Tanya Roberts’ death was announced prematurely on Sunday.
Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images
Tanya Roberts, a former Bond girl also famous for playing Julie Rogers in the last season of Charlie’s Angels, died at age 65. The actress died on Monday night at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, confirmed her partner Lance O’Brien to several media outlets.
“She brought joy to so many people and had a career spanning decades,” wrote Charlie’s Angels co-star Jaclyn Smith on Instagram Tuesday. “Goodbye angel, rest in peace.”
The news of Roberts’ passing follows a strange confusion on Monday that saw Roberts being declared alive after being declared prematurely dead. A press release sent on Sunday by her representative Mike Pingel said she had died before she actually died.
Roberts played a geologist threatened by a madman in the 1985 Bond film, A View to a Kill, Roger Moore’s last exit as 007, and played the title role in the 1984 fantasy adventure film, Sheena, about a woman who grew up in the African jungle created by a mystical witch. Younger people must remember Roberts as the glamorous mother Midge Pinciotti (mother of Laura Prepon’s Donna) from That ’70s Show.
When Roberts was first reported dead, Topher Grace, one of the sitcom’s stars, remembered Roberts on Twitter as “a truly charming person to work for”.
“I had never acted before and, to be honest, a little nervous around her,” wrote Grace. “But she couldn’t have been nicer.”
I was very sad to learn that Tanya Roberts passed away. She was a Bond girl, one of Charlie’s Angels, and a really charming person to work with. I had never acted before and, to be honest, a little nervous around her. But she couldn’t have been nicer. We will miss you, Midge. pic.twitter.com/ewqDS3Radb
– Topher Grace (@TopherGrace) January 4, 2021
Roberts passed out on Christmas Eve after walking the dogs and was immediately taken to the hospital and put on a respirator. O’Brien apparently had the impression that she had been pronounced dead and informed her representative of this.
His publicist did not say the cause of death, but said it was not related to COVID-19.