Occupation Actress Role Film actress Name Edith Evanson | Spouse(s) never married Years active 1940-74 | |
Born April 28, 1896 ( 1896-04-28 ) Tacoma, Washington, U.S. Died November 29, 1980, Riverside County, California, United States Movies Rope, Marnie, Shane, I Remember Mama, The Damned Don't Cry! Similar People Diane Baker, Leslie Fenton, George Stevens, Vincent Sherman, Charles Barton | ||
Edith Evanson (née Carlson; April 29, 1896 – November 29, 1980) was an American film actress.
Life and career
She was born Edith Carlson in Tacoma, Washington, where her father was a Protestant church clergyman (a religion to which she adhered throughout her life). She was of Swedish, German and English descent. Her first job was as a court reporter in Bellingham.
On March 15, 1923 she married Morris Otto Evanson (1893-1975). The couple had no children.
Her first film role came in The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1940) in an uncredited role. In the 1940s she was in supporting roles mostly as a maid, a busybody, landladies, or middle-aged secretaries. Some of her other film roles include parts in Citizen Kane (1941), Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), Reunion in France (1942), The Strange Woman (1947), I Remember Mama (1948), Rope (1948), The Damned Don't Cry (1950), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Disney's Toby Tyler (1960). During her time in Hollywood, she co-starred opposite some of its greatest legends, including Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Orson Welles, Joan Crawford, Michael Rennie, Glenn Ford, Patricia Neal, James Stewart, Irene Dunne, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Hedy Lamarr.
With the coming of television in the late 1940s she expanded in her career appearing on such shows as You Are There, The Loretta Young Show, Chevron Hall of Stars, Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre, The Millionaire, Zane Grey Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Frank Sinatra Show, Bachelor Father, Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond, and Lassie.
A stage actress as well as film star, Evanson often appeared in productions which were staged in the Los Angeles area. She played a Swedish mother reminiscing about the births, deaths, and lives of her children in DeWitt Bodeen's play, Harvest of Years in 1946 (Evanson's performance was called "poignant" by the Los Angeles Times). Although Evanson had played one of the aunts in the 1948 film I Remember Mama, she portrayed Mama herself on stage just a year later.
Director George Cukor, a friend of Evanson, asked her to coach Marilyn Monroe on a Swedish accent for Monroe's role in the unfinished film Something's Got to Give (from which Monroe was eventually fired). Evanson spent several months with Monroe, and spoke to her just days before the troubled actress's death.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Evanson found herself getting little work in Hollywood due to her advancing age; in 1974 she made her last appearance in an episode of Apple's Way.
Evanson was a lifelong member of the Democratic party. Following her retirement, she lived in Riverside County, California, until her death from heart failure on November 29, 1980. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.