Gene Evans

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Film actor Gene Evans (July 11, 1922 - April 1, 1998) began his acting career while serving in World War II, performing with a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. Evans, raised in Colton, California, made his film debut in 1947 and ended up appearing in dozens of movies and television programs. He specialized in playing tough guys like cowboys, sheriffs, convicts and Army sergeants. In the mid-50's he played Ken's father on the MY FRIEND FLICKA series, opposite Anita Louise as his wife. The near-sighted actor rarely wore his thick glasses in films, but did wear them while playing a doctor in the B-movie Donovan's Brain (1953). Evans played in one episode of Dallas (TV series) in January 1979. In that episode he played the role of Garrioson Southworth.

He retired to a farm in Tennessee following his role as an evil sheriff in the original Walking Tall.

In the late 1980s, Evans appeared on stage as the gruesome Papa in the stage production Papa is All, directed by playwright Tommy F. Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee.