Tanya Roberts, actress who starred in Charlie’s Angels and A View to a Kill – obituary

Tanya Roberts, the American actress, who has died aged 65, will be best remembered for her glamorous roles in the television detective series Charlie’s Angels and opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985).

Having begun as a model and in advertisements for products such as Ultra Brite toothpaste, Tanya Roberts got her break in 1980 when cast from a reputed 2,000 candidates in the fifth and final season of Charlie’s Angels.

Despite the concept of women fighting crime having been met with derision by male studio executives when pitched by its creator, Aaron Spelling, in the mid-1970s the series became the top-rated show in America. But the departure of Farrah Fawcett, and criticism that it was “jiggle TV” that concentrated overmuch on its leads’ appeal in skimpy clothing, led after three years to declining ratings.

When Kate Jackson left, she was replaced by Shelley Hack for Season 4, with the latter in turn substituted by Tanya Roberts. Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith remained in the line-up. Nevertheless, asked People magazine as it featured the blue-eyed newcomer on its cover, “Is the Jiggle Up?” So it proved, and the programme was cancelled the following year.

Although Tanya Roberts was keen to play more heavyweight roles, she found herself being pigeon-holed in genre fare that made the most of her athletic figure. She was asked to promote the fantasy film The Beastmaster (1982) by posing for Playboy, which she did reluctantly. She was then cast opposite Stacy Keach as secretary to private eye Mike Hammer in the film Murder Me, Murder You (1983), which would spawn a television series.

By then, however, Tanya Roberts was filming Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (1984), a more than usually preposterous version of Tarzan based on the comic book. It had originally been meant for Raquel Welch, but when it finally saw the light of day was mauled by the critics. Tanya Roberts’s rather intense portrayal of the jungle ruler was somewhat unfairly singled out for abuse and she was awarded that year’s Razzie for worst performance by an actress.

Despite this, her stock remained high enough for her to win the part of Stacey Sutton, an oil heiress working as a geologist, in A View to a Kill. Tanya Roberts admitted later that she had had doubts about accepting, as Bond girls’ careers tended to stall afterwards, but had been assured by her agent that “Glenn Close would kill for the role.”

She had nothing but praise for the experience of working on the film, although few Bond fans rate it highly. This may be in part due to its uninvolving plot, in which loopy villain Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), intends to flood Silicon Valley, or perhaps the lack of chemistry between the characters played by Tanya Roberts and the ageing Moore that Sir Roger candidly identified. It was to prove his last outing as Bond, and her final taste of a kind of stardom that she had never craved.

Tanya Roberts was born Victoria Leigh Blum in The Bronx, New York, on October 15 1955. Her father sold fountain pens. After finishing school at 15, she hitchhiked across America before starting to make her way as a dance teacher and model.

From the late 1980s onwards, when she appeared on screen it tended to be in “erotic dramas” with titles including Inner Sanctum and Sins of Desire. In 1998, her fortunes improved when she landed a part in the sitcom That 70s Show, starring Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.

She left this, however, in 2001, and subsequently retired from acting to care for her husband, screenwriter Barry Roberts. They had met queuing for cinema tickets and married in 1974. He died in 2006.

Tanya Roberts, who had no children, collapsed on Christmas Eve while walking her dogs in Hollywood. She was taken to hospital and on January 3 was mistakenly reported to have died; her death was eventually announced on January 5. She is survived by her partner, Lance O’Brien.

Tanya Roberts, born October 15 1955, died January 4 2020