Tanya Roberts
Encyclopedia
Tanya Roberts is an American actress best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels
, The Beastmaster
, A View to a Kill, Sheena
and That '70s Show
. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood
sex symbol
during the early 1980s.
, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent. Her father sold ink pen
s. She lived with her mother in Toronto
for several years, where she started formulating a photo portfolio and laying plans for a career. At age 15, Blum abandoned her studies to get married and lived for a while hitch-hiking across the United States, until her mother-in-law annulled the union.
She moved to New York City and became a sought-after fashion and cover model. After meeting a psychology
student, Barry Roberts (while waiting in line for a movie), she proposed to him in a subway
station and they were soon married. While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter
, Tanya began to study at the Actors Studio
with Lee Strasberg
and Uta Hagen
.
for Ultra Brite
, Clairol
and Cool Ray sunglasses. She played serious roles in the Off-Broadway
productions, Picnic
and Antigone
. She also supported herself as an Arthur Murray
dance instructor. Her film debut was the 1975 thriller, Forced Entry
. This was followed in 1976 by the comedy, The Yum-Yum Girls.
In 1977, as her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood. The following year, Roberts participated in the drama, Fingers
. Roles in the 1979 cult-movie, Tourist Trap, Racket and California Dreaming
followed.
Roberts was featured in several television pilot
s that were never picked up: Zuma Beach (a 1978 comedy); Pleasure Cove (1979); and Waikiki (1980).
in the television series, Charlie's Angels (in what would be the last season of the series). She was featured on the February 9, 1981 cover of People
magazine and afterward was offered more ambitious projects.
In 1982, Roberts played Kiri in The Beastmaster
. She was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy
to help promote the movie, appearing on that issue's October 1982 cover.
In 1983, Roberts filmed the Italian-made, and little-known adventure, Paladini-storia d'armi e d'amori ("Paladins—the story of love and arms"; also released as Hearts and Armour), based on the medieval novel, "Orlando Furioso
". Actor Ronn Moss
, of The Bold and the Beautiful
, co-starred.
She played the role of Velda, a buxom secretary to private detective, Mike Hammer
, in the television movie
, Murder Me, Murder You
. The two-part pilot spawned the syndicated television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
. Roberts declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series so she could work on her next project, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle
. The 1984 film was based on a character adapted from a Will Eisner
comic book
. Dressed in scantily clad costumes, Sheena introduced a new blonde hairstyle that Roberts would keep for the rest of her career. The movie was a box office and critical disaster, garnering her a nomination for "Worst Actress" at the Razzie Awards. Her subsequent appearance as Bond girl
, Stacey Sutton
, in A View to a Kill
(1985), provided her a number of scenes with Roger Moore
's James Bond
, playing an articulate and well-educated geologist. However, she once again found herself nominated by critics for a Razzie. Roberts career took a downturn. Later films in the decade included Body Slam
(1987), an action movie set in the professional wrestling world; and Purgatory, a movie about a woman wrongfully imprisoned in Africa.
, Inner Sanctum, alongside Margaux Hemingway
. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in Sins of Desire.
Roberts appeared on the cable TV series, Hot Line, in 1994; and in the video game, The Pandora Directive
, in 1996
.
In 1998, she became familiar to younger audiences when she took the role of Midge Pinciotti
on the television sitcom, That '70s Show
. Roberts said she left the series in 2001 because her husband, Barry Roberts, had become terminally ill.
In 2008, Roberts wrote the foreword to the book, "The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels", by Mike Pingel.
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
, The Beastmaster
The Beastmaster (film)
The Beastmaster is 1982 fantasy film directed by Don Coscarelli that starred Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. The film was marketed with the tagline "Born with the courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god."-Summary:The Beastmaster tells the story...
, A View to a Kill, Sheena
Sheena (film)
Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...
and That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
sex symbol
Sex symbol
A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...
during the early 1980s.
