Maurice Evans | |
|---|---|
 Evans in 1956 | |
| Born | Maurice Herbert Evans (1901-06-03)3 June 1901 Dorchester, Dorset, England |
| Died | 12 March 1989(1989-03-12) (aged 87) Rottingdean,East Sussex, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1926–1983 |
Maurice Herbert Evans (3 June 1901 – 12 March 1989) was an English actor, noted for his interpretations ofShakespearean characters. His best-known screen roles includeDr. Zaius in the 1968 filmPlanet of the Apes and Maurice onBewitched.
Evans was born at 28 Icen Way inDorchester,Dorset. He was the son of Laura (Turner) and Alfred Herbert Evans, a Welsh dispensing chemist[1] and keen amateur actor who made adaptations of novels byThomas Hardy for the local amateur company. Young Maurice made his first stage appearance as a small boy inFar from the Madding Crowd.[2]
He first appeared on the stage in 1926 at theCambridge Festival Theatre and joined theOld Vic Company in 1934, playingHamlet,Richard II, andIago. He was selected byTerence Gray to appear in the opening production in November 1926 at the Festival Theatre, taking the role ofOrestes in two parts of the sensational production of theOresteia ofAeschylus. This was followed by Lord Belvoir inThe Man Who Ate the Popomack byW. J. Turner, and Saint Anthony inMaeterlinck'sThe Miracle of Saint Anthony.
In 1927, Evans played a poet inThe Pleasure Garden by Beatrice Mayor followed by Young Man inOn Baile's Strand byW. B. Yeats, Midir inThe Immortal Hour byFiona Macleod, the Hon. Algernon Moodie inThe Rumour by C.K. Munro, Mark Ingestire inSweeney Todd by Dibdin Pitt, the poet inThe Lost Silk Hat byLord Dunsany, the Captain inAndrocles and the Lion byGeorge Bernard Shaw, Mister Four and Young Man inThe Adding Machine byElmer Rice,Don Juan inthe play of the same title byJames Elroy Flecker, two parts in Terence Gray's own playThe Red Nights of the Tcheka, the Stage Manager inThe Player Queen (also by Yeats), the Second Engineer inThe Insect Play by theČapekbrothers, Prince Kamose in another Gray play calledAnd in the Tomb, and finally in June 1927, Don Pelegari inPirandello'sEach In His Own Way. Both Yeats and Shaw attended performances of their own plays.
In 1928, Evans was one of a group of out-of-work actors includingLaurence Olivier, chosen to perform in a "tryout" ofR. C. Sherriff'sJourney's End directed byJames Whale at theApollo Theatre in London, and later in 1929 at theSavoy Theatre which had been leased by the Chicago theatre managerMaurice Browne. It was a huge success, running for two years and making Evans's name. He played the young officer Raleigh. In 1934, he went to theOld Vic Theatre where his interpretation of Shakespeare'sRichard II was praised and led to an invitation to joinKatharine Cornell in the United States. His first appearance onBroadway was opposite Cornell inRomeo and Juliet in 1936. A later production ofRichard II was the surprise success of the 1937 theatre season. Evans went on to playHamlet (1938),Falstaff inHenry IV, Part 1 (1939),Macbeth (1941), andMalvolio inTwelfth Night (1942) opposite theViola ofHelen Hayes, under the direction ofMargaret Webster. He also starred opposite Cornell in the 1935 production ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sSt. Joan.[3]
When the U.S. entered theSecond World War, he enlisted in theUnited States Army and he later was in charge of an Army Entertainment Section in theCentral Pacific. He arranged for the transfer ofCarl Reiner from the Signal Corps to the entertainment unit in Hawaii, where Evans was his commanding officer. The unit produced dozens of shows for the troops in the Pacific. Reiner later hired Evans for the part of Hobart the butler inThe Jerk, as Evans's agent had indicated that the part would enable Evans to maintain his union benefits.[4]
Evans produced his famous "G.I. version" ofHamlet that cut the text of the play to make the title character more appealing to the troops, an interpretation so popular that he later took it to Broadway in 1945. Evans rose to the rank of Major by the end of the war. He shifted his attention to the works ofShaw, notably as John Tanner inMan and Superman and as King Magnus inThe Apple Cart. In 1952, he starred as the murderous husband in the originalBroadway stage production ofDial M for Murder. He also successfully produced Broadway productions in which he did not appear, notablyThe Teahouse of the August Moon.[3]
In 1956, Evans recorded an LP of stories fromWinnie-the-Pooh. American television audiences of the 1960s will remember Evans as Samantha's father, Maurice, on thesitcomBewitched. His real-life insistence that his first name be pronounced "Morris" was ironically at odds with hisBewitched character's contrasting stance that it be pronounced "Maw-REESE". Evans also appeared in the fourth season ofDaniel Boone starringFess Parker playing a French impresario "Beaumarchais". He also playedThe Puzzler onBatman in a double episode storyline (which was common for that series) in December 1966.[5] Continuing his American TV appearances, he guest starred inThe Big Valley from the latter part of the fourth and final season of that western series in April 1969, an episode entitled "Danger Road".[6]
Evans had great impact on the big screen as well. He played a diabolical villain inKind Lady (1951; co-starringEthel Barrymore,Keenan Wynn, andAngela Lansbury); Emperor Antoninus inAndrocles and the Lion (1952); and Sir Arthur Sullivan inThe Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953). Evans appeared memorably in two 1968 films: as the evolvedorangutan,Dr. Zaius inPlanet of the Apes (and the 1970 sequelBeneath the Planet of the Apes) and as the doomed "Hutch" in the thrillerRosemary's Baby, who attempts to warn the title character of the true nature of her Satanic neighbours.[6]
Evans appeared in more American television productions of Shakespeare than any other actor. Beginning in 1953, for the famous television anthology,Hallmark Hall of Fame, he starred in the first feature-length (i.e., longer than an hour) dramatisations of the plays to be presented on American television. They were:
In bringing so much Shakespeare to American television in such a short span of time (between 1953 and 1960), Evans was a true pioneer. This had never been tried before – at least, not in the U.S. He firmly believed that it was an actor's job to "lead public taste, not to play to public taste".[8]
Evans brought his Shakespeare productions to Broadway many times, playingHamlet on the Great White Way in four separate productions for a record grand total of 283 performances. He and DameJudith Anderson starred on Broadway several times inMacbeth. Their performances were widely regarded as the definitive portrayals of these characters, although one notable dissenter wasOrson Welles, who stated that Evans, as an actor, was "worse than bad – he was poor."[9]
Evans appeared on Broadway as Hamlet four times, but the productions of the play that he appeared in were consecutive revivals of it – no other actor played Hamlet on Broadway between 1938, when Evans first played him there, and 1946, which marked Evans's last Broadway Hamlet.[10][11][12][13]
Although he took U.S. citizenship in 1941,[14] Evans returned to Britain by the end of the 1960s. Aside from an infrequent trip to the United States and occasional visits to retired actors in financial need—as a representative of theActors' Fund, of which he was a longtime trustee—he lived quietly nearBrighton. He never married and was survived by a brother, Hugh, of London.[15]
Evans died, aged 87, in a nursing home inRottingdean,East Sussex, England.[8]
