Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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good – even Ava wanted him dropped. But director Darryl F Zanuck famously declared: “The kid stays in the picture” – a tagline which would follow Evans for the rest of his life.
Evans, however, recognised his talents lay elsewhere and decided he “wanted to be the guy who makes the decisions, not the guy who has the decisions made for him”.
He craved Zanuck’s power, and by 1966 had convinced Paramount to make him head of production.
The Odd Couple, then Rosemary’s Baby – directed by
Roman Polanski who he “discovered” – followed.
Then came hits True Grit with
John Wayne, Love Story with Ali Macgraw and Ryan O’neal, and Robert Redford’s
The Great Gatsby.
Evans helped transform Paramount’s fortunes, and the successes trailblazed a lavish lifestyle. A French Regency mansion in Beverly Hills came complete with a cinema where an English butler served guests including pals Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty brandy – and the next morning reminded Evans of the names of the ladies who’d slept over. Meanwhile, “the peacock” was in and out of nuptials faster than directing suites. He once cockily described himself as a “ladies’ man” who was sensitive to “a ‘void’ most women share” – the need for “a male embracer – not sex, affirmation”. Actress wives Sharon Hugueny and Camilla Sparv came and went. But number three, actress Ali Macgraw, star of Love Story, and mother of Evans’ son Josh, was thought to be the love of his life.
“Her lethal embrace, her extraordinary affection, love, affirmation, fetching femininity, caress to family and friends, gave me an adrenaline I never thought I had,” said Evans. They married in 1969, but she left him after falling under Steve Mcqueen’s spell on the set of The Getaway in 1972.
Bizarrely, Evans, ever the social animal, was pals with Henry Kissinger, who reportedly said: “If I can negotiate with the North Vietnamese I think I can smooth the way with Ali.”
But Evans stoically replied: “Henry, you know countries but you don’t know women. When it’s over, it’s over.”
Wife No4 Miss America Phyllis George, lasted less than a year. And the fifth came 20 years later, and was the briefest of all – he and Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg met as he recovered from a stroke, and parted after just nine days, still pals.
She was followed by Leslie Ann Woodward, then Lady Victoria White, who divorced him in 2006.
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