Andrea Evans - Career

Career

As a child, Evans appeared in beauty pageants, and later regional theater and commercials. She graduated early from high school and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there Evans was cast as an extra in the 1978 Brian De Palma film The Fury, and the same year in the miniseries The Awakening Land. Casting director Mary Jo Slater soon got Evans the role of Tina on One Life to Live, where she stayed until 1981. Evans then went on to portray Patty Williams, Paul Williams' little sister and Jack Abbott's wife, on The Young and the Restless from 1983-84.

Evans returned to One Life to Live in 1985, in a storyline credited with putting the series "back on course" and ultimately bringing Tina to her height of popularity. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988 for Outstanding Ingenue for One Life to Live, and has appeared on the cover of Soap Opera Digest five times. Evans appeared on the cover of Soap Opera Digest every year from 1986-90.

Evans left One Life to Live abruptly in January 1990. and dropped out of public view for nearly a decade. Years later she revealed that she had left to escape a persistent stalker who had gone as far as breaking into the ABC studios in New York City, intent on killing her. At the time, the stalker incident had been played down heavily in the press. On One Life to Live, the character of Tina returned after a short hiatus, with former Playboy Playmate Karen Witter in the role.

Evans made two feature films during the 1990s, performing a small part in A Low Down Dirty Shame in 1994 and a major role in Ice Cream Man in 1995. She returned to television in 1999, appearing as Amber Moore's "trashy" mother Tawny on The Bold and the Beautiful until 2000. That year she stepped into the role of Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane on the NBC soap opera Passions (replacing Maureen McCormick, whose ten-episode stint had ended), where she would stay until the series' final episode. Evans' longtime recurring status on Passions and the subsequent cancellation of the series for years fueled rumors of her return to the One Life to Live role of Tina, but it was announced in July 2007 that she would stay with Passions for its continued run on DirecTV. The series finished taping in March 2008, though new episodes were broadcast on DirecTV through August 2008.

In the June 26, 2007 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Evans was asked what her favorite role was besides her current one on Passions; she answered "That's an easy one ... Tina Lord Roberts on One Life to Live because in every actor's life, you hope for a role that becomes bigger than yourself and for me, Tina was that role."

ABC.com announced in April 2008 that Evans would soon return as Tina; she reappeared onscreen on June 11, 2008.

Executive Producer Frank Valentini noted, "Even though Andrea has not appeared on OLTL since 1990, she has remained among the most requested characters to return to the show ... I welcome her home to OLTL and to the role where she made an indelible mark on our audience." Evans' imminent departure from the series was announced on November 5, 2008.

Evans and ABC noted that the actress' return was always set to be short-term, as her "life, family and home" are in California while One Life to Live, taped in New York City. Valentini continued in a statement, "The character of Tina is a very important part of the OLTL canvas ... there is an opportunity to have her — Tina and Andrea — return at a future date, the show would be happy to explore it." Evans' last appearance was on November 25, 2008.

On April 6, 2010, TVGuide.com announced that Evans would be returning to The Young and the Restless, not as Patty Williams, but as Evans' "trashy" The Bold and the Beautiful character Tawny. The one-episode stint aired on May 12, 2010. On November 8 of the same year, it was announced that Evans would be crossing back over to 'The Bold and the Beautiful' with the character of Tawny. This time, Tawny will face off with her daughter Amber Moore once again for the first time in a decade. While still appearing in recurring capacity on The Bold and the Beautiful, Evans reprised the role of Tina on OLTL on September 27, 2011. She couldn't pass up the opportunity to play Tina one last time before the show left the air. her long-time on-screen love interest, John Loprieno also reprised the role of Cord. Her short-term run ended on November 15, 2011, when her character, Tina married Cord.

Evans also recently had a supporting role in Hit List as Diane Murphy, mother of the lead role, Charlotte Murphy, played by Shirly Brener.