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Tanya Roberts - Beginnings

Tanya Roberts - Beginnings: Encyclopedia II - Tanya Roberts - Beginnings

Tanya Roberts grew up in the New York City's Bronx neighborhood. The daughter of an Irish American pen seller and a Jewish American woman, her parents divorced before she reached high school. At age 15 she abandoned her studies to get married, and lived for a while as hitchhiker, traveling across the United States until her mother-in-law annulled the union. Tanya continued to live in New York City, modelling and ...

Tanya Roberts: Encyclopedia II - Tanya Roberts - Beginnings

Tanya Roberts - Beginnings

Tanya Roberts grew up in the New York City's Bronx neighborhood. The daughter of an Irish American pen seller and a Jewish American woman, her parents divorced before she reached high school.

At age 15 she abandoned her studies to get married, and lived for a while as hitchhiker, traveling across the United States until her mother-in-law annulled the union. Tanya continued to live in New York City, modelling and working as dance teacher with Arthur Murray.

After meeting psychology student Barry Roberts in a movie line, she soon married again, proposing to him weeks later in a subway station. While Barry started a career as a screenwriter, Tanya began to study at the Actors' Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen.

Starting out, Roberts did several television commercials for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses and 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 thriller Forced Entry (1975, Jim Sotos) together with Nancy Allen. This was followed by the comedy The Yum-Yum Girls (1976, Narry Rosen).

In 1977, while her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood to continue working there.

In 1978 Tanya filmed the drama Fingers (by James Toback) co-starring Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown and Danny Aiello. A role in the 1979 cult-movie Tourist Trap (by David Schmoeller) with Chuck Connors followed. She also appeared in the movies Racket (1979, by David Winters) with Bjron Borg, and California Dreaming (1979, by John Hancock).

Roberts also featured in several television pilots that were never picked up: Preasure Cove, the comedy Zuma Beach (1978, by Lee H. Katzin, co-written by Halloween director John Carpenter) and Waikiki (1980).