Wilbur Evans

Wilbur Whilt Evans (August 5, 1905 – May 31, 1987) was an American baritone, actor, and singer whose career spanned radio, opera, Broadway, film, and early live television. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Walter Percy and Emma Whilt Evans, he was of Welsh descent and grew up alongside a brother, Walter, and a sister, Emma, who died young. His musical education began in childhood, when he sang with the Welsh Singing Society of Philadelphia and served as a soloist in the choir of the First Unitarian Church in Germantown at the age of five. His first stage appearance came at Holmes Junior High School in a production of Daddy Long Legs. At West Philadelphia High School for Boys, which he attended from 1921 to 1925, he took on the role of Ko-Ko in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

Following his high school graduation, Evans received a two-year scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music. During his second year there, in 1927, he entered the Atwater Kent Foundation National Radio Singing Contest, a national competition that drew approximately 50,000 contestants. Evans won the top male prize, which carried a $5,000 cash award and a two-year scholarship covering his junior and senior years at Curtis.

As a baritone, Evans built an early career in radio and concert touring. In 1930 he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue radio work, concert performances, and opportunities in film, but returned to New York in 1931 after limited financial success. He signed with the Columbia Concert Management Agency and its subsidiary, the Cooperative-Community Concerts Bureau, which organized tours across the United States and Canada, bringing classical music to regional audiences through locally promoted events. Over the course of his touring career, Evans performed in every state except North Dakota, appearing in concerts, operas, recitals, and oratorios.

Evans developed a particular association with Gilbert and Sullivan through Philadelphia's Savoy Company, the world's oldest theatrical organization dedicated to those works, founded in 1901. On May 22 and 23, 1931, he played the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance at the Academy of Music, earning strong reviews. He returned to the Savoy stage on May 13 and 14, 1932, portraying Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard, also at the Academy of Music. He credited his preparation for that demanding role to director Pacie Ripple, who had worked in D'Oyly Carte productions under Gilbert and Sullivan themselves. A duet Evans performed with Savoy veteran John Steele Williams drew repeated applause from the audience. His final appearance with the Savoy Company came in 1936, when he starred in Utopia, Limited, which marked both the Savoy's and Philadelphia's premiere of that opera, again under Ripple's direction.

Evans made his grand opera debut in 1933 in Tristan und Isolde with Fritz Reiner and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. He served two years in the Marine Reserve during the 1930s. In 1942, he made his New York debut in The Merry Widow at Carnegie Hall before going on to his Broadway debut in the musical Mexican Hayride. His subsequent Broadway credits included the musicals The New Moon, Up in Central Park, and La Parisienne, as well as By the Beautiful Sea in 1954. In 1951, Evans co-starred with Mary Martin in the original London production of South Pacific at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He made his directorial debut at the Lambertville Music Circus in 1949 and became director of the Valley Forge Music Fair in 1955. His final Broadway role came in Man of La Mancha in 1965, and he also appeared in a production of that show at the Mastbaum Theater in Philadelphia in 1966. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he performed in concerts and cabarets alongside performers including Mary Martin and Shirley Booth.

Evans appeared in the 1940 film Her First Romance and the 1953 film The Million Pound Note. His recording credits include The Desert Song for Decca Records in 1944, with Kitty Carlisle and Felix Knight, and The Red Mill for Decca in 1945, with Eileen Farrell and Felix Knight. On television, he appeared in Musical Comedy Time productions of The Chocolate Soldier and The Merry Widow, both in 1950, and in two episodes of Lost in Space in 1966.

Between 1967 and 1971, Evans served as an Army officer overseeing United Service Organizations shows in Vietnam. Upon returning to the United States in 1971, he was appointed head of the music and theater division at Fort Bliss, Texas, a post he held until his retirement from the Army in 1974.

Evans was married four times. His first marriage, to Florence Monroe Evans, ended in divorce in June 1946. In October 1948 he married actress Susanna Foster, with whom he had two sons, Philip and Michael. The couple separated in 1955 and divorced in 1956. His fourth wife was the former Masako Ogura, whom he married in February 1974. Evans died at his home in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, at the age of 81, survived by his wife and his son Michael.