, an erotic thriller;

Roberts starred in the erotic thriller Inner Sanctum (1991) alongside Margaux Hemingway. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in Sins of Desire.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she maintained an active social media presence by hosting video chats on Facebook and Zoom.

Personal life Roberts was married to Barry Roberts from 1973 until his death in 2006. They had no children. Roberts lived in Hollywood Hills, California.

Death While hiking on December 23, 2020, Roberts developed lower abdominal pain and difficulty breathing. She returned home to rest. Early the next morning, she fell out of bed and found she could not get up. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where it was determined she had developed a urinary tract infection that had advanced to sepsis. Her body's immune response to the infection resulted in multi-organ failure. Her condition deteriorated, and on January 3, 2021, she was taken off life support. she died that same evening, at the age of 71. In a handwritten will, Roberts left her estate to O'Brien.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games