Early life
Blum was born in The BronxThe Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent. Her father sold ink pen
Ink Pen
Ink Pen is a daily comic strip by Phil Dunlap that started in 2005 and is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate.This comic strip is about an employment agency for out-of-work cartoon characters...
s. She lived with her mother in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
for several years, where she started formulating a photo portfolio and laying plans for a career. At age 15, Blum abandoned her studies to get married and lived for a while hitch-hiking across the United States, until her mother-in-law annulled the union.
She moved to New York City and became a sought-after fashion and cover model. After meeting a psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
student, Barry Roberts (while waiting in line for a movie), she proposed to him in a subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
station and they were soon married. While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, Tanya began to study at the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
with Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
and Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
.
1970s
Roberts' began her career as a model in TV adsTelevision advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
for Ultra Brite
Ultra Brite
Ultra Brite is an American toothpaste and tooth-whitener marketed by Colgate-Palmolive in the United States. Ultra Brite gained popularity during the 1970's with a commercial that stated, "Ultra Brite gives your mouth...[bling]...sex appeal!" It was introduced as an imitator of Maclean's adult...
, Clairol
Clairol
Clairol is a personal care products division of Procter & Gamble. The Clairol company was started in 1931 by Lawrence M. Gelb and wife, Joan, who named their enterprise after a hair-coloring preparation they found while traveling in France....
and Cool Ray sunglasses. She played serious roles in the Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
productions, Picnic
Picnic (play)
Picnic is a 1953 play by William Inge. The play premiered at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway on 19 February 1953 in a Theatre Guild production, directed by Joshua Logan, which ran for 477 performances....
and Antigone
Antigone (Sophocles)
Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first...
. She also supported herself as an Arthur Murray
Arthur Murray
Arthur Murray was a dance instructor and businessman, whose name is most often associated with the dance studio chain that bears his name....
dance instructor. Her film debut was the 1975 thriller, Forced Entry
Forced Entry (1975 film)
Forced Entry is a 1975 horror film by director Jim Sotos.The film is an R-Rated remake of a 1973 pornographic film of the same name by director Shaun Costello.The film is also known as Last Victim.-Plot:...
. This was followed in 1976 by the comedy, The Yum-Yum Girls.
In 1977, as her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood. The following year, Roberts participated in the drama, Fingers
Fingers (1978 film)
Fingers is a 1978 drama film directed by James Toback.-Synopsis:The film features Harvey Keitel as a pianist who also works for his loan shark father as a "collector"...
. Roles in the 1979 cult-movie, Tourist Trap, Racket and California Dreaming
California Dreaming (1979 film)
California Dreaming is a 1979 film starring Glynnis O'Connor, Dennis Christopher and Tanya Roberts.-Plot:A young man named T.T. moves from Chicago to California for the summer. He quickly becomes adapted to the new pace of life, learning several lessons along the way....
followed.
Roberts was featured in several television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
s that were never picked up: Zuma Beach (a 1978 comedy); Pleasure Cove (1979); and Waikiki (1980).
1980s
In 1980, Roberts was chosen among 2,000 candidates to replace Shelley HackShelley Hack
Shelley Marie Hack is an American supermodel, actress, producer, and political & media advisor. Hack is best remembered for her role as Tiffany Welles in the fourth season of the ABC Television Drama Charlie's Angels ; replacing the departing Kate Jackson...
in the television series, Charlie's Angels (in what would be the last season of the series). She was featured on the February 9, 1981 cover of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine and afterward was offered more ambitious projects.
In 1982, Roberts played Kiri in The Beastmaster
The Beastmaster (film)
The Beastmaster is 1982 fantasy film directed by Don Coscarelli that starred Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. The film was marketed with the tagline "Born with the courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god."-Summary:The Beastmaster tells the story...
. She was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
to help promote the movie, appearing on that issue's October 1982 cover.
