Robert Evans

Robert Evans was an American film producer, studio executive and occasional actor whose career spanned more than six decades. Born Robert J. Shapera on June 29 1930 in New York City, he grew up on the Upper West Side in a comfortable Jewish family and later changed his surname to Evans with his brother Charles. After a successful venture selling women’s apparel with his brother, Evans was discovered by actress Norma Shearer in 1956, which launched a brief acting stint that included roles in Man of a Thousand Faces and The Sun Also Rises. Dissatisfied with his performance abilities, he turned to producing, using his clothing‑industry fortune to back his first film, The Detective, in 1968. In 1966 he joined Paramount Pictures as production vice‑president and by 1967 became head of production, revitalizing the studio with a string of hits such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, True Grit, Love Story, The Godfather and Chinatown. His aggressive, risk‑taking style earned him both admiration and controversy, and in 1972 he negotiated a hybrid deal that let him remain an executive while producing independent projects, eventually stepping down to focus on personal productions like Marathon Man and Urban Cowboy. The 1980s brought a dramatic fall when he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor cocaine‑trafficking charge, and a period of limited output followed, with only The Cotton Club and The Two Jakes released. Evans rebounded in the 1990s, producing a mix of flops and successes, culminating with the romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in 2003, his final credit. His personal life was equally turbulent, marked by seven marriages—from Sharon Hugueny to Victoria White—and a single son, Josh Evans, who followed him into film production. Evans suffered a series of strokes in 1998, survived a near‑fatal episode, and continued to appear in media until his death in Beverly Hills on October 26 2019 at age 89.