Tanned, basso-voiced and ever-seductive, Robert Evans is a former child actor who, at age twenty, became a successful clothing manufacturer before returning to the screen as real-life studio executive Irving G Thalberg in the biopic of actor Lon Chaney, "Man of a Thousand Faces," in 1957 (legend says Thalberg's widow, actress Norma Shearer, spotted the hunky, smooth operator Evans on the telephone poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel and, feeling he was the spitting image of her husband, put him up for the part). Evans then parlayed his screen image as a studio exec into a job as the real thing, moving into production in the 1960s as Paramount Pictures in 1966 as vice president in charge of production. Evans eventually became the studio's top dog as executive vice-president in charge of worldwide production (1971-75), supervising such box-office hits as "Barefoot in the Park" (1967), "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), "Goodbye, Columbus" (1969), "Love Story" (1970), and director Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather, Part II" (1974)--the producer and director famously tangled throughout production, cementing Evans' affinity for an antogonistic approach to filmmaking. He was also known for personally coveting credit for the successes created under his watch, although the extent and merits of his contributions were routinely debated.
Evans left the studio top spot and became an independent producer in 1974, a highly successful stint that would result in director Roman Polanski's classic neo-noir "Chinatown" (1974) starring Evans' close friend Jack Nicholson, the thriller "Marathon Man" (1976) starring another longtime pal, Dustin Hoffman (who would later reportedly use Evans as the inspiration for his undefeatable producer character in 1997's "Wag the Dog"), director John Frankenheimer's popular thriller "Black Sunday" (1977), the minor romantic comedy "Players" (1979) starring Evans' then-wife Ali McGraw (whom he later lost to Steve McQueen), the country-themed hit "Urban Cowboy" (1980) and director Robert Altman's unsuccessful take on "Popeye" (1980) with Robin Williams in his first starring role. After the debacle of Coppola's gangster musical "The Cotton Club" (1984--pilloried in the entertainment press for its excesses and out-of-control production and notorious in mainstream headlines for a behind the scenes murder in which Evans was briefly implicated but later exonerated--and following his conviction on a misdemeanor for cocaine possession, Evans returned from an extended hiatus from active producing and corralled Nicholson to direct and star in the inferior but entertaining "Chinatown" sequel "The Two Jakes" (1990)--Polanksi was long into his self-imposed U.S. exile, fleeing statutory rape charges--and the producer signed a five-year independent production deal with Paramount in 1991, turning out middling fare such as the thrillers "Silver" (1993) and "Jade" (1995), the pulp adventures "The Phantom" (1996) and "The Saint" (1997) and a limp Steve Martin/Goldie Hawn remake of the comedy classic "The Out-of-Towners" (1999).
Evans's illustrious career again came to the forefront with the 2002 documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture." Based on the producer's life and narrated by Evans himself, it is the adaptation of the book Evans released in 1994, detailing his outlandish adventures in show business. The title refers to his near-firing as an actor playing matador Pedro Romero in 1957 film adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises": summoned to Spain after Hemmingway, co-star Ava Gardner and others on the film objected to Evans’ casting, studio head Darryl Zanuck watched Evans' first take and made a portentous decree: “The kid stays in the picture.” The book was a favorite in Hollywood circles, and insiders gleefully passed around the sometimes unintentionally hilarious audio edition, narrated by Evans himself. The project came to the attention of rising documentarian team Brett Morgen and Nanette Berstein (1999's boxing-themed "On the Ropes"), who worked with Evans, by then recovering from a debilitating stroke, and Vanity Fair publisher Graydon Carter, who had earlier snatched up Evans' film rights unbeknownst to the documentarians but graciously teamed with them to complete the project, to capture Evans' chaotic but absorbing life in film on film. Kaleidoscopic, mesmerizing, always fascinating and entirely subjective, "The Kid Stays In the Picture" was roundly praised, Evans' cinematic contributions--as well as his considerable charm, seductiveness, difficult temperament, inevitable bad personal judgment and ability to survive seemingly anything--were openly re-explored and reassessed, and the producer was catapulted back into the realm of pseudo-celebrity again.
The popularity of the film even led Evans and Morgen to develop "Kid Notorious," an animated TV series for Comedy Central (2003 - ), adapting anecdotes from his life into wild cartoon exploits that mixed "South Park"-style scatalogical gags with snarky, knowing Hollywood insider humor and a self-depricating caricature of the already colorful Evans (who playfully voiced his animated alter ego in his distinctive lower registers with faux-hipster lingo and trademark tag lines like "You bet your ass I will"). Evans also returned to producing with the 2003 romantic comedy "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," a minor hit which proved Kate Hudson's box office appeal in lightweight fare.
Ever the lothario, Evans also remarried in 2003, for a sixth time, to Leslie Ann Woodward--a union that lasted eight months, much longer than his 12-day 1998 marriage to actress Catherine Oxenberg. Formerly married to actresses Sharon Hugueny, Camilla Sparv, MacGraw and TV sports commentator Phyllis George, Evans has one son (by MacGraw), actor Josh Evans.