- Born
- Died
- Birth nameVictoria Leigh Blum
- Height1.71 m
- The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her mother-in-law had the marriage annulled. She met psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line to see a movie. A few months later, she proposed to him in a subway station, and they were married. She studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen. In her early years in New York, she supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor and by modeling. She appeared in off-Broadway productions of "Picnic" and "Antigone", and in television commercials for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses.
In 1977, Tanya and her husband -- by then a scriptwriter -- moved to Hollywood. She began appearing in made-for-TV films including Pleasure Cove (1979), Zuma Beach (1978), and Meurtres sous le soleil (1980). Her film debut was in Viol sans issue (1976). After appearing in several minor films, her first big break came when she was selected as the last Angel on the final season of Drôles de dames (1976), and was featured on the cover of People magazine (02/09/1981). The attention she garnered helped secure her most significant film roles: Dar l'invincible (1982) (and posed for the cover and an inside spread in Playboy magazine to promote the film), the title role in Sheena, reine de la jungle (1984) and as a Bond girl in Dangereusement vôtre (1985). She continued to appear in films, though mainly direct-to-video and direct-to-cable features. She was featured in the CD computer game The Pandora Directive (1996) and had a recurring lead role in the television series 70s show (1998). Widowed in 2006, Tanya Roberts died of sepsis from a urinary tract infection in 2021.- IMDb mini biography by: Ray Angelo <rangelo@oeb.harvard.edu>
- SpouseBarry Roberts(1973 - June 15, 2006) (his death)
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsDorothy BlumOscar Blum
- RelativesBarbara Chase(Sibling)Zach Leary(Niece or Nephew)
- Has the unique distinction of having been both a Bond Girl and a Charlie's Angel.
- Wore electric-blue eye-contacts during most of her career.
- Her death was prematurely announced by her personal acquaintance, Lance O'Brien, on January 3, 2021, exactly one day before her actual passing. This created a lot of confusion in the news-media (internet and television), particularly when she eventually died the following day.
- Upon her death, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered along her hiking trail.
- During Roberts' career, her birth year was reported variously as 1954, 1955 or 1959, but when she passed, it was discovered that she was really born in 1949.
- [interview in "People" Magazine, 1984] Even if I get thrown out of Hollywood, I'll come back. It took me 14 years to get where I am. I'm going to hang in there.
- Fans make you. I certainly hope that people like me in the work and I appreciate every letter that I get. I'm glad they like me or else I wouldn't be in the business. But for fans it's a very different reality than it is for me. They're going to watch the finished product, which has taken us five months and a lot of hard work . . . I mean, I've been choking for the last three days on smoke--it's not very glamorous. It's not what it looks like in the movie, I'm on my knees, bruised half the time, it's action, action, action.
- You need to start somewhere. Jane Fonda began with Barbarella (1968). I'm not at an age where producers will offer me Norma Rae (1979) or Le choix de Sophie (1982). When you're young and pretty you don't get La maison du lac (1981). But if you keep working, good things can happen. Kim Basinger got Le meilleur (1984) after making a James Bond movie. The same kind of thing could happen to me.
- I've made a lot of good choices and a lot of bad choices and that's part of life. Whether you're really successful or moderately successful, I'm sure that to get there you have made some bad decisions and good decisions on some level, but that's how I see life. You can't go through life defeated, it's just trial and error.
- [on being cast as a Bond Girl in Dangereusement vôtre (1985)] 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. I remember I said to my agent, "No one works after they get a Bond movie" and they said to me, "Are you kidding? Glenn Close would do it if she could." And I thought to myself, "Well, you can have regrets if you wish, but what's the point?" At the time I didn't know what I know now, and to be honest, who would turn that role down, really? Nobody would. All you have to think to yourself is, "Could have I been better in the part?" That's all you can say to yourself because turning the part down would have been ridiculous, you know? I mean nobody would do that, nobody. I was very young and I did what I felt was the right choice to make.
- Drôles de dames (1978) - $12,000 per episode
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