Muriel Evans
Evans in 1934
Born	Muriel Adele Evanson (1910-07-20)July 20, 1910 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	October 26, 2000(2000-10-26) (aged 90) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1929–1946
Spouses	Michael J. P. Cudahy ​ ​ (m. 1929; div. 1930)​ Marshall R. Worcester ​ ​ (m. 1936; died 1971)​

Muriel Evans (bornMuriel Adele Evanson; July 20, 1910 – October 26, 2000) was an American film actress. She is best known for her many appearances in popularwesterns of the 1930s for which she won aGolden Boot Award.

Evans was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota to Norwegian immigrant parents. Her father died when she was only two months old, forcing her mother to move toCalifornia to find work, where Evans' mother took a job as a maid at First National Studios. She spent her afternoons on film sets and was soon noticed by a studio executive. The executive introduced her to the directorRobert Z. Leonard, who gave her a small role oppositeCorinne Griffith in the 1926 film,Mademoiselle Modiste. She continued attending classes atHollywood High School and landing bit parts in stock theater productions and silent films.^[1]

In 1929, Evans co-starred in thesilent, comedic short films,Good Night Nurse andJoyland, starringLupino Lane. Shortly after completingJoyland, Evans put her acting career on hold to finish school. In July 1929, Evans announced her engagement to Michael J. P. Cudahy, the grandson ofMichael Cudahy, one of the founders of theCudahy Packing Company.^[2] They were married on July 7, 1929 inRiverside, California.^[3] Evans and Cudahy traveled the world and settled inParis. In 1930, they returned to the United States and Evans filed for divorce.^[4] Their divorce was finalized in October 1930.^[5] Evans, who gave up her career upon her marriage, returned toHollywood, signed a contract atMGM and began making films again.^[6]

In March 1932, Evans (and 11 other actresses) won a two-day beauty contest sponsored byParamount Pictures, after which she starred in six films, most notablyYoung Ironsides withCharley Chase andPack Up Your Troubles withLaurel and Hardy. She would go on to star in eight more shorts with Chase before his death in 1940.

Evans' success was due in large part to her pleasant speaking voice. She made a smooth transition fromsilent pictures totalkies, and throughout the 1930s, Evans continued to work steadily. She appeared inFrank Capra'sMr. Deeds Goes to Town,Manhattan Melodrama withClark Gable andWilliam Powell, andThe Prizefighter and the Lady withMyrna Loy. By the mid-1930s, Evans also began co-starring in popular westerns alongsideTom Mix,John Wayne andTex Ritter. She also starred in threeHopalong Cassidy films oppositeWilliam Boyd, and did seven westerns withBuck Jones.^[7]

In 1936, Evans married atheatrical agent, Marshall R. Worcester. By age 30, she retired from acting. One of her last film appearances came in 1946, in thePete Smith short,Studio Visit. Soon after retiring, Evans and her husband settled inWashington, D.C. Over the next decade, she starred in fourradio shows and in the television showHollywood Reporter. In 1951, the couple moved back to Hollywood, although Evans never resumed her acting career. Eventually, the couple bought property inTarzana, California, where Evans dabbled in real estate.^[1]

After the death of her husband in 1971, Evans began work as a volunteer nurse at theMotion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital inWoodland Hills not far from her home. After a stroke in 1994, she became a resident within the complex and often dined with fellow actors with whom she had once worked, includingAnita Garvin. In 1999, Evans made her last film appearance in a 2000 documentary,I Used to Be in Pictures, in which she was one of many former actors who recalled their experiences in the film work.^[1]

On October 26, 2000, Muriel Evans died ofcolon cancer at theMotion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She was 90 years old.^[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMuriel Evans.

• Muriel Evans atIMDb

• 1910 births
• 2000 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• American film actresses
• American people of Norwegian descent
• American radio actresses
• American silent film actresses
• American stage actresses
• Deaths from colorectal cancer in California
• Hollywood High School alumni
• Actresses from Minneapolis
• Western (genre) film actresses

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