[7][8] Oscar's father, Theodor Blum,[9] did pioneering work in local anesthesia and the use of x-rays in dental care.

[3] The Blum family were living in Scarsdale, New York in July 1950, purchasing the property in March 1951, and selling it January 1958.

[21][22][23][24] Later in the same month in 1958 Tanya's parents obtained a mortgage to buy a property in neighboring Greenburgh, New York and later sold it in July 1961.

[25][26] After meeting psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line for a movie, Victoria Blum proposed to him in a subway station and they were soon married in 1973.

[1][27] While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter, she began to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen under the name Tanya Roberts.

[17] Roberts began her career as a model in TV ads for Excedrin, Ultra Brite, Clairol, and Cool Ray sunglasses.

[30] Roberts was featured in several television pilots which were not picked up: Zuma Beach (a 1978 comedy),[30] Pleasure Cove (1979),[17] and Waikiki (1980).

[17] In the summer of 1980, Roberts was chosen from some 2,000 candidates to replace Shelley Hack in the fifth season of the detective television series Charlie's Angels.

[35] She declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series to work on her next project, the 1984 fantasy film Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, in which she played the main character.

[36] Writing in The New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael described Roberts as "[having] a staring, comic-book opaqueness" and "a walking, talking icon".

[6] Roberts appeared as Bond girl, geologist Stacey Sutton, in A View to a Kill (1985) with Roger Moore;[28][29] the first choice for the role was Priscilla Presley.

[30] Towards the end of the decade, Roberts recorded the reference footage of The Legend of Zelda used by producers during the creation of the animated adaptation.

[29][31][30] In her obituary in The Guardian, Ryan Gilbey praises "[h]er knowing performance" in this role, "slow on the uptake but growing dissatisfied with her life as a housewife".

[43] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she maintained an active social media presence by hosting video chats on Facebook and Zoom.