UPDATE: A phone call from the hospital informing Tanya Roberts' longtime boyfriend Lance O'Brien that she was still alive gave us a few extra hours of hope, but now it has been confirmed that Roberts has passed away.
Despite some reports that said O'Brien hadn't been able to visit Roberts in the hospital, it has now been revealed that the confusion of the last couple days came out of a visit O'Brien made to the hospital on Sunday. O'Brien told TMZ,
he went to the hospital Sunday after getting a call from doctors saying Tanya was fading fast, and it was going to end in her death. He went to the hospital, and as he sat in her room she opened her eyes and tried to grab on to him, but her eyes closed and she "faded." He said he was devastated and walked out of the room and then the hospital and never spoke with medical staff.
Roberts' publicist Mike Pingel picked O'Brien up from the hospital and O'Brien told him, "She died in my arms." She hadn't, but she did pass away Monday night.
The original article can be seen below:
We have some shocking, sad news to share this morning, as it was announced last night that model / actress Tanya Roberts has passed away at the age of just 65.
Born Victoria Leigh Blum on October 15, 1955, she married Barry Roberts in 1974 and took on the stage name Tanya while studying at the Actors Studio. She worked as a dance instructor while getting her modeling and acting careers started with TV ads and roles in off-Broadway plays, then made her film debut in the 1976 serial killer thriller The Last Victim, a.k.a. Forced Entry.
Roberts went on to earn over 40 screen acting credits, with some of the most popular titles on her résumé being the 1979 horror classic Tourist Trap; the comedy California Dreaming; Charlie's Angels (she was one of the angels for the original show's fifth and final season); Don Coscarelli's The Beastmaster; Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, where she played the title character; the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill; the erotic thrillers Night Eyes and Inner Sanctum; and That '70s Show, where she took on the role of Midge Pinciotti for seven of the show's eight seasons.
Roberts' death was completely unexpected, and the exact cause has yet to be determined or disclosed. All we know at this time is that she collapsed after returning home from walking her dogs on December 24th. She was taken to a hospital, placed on a ventilator, and passed away on January 3rd. She was not feeling ill in the days before her death, and it has been said that her passing was not COVID-19 related.
Her friend and publicist Mike Pingel gave the following statement to The Hollywood Reporter:
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."
Roberts was preceded in death by her husband Barry, who passed away in 2006 after a long battle with encephalitis. She is survived by her longtime partner Lance O'Brien, her sister Barbara, and her beloved pets.
Our condolences go out to Roberts' family, friends, and fans.