The former actress and athlete passed away on Wednesday (28Oct15) at the Tarzana Medical Center in California after suffering a cardiac arrest following abdominal surgery on 18 October (15).

Von Beltz began her career as an actress, appearing in the Charlie's Angels TV series in 1978 and in Kill the Golden Goose in 1979.

She then took on work as a stuntwoman, but her career came to a halt in 1980 when she was paralysed in a car stunt-gone-wrong on The Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds and Farrah Fawcett. Following the tragic accident, which left von Beltz a quadriplegic, she was awarded $4.6 million (£2.9 million) in damages.

At the time of her injury, von Beltz was given only months to live, but she survived for another 35 years and in 1996, she wrote a book about her ordeal, titled My Soul Purpose.