Key Takeaways
- Evans took acting classes to overcome shyness
- Barbara Stanwyck was like a mother to Evans
- A botched audition led to Evans getting the role of Audra in The Big Valley
Linda Evans was born Linda Evenstad on November 18, 1942, in Hartford, Connecticut. When Evans was six months old, the family moved to California. Painfully shy at age 14, she signed up for acting classes, “as a form of therapy…” to overcome her timidity. A year later, she went to a TV commercial audition with a friend, and Evans got the part! Evenstad then became Evans, and the shy teen would soon become a star.
The Road to The Big Valley
Evans’ first speaking role was in an episode of Bachelor Father, with John Forsythe. No one would have predicted that this one-time appearance would foreshadow a starring role in Dynasty 21 years later, opposite Forsythe as his wife.
Evans made several appearances on many popular 1960s shows, including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Dr. Kildare, and Wagon Train. In 1965, she played singer Sugar Kane in Beach Blanket Bingo with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. That same year, she ventured into the Old West as Audra Barkley, the spitfire daughter of matriarch Victoria Barkley, played by the formidable Barbara Stanwyck in The Big Valley (1965-1969).
Evans was nervous meeting the four-time Academy Award-nominated star, but from the start, Stanwyck took the new actress under her wing, offering acting, life, and career advice, making sure she had suitable costumes, and giving Evans designer clothes from her own closet.
“She wanted the best for me, elegance and all. She was truly a second mother for me,” Evans said of Stanwyck in 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Linda Evans.
Ironically, Evans owes her role in The Big Valley to a terrible audition. Her agent sent her to read for a part in The Glory Guys (1965), a Western movie written by Sam Peckinpah and directed by Arnold Laven. Evans was eager to work with Laven. When the audition ended, he very kindly told her it was the worst reading he’d heard that day! But Laven liked her and offered her a shot at another project he was developing: The Big Valley. She read a scene with Lee Majors, and they were both cast.
“We all cared about each other,” Evans said of The Big Valley cast in a 2020 interview by Jeremy Roberts, posted on Medium.
Beyond the Valley
Afterwards, Evans made several other Westerns including Standing Tall (1978) with Chuck Connors, Tom Horn (1980) with Steve McQueen, The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983) and The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) with Kenny Rogers, and North & South: Book 2, Love & War (Civil War story) (1986) with David Carradine, Kirstie Alley, and James Stewart in his final on-screen role.
Destination: Dynasty
In 1981, Evans landed the role that would make her one of the most popular stars in America: Krystle Carrington, the upstanding wife of oil tycoon Blake Carrington, played by John Forsythe in the lavish primetime soap, Dynasty (1981-1989).
The show was a number one hit, and Evans raked in the awards: a 1981 Best Actress Golden Globe, People’s Choice Awards from 1982 to 1986, among others. A few months before the final season ended, Evans left the show and semi-retired from acting, but reprised her role as Krystle Carrington in the miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion (1991) and made other select appearances on screen and stage.
Linda’s Loves…
Evans married John Derek from 1968 to 1974, Stan Herman from 1975 to 1979, and lived with longtime partner, musician Yanni, from 1989 to 1998.
Inner Peace
Seeing a quieter life that fostered personal growth and introspection, Evans moved to a 70-acre property in Washington State, where she shares her home with close family. At 83, Linda Evans is as vibrant, funny, and amiable as ever, and Westerns have a place in her heart.
“My favorite films are westerns because I love being outdoors. I love being around cowboys because it seems like it took “the Hollywood” out of Hollywood when you were with real people, horses, cows, and land. That’s why one of my favorite things I have ever done in my career was Steve McQueen’s next-to-last movie, Tom Horn.” – Linda Evans, interview on Medium.
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About the Author
Native New Yorker, Darlene Cah is a writer, actor/improvisor, and digital content specialist based in North Carolina. Her short stories have appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, Red Earth Review, Have a NYC (Anthology), Referential Magazine, and other journals. Fiction awards include Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, Emrys Fiction Prize, Semifinalist ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Contest, and more. Advertising awards include Finalist Media Post Awards for email, Honorable Mention Clios, One Shows, and Andys (print). When not writing for INSP, you’ll find her on stage, backstage, or coaching improv for Shakespeare & Friends Theater Company. And, of course, playing fetch with her dog.
