Muriel Evans

Muriel Evans, born Muriel Adele Evanson on July 20, 1910, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an American actress whose career spanned silent film, sound film, Broadway, radio, and television. She died on October 26, 2000, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 90.

Evans was the daughter of Norwegian immigrant parents. Her father died when she was two months old, and her mother subsequently relocated to California to seek employment, taking a position as a maid at First National Studios. Growing up in proximity to film sets, Evans was noticed by a studio executive who introduced her to director Robert Z. Leonard. Leonard cast her in a small role opposite Corinne Griffith in the 1926 film Mademoiselle Modiste. While pursuing bit parts in stock theater and silent films, she continued her education at Hollywood High School.

In 1929, Evans appeared in two silent comedic short films, Good Night Nurse and Joyland, both starring Lupino Lane. That same year, she announced her engagement to Michael J. P. Cudahy, grandson of Michael Cudahy, a founder of the Cudahy Packing Company. The two married on July 7, 1929, in Riverside, California, and subsequently traveled abroad, settling in Paris. They returned to the United States in 1930, and their divorce was finalized that October. Evans then returned to Hollywood and signed a contract with MGM.

In March 1932, Evans was among twelve actresses who won a two-day beauty contest sponsored by Paramount Pictures. This led to roles in six films, among them Young Ironsides with Charley Chase and Pack Up Your Troubles with Laurel and Hardy. She went on to appear in eight additional short films with Chase before his death in 1940. Her ability to make a smooth transition from silent pictures to sound films was attributed in part to her speaking voice. During the 1930s she appeared in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Manhattan Melodrama alongside Clark Gable and William Powell, and The Prizefighter and the Lady with Myrna Loy. By the mid-1930s, Evans had also established herself in westerns, co-starring with Tom Mix, John Wayne, and Tex Ritter, appearing in three Hopalong Cassidy films opposite William Boyd, and completing seven westerns with Buck Jones. She received a Golden Boot Award recognizing her extensive work in the western genre.

In 1933, Evans appeared on Broadway in the musical Murder at the Vanities, adding stage work to her already active screen career. In 1936, she married theatrical agent Marshall R. Worcester. By the age of 30, Evans had retired from acting, with one of her final film appearances coming in the 1946 Pete Smith short Studio Visit. She and her husband settled in Washington, D.C., where over the following decade she performed in four radio programs and appeared on the television program Hollywood Reporter. The couple returned to Hollywood in 1951, though Evans did not resume her acting career, and they eventually purchased property in Tarzana, California, where she became involved in real estate.

Following her husband's death in 1971, Evans volunteered as a nurse at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills. After suffering a stroke in 1994, she became a resident of the facility, where she regularly spent time with fellow former actors including Anita Garvin. In 1999, Evans participated in the documentary I Used to Be in Pictures, released in 2000, in which she and other former performers reflected on their experiences in the film industry. She died of colon cancer at that same facility on October 26, 2000.