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Tanya Roberts: In Memoriam

By George Robbins

There are plenty of people who have unfortunately lost their lives over this past year for a variety of reasons and things aren’t starting off all that well going into the next year. It has been announced that actress Tanya Roberts has recently passed with the cause for it being considered completely unknown to the general public. Roberts’ partner Lance O’Brien did not give a statement as to what really caused her death, but he did make it clear that it was not Covid that caused the death of the actress. The actress passed away officially on Monday but before the official statement could be made, her publicist released information prematurely before her death was announced. This led to obituaries being made prematurely about the actress’ death before the official proclamation was made.

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Roberts was born on October 15th, 1955 in The Bronx, New York as Victoria Leigh Blum and eventually she would go on to start acting in her 20’s. By the time she reached her mid-20’s, she made her big break as an actress where she was cast in the fifth and final season of the show ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ She ended up on the main cast of the series after main cast member Shelley Hack left the cast after just one season and the show was going into its final series run. The ratings for the show ended up plummeting even after Roberts took her role on the show and there was no way to stop the coming ending for the show. While that might have been an inevitable failure, it was a huge deal for her that she landed this role because it led to a strong career for her as time would go on.

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Perhaps the biggest role she managed to land after her introduction to the Hollywood scene was the role of a “Bond Girl” in the 007 movie ‘A View to a Kill.’ Alongside Roger Moore’s 007, Roberts’ character encountered a microchip-monopolist madman played by Christopher Walken whom she had to work with Moores’ Bond to stop his plan. This was Moore’s last outing as the character of Bond, so it is interesting that Roberts got to see how this all played out with Moore’s last role as the character. This was far from the only thing she contributed to however, as Roberts had also appeared in ‘The Beastmaster,’ which was a fantasy film from 1982. Beyond that, she even starred as the titular character in a movie called ‘Sheena‘ in 1984 which ended up flopping in the end. This would become the start of a decline for her as time went on, but this was not the end for her.

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It would be well over a decade later, but she found her place among the industry with the show ‘That ’70s Show‘ where she once again found herself back in the limelight. She played the role of one glamorous, youngish Midwestern mom of a teenage girl who was also a little dimwitted which gave way to a lot of entertaining moments from the show. Needless to say, for the younger generations today, her role on the show was easily the one that most people recognized the best because of her good looks and her dimwitted personality. How was it that she even became an actress? The answer to that question was that she started as a model before becoming an actress and she only managed to do so by running away from home at the age of 15.

That ’70s Show Cast (Tanya Roberts second from left bottom)

Roberts had various other roles through the years which allowed her to become a big inspiration to the people in the industry or those who wanted to follow her footsteps. She followed her dreams, and while starting small in some advertisements, she eventually worked her way up to a point where she managed to get on the big screen as well as the silver screen. She is an actress that will be sorely missed and it will be difficult for people to see those old films without thinking about the fact that she is no longer with us. She is survived by her partner Lance O’Brien and her sister, Barbara Chase who was actually the fourth wife of Timothy Leary. Yet another long running celebrity has passed, and without any warning, but hopefully this is not a sign of a bad year to come.

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