Tanya Roberts remembered: Her most famous roles

An Angel is born

While she had done previous television commercials for brands like Excedrin and Clairol, her big break came in 1980 when she was chosen out of 2,000 candidates to be the newest cast member for the fifth season of ABC’s hit series Charlie’s Angels. Actress Kate Jackson left the show in 1979, and she was replaced by Shelley Hack, who was not asked to return for season five. Roberts replaced Hack, playing streetwise character Julie Rogers.

Julie was one of the few Angels who was more comfortable in hand-to-hand combat than using guns to take down the bad guys. There were high hopes for Roberts joining the cast, however, her presence couldn’t rescue the television series from its ratings slump, and Charlie’s Angels concluded its run at the end of the fifth season.