Barry Evans
About
Biography
Filmography
Notes
"I'm not in love with acting," Evans once said. "It's just the easiest way I know to accumulate money quickly."
Press speculated on Evans's private life, linking him to several of his glamorous co-stars; he was rumored to have proposed to Judy Geeson. The actor did nothing to curb speculation, but lived alone and never married.
Biography
Specializing in endearingly innocent young men roles, actor Barry Evans grew up in an orphanage in Twickenham and at age 18 won a John Gielgud scholarship to the Central School of Speech and Drama. Following graduation, he found work with regional repertory companies and some "spear-carrying parts" at the National Theatre before Clive Donner's "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1967) launched him as a teenage boy farcically intent on losing his virginity. Critics praised his performance as "a definitive portrait of a boy on the threshold of manhood." That same year, he appeared in a BBC production of "Much Ado About Nothing."
His greatest success came as the naive and nervous medical student Michael Upton in the popular TV series "Doctor in the House" (LWT, 1969-70) and its successor "Doctor at Large" (1971). His youthful good looks and sweet confusion drew an enthusiastic and not wholly maternal response from female viewers, and Evans found himself typecast by his talent for comic anxiety and sexual vulnerability. Serious roles eluded him, and he declined to make a third "Doctor" series in 1971, only to return to type as the perky but put-upon young English teacher Jeremy Brown in the London Weekend Television comedy series "Mind Your Language" (1977-81).
During his hiatus from television, he starred in his last film, the dismal "Adventures of a Taxi Driver" (1975). He concentrated for a while on theater work, which included directing plays at Theatre Clwyd in Mold, but a period of debt and dependence on Social Security drove him back to TV and the all too familiar role. As his fresh-faced looks faded, he found himself less in demand and left show business. In a classic example of life imitating art, he had been working as a taxi driver for several years at the time of his death.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Film Production - Construction/Set (Feature Film)
Film Production - Construction/Set (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1967
First won widespread attention in Clive Donner's "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"
1967
Appeared in BBC production of "Much Ado About Nothing"
1969
Created the role of nervous medical student Michael Upton in the popular TV series "Doctor in the House"
1971
Left the "Doctor" programmes following the second series, "Doctor at Large", having achieved his greatest success
1975
Starred in dismal film farce, "Adventures of a Taxi Driver"
1977
Returned to TV as language-school teacher Jeremy Brown in the half-hour sitcom "Mind Your Language"
Photo Collections
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Bibliography
Notes
"I'm not in love with acting," Evans once said. "It's just the easiest way I know to accumulate money quickly."
Press speculated on Evans's private life, linking him to several of his glamorous co-stars; he was rumored to have proposed to Judy Geeson. The actor did nothing to curb speculation, but lived alone and never married.
He was never particularly comfortable with celebrity; his reluctance to do interviews and public appearances earned him quite rightly the reputation of a loner.
