Jason Evers

Early life

Evers was born Herbert Evers in New York City, New York. After leaving high school early to join the United States Army, Evers was so inspired by stars like John Wayne (who he would later appear with in The Green Berets) that he decided to try acting.

Career

A stint on Broadway led to Hollywood, where his first recurring role was on the 1960 NBC western television series, Wrangler. On June 30, 1960, Evers appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. He was cast for an episode of the ABC western series, The Rebel ("Miz Purdy", 1961) appearing as George Tess.

Evers made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murder victim Stuart Benton in "The Case of the Difficult Detour" (1961), and defendant Roy Galen in "The Case of the Latent Lover" (1964). In "The Case of the Posthumous Painter" (also 1961), he played the defendant's brother.

In the 1963–1964 season, Evers starred as 41-year-old Professor Howe in the 26-episode ABC drama series, Channing, based on life on a college campus, with co-star Henry Jones. His most enduring role derived from the 1959 B-movie classic The Brain That Wouldn't Die, which was not released until 1962.

Evers appeared in NBC's The Road West ("The Insider", 1966) starring Barry Sullivan as the patriarch of a family of pioneers relocated to Kansas. From 1967 to 1969, he appeared sporadically as James Sonnett, the missing son sought by the Walter Brennan character, Will Sonnett, in ABC's The Guns of Will Sonnett °

Evers featured in an episode of the original Star Trek (Wink of an Eye, 1968) about a race of aliens who exist in a hyperaccelerated time frame and briefly take over the starship. The same year he appeared in the films The Green Berets, P.J. and A Man Called Gannon, and also appeared in sci-fi films such as The Illustrated Man (1969) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).

Evers continued to appear in films and television, in such series as "The Rockford Files", having guest starred with Bruce Lee in the Green Hornet episode "Eat, Drink and be Dead" (1966), but they were of an increasingly minor nature. Evers also appeared as a race car driver and a romantic interest of Doris Martin in The Doris Day Show in 1970. His later films included A Piece of the Action (1977), Claws (1977) and Barracuda (1978), and his final film appearance was in 1990 in Basket Case 2. He returned to New York in his later years.

Death

Evers died of heart failure in Los Angeles on March 13, 2005.