After days of misleading information surrounding Tanya Roberts' reported death, TMZ officially confirmed the former Bond girl has died. She was 65.
Roberts' longtime partner of 18 years, Lance O'Brien, received a call from the actress' doctor confirming that she passed away just after 9 p.m. last night (January 4). This news comes after O'Brien incorrectly told her publicist, Mike Pingel, that she died on Sunday (January 3) after being present for what he believed were the final moments of her life.
“She was alive at 10 a.m. this morning," Pingel told PEOPLE on Monday (January 4), not realizing that Roberts was actually still alive at the time. In explaining the premature announcement, Pingel said O'Brien had “received a call from the hospital saying she was not dead.”
O'Brien explained to TMZ that he thought the View to a Kill starlet had died as he'd seen her eyes suddenly open before she faded away. "As I held her in her last moments, she opened her eyes,” he said, adding that he “was able to see her beautiful eyes one last time" before she "died in my arms."
As we previously reported, outlets like TMZ and The Hollywood Reporter published stories initially announcing Roberts had passed away just a week after she’d collapsed while walking her dogs on Christmas Eve.
Apart from her Bond girl breakout, Roberts starred in several projects throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s including television shows Forced Entry, Racquet, and The Beastmaster. She also landed a starring role in the adventure film, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, and later went on to star as Midge Pinciotti during her tenure on the 1998 comedy sitcom, That ‘70s Show.
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