Soap opera star Andrea Evans, known for her roles on “Young and the Restless” and “One Life to Live,” has died at 66 after fighting cancer.
Evans died on Sunday. Her death was announced Monday by casting director Don Carroll.
Evans career in the Hollywood industry spanned over 40 years, with her standout role being Tina Lord on ABC’s soap series “One Life to Live.” CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” was next on her bill, on which she starred as Patty Williams. She continued her soap career with “The Bold and the Beautiful” and NBC’s “Passions.”
The actress earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 1988 for Outstanding Ingenue for “One Life to Live” and graced the cover of Soap Opera Digest five times, she took the cover for the magazine every year from 1986 to 1990. Two years after her Emmy nomination, Evans fled from the public eye, revealing later that she was being stalked.
In a 2008 interview, Evans shared that her departure from her acting career was because the stalker’s actions reached extremely violent levels. In one instance, the man slashed his wrists on the front steps of the “One Life to Live” studio and sent her death threats in blood. The man was eventually detained years laters outside of the Secretary of State’s Washington, D.C. office. Evans made a return to “One Life to Live” in 2008 and in 2011.
Hailing from the midwest, Evans was born on June 8, 1957, in Aurora, Illinois. After graduating early from high school, she pursued her higher education at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During that time, Evan’s got her feet wet in the acting pool, when she was cast as an extra in Brian De Palma’s 1978 film “The Fury.”
Evans is survived by her husband Steve Rodriguez and her daughter Kylie.
