FORMER 'BOND GIRL' TANYA ROBERTS DIES OF INFECTION AGED 65

6 JAN 2021

LOS ANGELES: Former Bond actress and "That '70s Show" star Tanya Roberts has died from a urinary tract infection at a Los Angeles hospital, her publicist said Tuesday, a day after premature reports of her passing were retracted.

Roberts, 65, was best known for her role as geologist Stacey Sutton in the James Bond film "A View to a Kill," after her early acting break on television's "Charlie's Angels."

Roberts' long-term partner Lance O'Brien had mistakenly announced her death to media late Sunday following a "miscommunication" with Cedars-Sinai hospital, publicist Mike Pingel said. Multiple media outlets published obituaries that had to be withdrawn.

She succumbed late Monday after the infection spread to her kidney, gallbladder, liver and then blood stream, Pingel told AFP.

Several US media outlets including The New York Times on Tuesday also confirmed Roberts' passing, citing O'Brien.

Born Victoria Leigh Blum in the Bronx, New York, in 1955, Roberts did some modeling and commercial work before getting her big acting break in her mid-20s on the final season of "Charlie's Angels."

She played private investigator Julie Rogers, helping the team of female crime fighters.

"It was my first steady job, and it launched my career," Roberts said on her website.

After the show ended, Roberts starred in sword-and-sorcery fantasy "The Beastmaster." She also played the title character in 1984's "Sheena: Queen of the Jungle," a female version of Tarzan which was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards and has gone on to become a cult classic.

A year later she appeared as 007's love interest in "A View to a Kill," which marked Roger Moore's last appearance as the British spy.

Nowadays Roberts is probably best known for her role in the sitcom "That '70s Show," in which she starred as Midge Pinciotti, the dim-witted mother of Donna, played by Laura Prepon. - AFP