Bond girl Tanya Roberts confirmed dead after premature reports of her death

Tanya Roberts

Credit: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo

Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in "A View to a Kill," has died, it has been confirmed, a day after her publicist mistakenly announced she had passed.

Her partner, Lance O’Brien, told Roberts’ publicist she had died in his arms in hospital on Sunday — that she suddenly opened her eyes but then shut them and he saw her fade away.

Roberts, 65, had collapsed in her home and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve.

Mr O’Brien said he thought she was dead and left, without speaking to medical staff. 

Roberts’ death was then announced by her publicist, Mike Pingel. 

Mr O’Brien received a phone call on Monday from a doctor at Cedars while doing an interview with CBS’s Inside Edition, who informed him Roberts was still alive. "I’m so happy," Mr O’Brien he said when he got the call.

TMZ website reported on Tuesday, however, that Mr O’Brien received another call from one of Roberts’ doctor on Monday night, just after 9pm, telling him she had passed away.

One of her highest profile roles was playing geologist Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore in 1985’s "A View to a Kill," where she held a gun on Bond after tricking him into thinking she was in a shower. The character later joined him to stop bad guys on an airship over San Francisco.

"We are saddened to hear of the passing of Tanya. She was a very lovely person," Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli wrote in tribute. Britt Ekland, who starred opposite Moore in 1974’s "The Man with the Golden Gun," tweeted: "Once a Bond Girl always a Bond Girl!"

"One of my favorite memories with Tanya was driving in the car and Duran Duran’s ‘A View to a Kill’ theme song came on the radio _ we both sang along. Priceless," Pingel said.

Roberts also appeared in such fantasy adventure films as "The Beastmaster" and "Hearts and Armour." She replaced Shelly Hack in "Charlie’s Angels," joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third Angel Julie. She also played comic book heroine Sheena _ a female version of the Tarzan story _ in a 1984 film.

A new generation of fans saw her on "That ’70s Show," playing Midge, mother to Laura Prepon’s character Donna. On Twitter, Topher Grace, one of the the show’s stars, called Roberts "truly a delightful person to work with."

He added: "I had never acted before and, to be honest, a little nervous around her. But she couldn’t have been kinder. We’ll miss you Midge."