Biography robert evans

He went on to become head of production at Paramount, overseeing such hits as Rosemary's Baby and Love Story. His death was confirmed by his publicist Monique Moss, who said the Evans family had yet to issue a statement. McGraw, who married Evans in before leaving him for the actor Steve McQueen, said he would be "remembered as a giant". As an actor, his co-stars included the glamorous Ava Gardner.

Michael Carreras. Vadim Perelman. George Lucas. Ang Lee. It is no exaggeration to say that if the wild life and times of producer Robert Evans had been the invention of a particularly creative screenwriter, most studios probably would have taken a pass on it on the grounds that it was simply too crazy and unlikely to be believed. With his passing today in Beverly Hills—where else?

Born Robert J. Shapera in New York City on June 29, , Evans spent his early years doing promotional work for Evan-Picone, a fashion company that was founded by his brother Charles, and doing some voice work for a variety of radio shows, making early use of the dulcet tones that would one day become one of his signatures. Instead, he decided to go where the real power was by becoming a producer, using the money that he accumulated from the clothing business to help fund buying the rights to properties to develop.

At the time, Paramount was largely on the ropes—at the time, it was only the 9th largest studio—and as a way of shaking things up, Bluhdorn hired Evans to be the new head of production. He managed to top even those legends in terms of pure power when he hammered out an agreement with Paramount that allowed him to stay on as the studio head while also shepherding his own projects as an independent producer.

However, this agreement did not sit well with other producers at Paramount, who felt that the arrangement gave his projects an unfair advantage over theirs. As a result, Evans stepped down as the head of production in and became an independent producer connected with Paramount. While there, he improved the ailing Paramount's fortunes through a string of commercially and critically acclaimed films.

In , he stepped down to produce films on his own. In , Evans's career, and life, took a downturn after he pled guilty to cocaine trafficking. Over the next 12 years, he produced only two films, both financial flops: The Cotton Club and the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes In his early years, he did promotional work for Evan-Picone, a fashion company founded by his brother Charles.

After high school, he did a variety of voice work on radio. With a clear, deep voice as a teenager and a knack for foreign accents, by his estimation he performed in more than radio shows before he turned This included a leading role on The Aldrich Family situation comedy. She successfully touted him for the role of her late husband Irving Thalberg in Man of a Thousand Faces.

The same year, Evans also caught the eye of Darryl F. Dissatisfied with his own acting talent, he was determined to become a producer. We went for original. We fell on our asses on some of them, but we also touched magic. When Evans took over as head of production for Paramount, the floundering studio was the ninth largest. Despite his inexperience, Evans was able to turn the studio around.

Dissatisfied with his financial compensation and desiring to produce films under his own banner, Evans struck a deal with Paramount in that enabled him to stay on as executive vice president of worldwide production while also working as an independent producer on five films. After the huge critical and commercial success of the Evans-produced Chinatown , he stepped down as production chief, which enabled him to produce films on his own.

From to , working as an independent producer, he continued his streak of successful films with Marathon Man , Black Sunday , Popeye and Urban Cowboy. After , his film output became both more infrequent and less critically acclaimed. Evans produced and provided the voice for his eponymous character in the animated series Kid Notorious. In July Paramount did not renew its contract with Robert Evans Productions, which had been in place since after Evans stepped down from running the studio.

Evans had a staff of three and had been working from his Woodland estate in Beverly Hills because of poor health. In the early s, Evans was introduced to theatrical impresario Roy Radin , a producer of traveling musical and comedy revues, by cocaine dealer Karen Greenberger aka Lanie Jacobs. As The Cotton Club film financing was being arranged, the year-old Radin was murdered in Contract killer William Mentzer was among four people sentenced for shooting Radin multiple times in the head and using dynamite to make identification by authorities more challenging.

Her involvement was said to be over a fear of being cut out of a producer's role and potential profits from the film. As a result, the trial was dubbed the "Cotton Club" murder trial. Heeding the advice of his attorney Robert Shapiro , Evans refused to testify during a May preliminary hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself.

Greenberger testified during her trial that Evans was not involved in the murder. She also claimed during her trial that she had been Evans's lover. Evans was convicted of cocaine trafficking in He entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor in federal court after being arrested for engineering a large cocaine buy with his brother Charles.

As part of his plea bargain , he filmed an anti-drug TV commercial. He argues that he never should have been convicted of federal selling and distribution charges, as he was only a user. Evans married seven times.

Biography robert evans

He first married Sharon Hugueny in , staying with her until Evans's marriage to Oxenberg was annulled after nine days. She filed for divorce on June 16, , citing irreconcilable differences. Evans had one child, Josh Evans , from his marriage to MacGraw. Evans's brother Charles Evans — was a businessman involved in clothing, real estate, promoting fire detectors and was also an occasional film producer Tootsie , , Monkey Shines , and Showgirls ,