“Bond girl” Tanya Roberts dies at 65

Actress Tanya Roberts, known for the James Bond film A View to a Kill has died on Sunday at the age of 65.

Roberts reportedly collapsed in her home on December 24 after walking with her dogs. She was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator but did not recover from the health issue. Her doctors ruled out coronavirus.

Roberts’ longtime friend and representative Mike Pingel confirmed the actress’ death.

“I’m devastated. She was brilliant and beautiful and I feel like a light has been taken away. To say she was an angel would be at the top of the list. She was the sweetest person you’d ever meet and had a huge heart. She loved her fans, and I don’t think she realized how much she meant to them,” Pingel told The Hollywood Reporter.

The actress starred as Bond girl Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore’s 007 character in the 1985 flick A View to a Kill. She also appeared in a number of campy genre films and comedies throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, including Racquet, The Beastmaster, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, Almost Pregnant, and the Body Slam.

Despite the massive popularity of James Bond movies, Roberts’ movie didn’t take off as she hoped. The actress said being a Bond girl had a “curse to it”, that made every Bond girl’s career go nowhere.

“I sort of felt like every girl who’d ever been a Bond Girl had seen their career go nowhere, so I was a little cautious,” Roberts told the Daily Mail in 2015. “I remember I said to my agent, ‘No one ever works after they get a Bond movie’ and they said to me, ‘Are you kidding? Glen Close would do it if she could,” she added.

But many would recall Roberts best from That ‘70s Show, where she portrayed Donna Pinciotti’s sweet-but-dim mother Midge. She appeared in 81 episodes. She also had an arc on Charlie’s Angels in the 80s and acted in Fantasy Island, Eve and The Blues Brothers Animated Series. Her last role was playing Elle in the series Barbershop in 2005.

Tanya Roberts, who was born in the Bronx in New York City, started modeling and later ventured into acting with commercial work and live theatre. Her successful modeling career included landing the cover of Playboy for the October 1982 issue.

She was married to Barry Roberts from 1974 until he passed away in 2006. The couple had no children.