Robert Evans, Producer of 'Godfather' Movies and 'Chinatown,' Dies
Robert Evans, the former Paramount Pictures chief who produced some of Hollywood's most indelible movies including Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, and Chinatown, died over the weekend at home in Los Angeles, according to a source close to the family. He was 89.
His office did not immediately return calls and emails; Variety has also reported on his death.
Evans, whose seven wives included the actresses Ali MacGraw, Leslie Ann Woodward, and Catherine Oxenburg, embodied a classic image of the Hollywood studio boss. With a personal style that seems permanently connected to his 1970s heyday, he was known for wearing dark tinted glasses and a bolo pendant tied low around his neck, often over an open-necked shirt or white turtleneck sweater.
When he became the head of Paramount Pictures in 1967, the studio system that had built Hollywood's Golden Era was crumbling, and Evans helped usher in a new generation of filmmakers who came to be called the New Hollywood: Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, John Schlesinger, and John Frankenheimer, among others.
Evans’ Beverly Hills home was known as a base for parties that were star-studded, even by Hollywood standards. Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty could often be spotted chatting by the pool, which sometimes had synchronized swimmers performing in it.
The producer staged coveted, invitation-only showings of new releases in a screening room in his garden. But that was not rebuilt after a 2003 fire that also destroyed a trophy room containing his awards.
At age 36, Evans was Paramount's youngest-ever head of production. In 1974, after he stepped down from running the studio, he created the in-house Robert Evans Productions company, whose last studio release was the Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey vehicle How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, in 2003.
Many younger film-goers were introduced to Evans through his 1994 autobiography, The Kid Stays in the Picture, which became a well-received documentary in 2002; the following year Comedy Central premiered an animated series called Kid Notorious, starring Evans as himself.
This past July, however, Paramount declined to renew its contract with Evans after an unbroken 52-year relationship. It was, one friend says, a devestating blow to the longtime producer, who was in failing health. “That’s what killed him,” said a friend. “He couldn’t believe Paramount let him go.”
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