UPDATE, 1/5/21: It was a bit of a rollercoaster yesterday after it was announced that That ’70s Show/Charlie’s Angels star Tanya Roberts had died of a COVID-related illness, only to have it later revealed that she was still alive.
Unfortunately, the news today is that she has since passed away, again.
via TMZ:
Tanya Roberts died Monday night at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Hospital following a bizarre turn of events that included her domestic partner incorrectly telling her rep she had died the day before.
Her partner, Lance O’Brien, tells TMZ … he got a call from one of Tanya’s doctor’s Monday night, just after 9 PM, telling him Tanya had passed.
As you’ve probably heard by now, Lance told her publicist on Sunday Tanya was dead. He tried explaining his mistake Monday, telling us he had visited her in the hospital Sunday, and she suddenly opened her eyes but then shut them and he saw her fade away.
He says he thought she was dead and left, without speaking to medical staff. He got a phone call Monday from Cedars, informing him Tanya was still alive. Tanya’s rep, who picked Lance up from the hospital, says he told him, “She died in my arms.”
YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: Model and actor Tanya Roberts is alive, despite her rep saying she died last night. Thank goodness! Her death had been erroneously reported by TMZ.
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, Mike Pingel, tells TMZ, Lance got a call just after 10 AM Monday from the hospital saying Tanya was still alive. Pingel said Lance truly believed Tanya had died. Interestingly, friends of the family also contacted TMZ Sunday saying Lance had called them to inform them of the “That ’70s Show” star’s death.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Roberts was one of the go-to names for sexing up a show or film because of her aura of sophistication and style.
Here’s a clip of her looking fabulous as Stacey Sutton in A View To a Kill (with bonus fabulosity of Grace Jones):
When Shelley Hack left the series, Roberts beat out thousands of actors for the privilege of kicking and chopping and looking fine as Julie on Charlie’s Angels:
Younger folks may know her better as Donna’s hot mom Midge Pinciotti on That ’70s Show.
Beautiful, talented, and still alive!
Image: Christina Radish / Avalon
