Robert Evans, who greenlit classics like 'The Godfather', dies at 89

Robert Evans, protean, fast-living Hollywood producer, and former Paramount Pictures production chief who backed such seminal 1970s films as “Chinatown,” ″ Godfar” and “Harold and Maude,” has died. He was 89. Evans publicist, Monique Moss, confirmed that Evans died on Saturday. or details Monday were immediately available.

Comebacks and reinventions

His career was a story of comebacks and reinventions. Evans h launched a successful women’s clothing line with his bror, Charles, and was visiting Los Angeles on business when actress rma Shearer saw him sunbathing by pool at Beverly Hills Hotel. She persued producers to hire handsome, dark-haired 26-year-old to play her late husband, movie mogul Irving Thalberg, in “Man of a Thousand Faces,” a film about horror movie star Lon Chaney.

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Evans gave Hollywood its biggest hits 

After acting roles fed, Evans re-emerged at Paramount and quickly converted studio from a maker of mediocre films to biggest hit machine in Hollywood, home to “ Godfar” and “Love Story” among ors. For deces, and with many flops in between, ever-tanned, large glasses-wearing Evans was one of Hollywood’s most outsized and flamboyant personalities, encapsulating romance of a w bygone movie era where films were greenlit more on instinct than market research. He was married and divorced seven times. He was model for Dustin Hoffman’s petty-minded Hollywood producer in 1997 satire “Wag Dog.”

“ higher you get, lower you can fall,” Evans mused in a 2003 interview. “You pick yourself up at count of nine, you come back and win and be done with it. I believe in being a survivor.”

title of his 1994 memoir, “ Kid Stays in Picture” (later turned into a 2002 documentary) came from an early story of his improbable success.

After he appeared in “Man of a Thousand Faces” Darryl Zanuck signed Evans to a contract at Twentieth Century Fox and cast him as a bullfighter in “ Sun Also Rises.” filmmakers insisted young actor wasn’t right for role, so Zanuck went to Mexico City, where film was being me, to see for himself. His verdict: “ kid stays in picture.” It was Evans who optioned “ Godfar” while Mario Puzo was writing it. As Paramount Chief, Evans presided over Francis Ford Coppola’s production but his role in movie, itself, has sometimes been exaggerated — including by Evans, himself. But Coppola, recalled Evans fondly on Monday, recollecting producer’s “charm, good looks, enthusiasm, style, and sense of humor.”

“He h strong instincts as evidenced by long list of great films in his career. When I worked with Bob, some of his helpful ideas included suggesting John Marley as Woltz and Sterling Hayden as Police Captain, and his ultimate realization that ‘ Godfar’ could be 2 hours and 45 minutes in length,” said Coppola, also ting Evans’ contributions to “ Cotton Club.”“May kid always stay in picture,” ded Coppola. Evans was born Robert J. Shapera in New York, second son of Archie Shapera, a dentist, and his wife, Florence, a homemaker. He began acting in rio while in junior high school, going on to appear in more than 300 shows. After “ Sun Also Rises,” Evans left Hollywood to join his bror in clothing business, but was lured back in 1966 when Zanuck offered him a three-picture contract as a producer. That same year Paramount Pictures hired him to he production.

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From 1966 to 1974 Evans presided over such hits as “ Odd Couple,” ″Rosemary’s Baby” and “Goodbye, Columbus.” He was a pivotal figure t only restoring Paramount but in a halcyon period of auteur-driven moviemaking, backed storied directors including Sidney Lumet, Hal Ashby, and Peter Bogdavich.

Albert Ruddy, who won an Oscar as a producer of “ Godfar,” credited Evans with filling an essential role in picture’s success. When Paramount’s he of distribution objected to nearly three-hour running time, Evans backed up filmmakers and insisted that movie t be cut. “He said, ‘I’ll quit before I cut movie,’” Ruddy said Monday. “He saved movie.”

Evans didn’t share in Paramount’s prosperity, however. He wasn’t granted any bonuses, and his string of marris and divorces drained away much of money he did make. After brief marris to actresses Sharon Hugueny and Camilla Sparv, he married MacGraw, who became a star with her performance in “Goodbye, Columbus.” She gave birth to Evans’ only child, Joshua.

MacGraw became a superstar after “Love Story,” n went off to Texas to spend four months making “ Getaway” with Steve McQueen, with whom she h one of Hollywood’s more table affairs. She and Evans divorced in 1972 and he married former Miss America Phyllis George in 1977. y split a year later.

Evans's own production house

Meanwhile, Evans h formed his own production company, and he quickly turned out one of biggest hits of 1974, Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” It earned Evans his lone Oscar mination.

next deces brought a period of failures, however, including Coppola’s “ Cotton Club,” and “Chinatown” sequel “ Two Jakes” and thrillers “Sliver” and “Je.” In 1980 he pleed guilty to cocaine possession and was placed on a year’s probation.

In 1983, he was called to testify at a preliminary hearing in murder of a “Cotton Club” investor, Roy Rin. On vice of his lawyers, Evans pleed Fifth Amendment. Although he was never connected to any wrongdoing, his refusal to testify to avoid self-incrimination furr sullied his reputation.

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He h a near-fatal setback in 1998 when he suffered a stroke in a Hollywood screening room.

“A bolt of lightning shot through my body,” he told a reporter later. “I thought I h died. I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing ‘It’s a Wonderful World.’”

Evans underwent a grueling rehab, but still found time for his fifth wedding, this time to Oxenberg. marri barely lasted longer than couple’s five-day courtship. “My fault,” Evans said afterward. “My brain wasn’t working right.”

Wedding . 6 occurred in 2002. bride was Leslie Ann Woodward, a model and actress. Divorce followed a little more than a year later. In 2005, Evans married Ly Victoria White, a socialite 33 years his junior. At time he h just finished his second memoir, “ Fat Ly Sang,” and he told Time magazine that with this marri, “I finally found last chapter.” But he and White also divorced, in 2006.Evans’ last movie as a hands-on producer was a hit: 2003 romantic comedy “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”“That’s problem with today’s business,” Evans told Los Angeles Times in 2002. “It’s t an art form, it’s a barter form. studios are run by committees of MBAs, but I’ve never seen an MBA who kws how to make people cry.”

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