In 1983, Roberts filmed the Italian-made, and little-known adventure, Paladini-storia d'armi e d'amori ("Paladins—the story of love and arms"; also released as Hearts and Armour), based on the medieval novel, "Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
". Actor Ronn Moss
Ronn Moss
Ronald Montague "Ronn" Moss is an American actor, musician and singer/songwriter, a member of the band Player, and best known for portraying Ridge Forrester, the dynamic fashion magnate on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful since 1987.- Early life and music career :Ronn Moss was born...
, of The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
, co-starred.
She played the role of Velda, a buxom secretary to private detective, Mike Hammer
Mike Hammer
Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...
, in the television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, Murder Me, Murder You
Murder Me, Murder You
Murder Me, Murder You is a made-for-TV movie starring Stacy Keach as Mickey Spillane's iconic hard-boiled private detective, Mike Hammer. The movie marks the first time the fictitious gumshoe would be portrayed on the small-screen since Darren McGavin played the part in the black-and-white version...
. The two-part pilot spawned the syndicated television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is the title used for two syndicated television series that followed the adventures of fictional private detective Mike Hammer...
. Roberts declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series so she could work on her next project, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle
Sheena (film)
Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...
. The 1984 film was based on a character adapted from a Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
. Dressed in scantily clad costumes, Sheena introduced a new blonde hairstyle that Roberts would keep for the rest of her career. The movie was a box office and critical disaster, garnering her a nomination for "Worst Actress" at the Razzie Awards. Her subsequent appearance as Bond girl
Bond girl
A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...
, Stacey Sutton
Stacey Sutton
Stacey Sutton is a fictional character in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. She is played by actress Tanya Roberts.-Biography:Sutton was the granddaughter of an oil tycoon in California. After her grandfather's death, Sutton oil was taken over by billionaire Max Zorin, who gave Sutton a cheque...
, in A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
(1985), provided her a number of scenes with Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
's James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, playing an articulate and well-educated geologist. However, she once again found herself nominated by critics for a Razzie. Roberts career took a downturn. Later films in the decade included Body Slam
Body Slam (film)
Body Slam is a 1987 American comedy film directed by Hal Needham, starring Dirk Benedict, Roddy Piper, Tanya Roberts, Sam Fatu and Captain Lou Albano. The film revolves around a down-and-out music promoter who inadvertently becomes a successful professional wrestling manager...
(1987), an action movie set in the professional wrestling world; and Purgatory, a movie about a woman wrongfully imprisoned in Africa.
1990s - present
In 1991, Roberts starred in the erotic thrillerErotic thriller
The erotic thriller is a film and literary sub-genre which consists of a mixture between erotica and thriller. The genre increased in North American popularity from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before declining in marketability.-1980s:...
, Inner Sanctum, alongside Margaux Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway was an American fashion model and actress.- Early life :Margot Louise Hemingway was born in Portland, Oregon, and was the older sister of actress Mariel Hemingway and the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway...
. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in Sins of Desire.
Roberts appeared on the cable TV series, Hot Line, in 1994; and in the video game, The Pandora Directive
The Pandora Directive
The Pandora Directive is an adventure game for the PC. It takes place in the world of Tex Murphy, hero of Mean Streets, Martian Memorandum, Under a Killing Moon, and Tex Murphy: Overseer....
, in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
.
In 1998, she became familiar to younger audiences when she took the role of Midge Pinciotti
Midge and Bob Pinciotti
Midge Pinciotti and Bob Pinciotti are two fictional characters on the popular Fox sitcom That '70s Show . They are the loving, lovable but dim-witted parents of the red-haired tomboy Donna Pinciotti , and Donna's less-frequently seen younger sister, Tina...
on the television sitcom, That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
. Roberts said she left the series in 2001 because her husband, Barry Roberts, had become terminally ill.
In 2008, Roberts wrote the foreword to the book, "The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels", by Mike Pingel.