He was survived by his two daughters (Carlena and Tammie), his mother (Annie Sue), a brother, a cousin, and a niece. On September 11, 2002, Helena Evans died of breast cancer after she was diagnosed with it in February 2001.įour years after her death, Evans died of throat cancer at his mother's home in Twentynine Palms, California, at the age of 57. Įvans played Lenny in the cast of the 1976–77 Danny Thomas situation comedy The Practice during its second and final season.Įvans was also a real estate investor and owned properties in California's Inland Empire. Evans was a creator/writer of the series Good Times (1974–79). Actor and opera singer Damon Evans (no relation to Michael) then took the role of Lionel, but Mike Evans returned in the role for the sixth through eighth seasons. According to Jimmie Walker, Evans had threatened to leave if he was not given more screen time, and Norman Lear let him out of his contract. Show developer Norman Lear preferred Cleavon Little for the role, but Rich lobbied to cast an actor who would appear less "threatening." Įvans continued to play the role on the spinoff The Jeffersons, but left after the first season to pursue other aspects of his career. Career Ī college student majoring in drama but with no acting experience, Evans caught his big break when All in the Family producer and director John Rich hired him to play Lionel Jefferson, the son of the Bunkers' new black neighbors. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College. His family later moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from Los Angeles High School. He attended Palmer Memorial Institute, a private school for young black Americans in Sedalia, North Carolina. His father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist, and his mother, Annie Sue Evans, a teacher. He was also a guest celebrity panelist on the TV game show Match Game.Įvans was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. Michael Jonas Evans (Novem– December 14, 2006) was an American actor, best known as Lionel Jefferson on both All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Front: Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner (1973) Cast of The Jeffersons, clockwise from top: Mike Evans, Sherman Hemsley, and Isabel Sanford (1975) Back row, left to right: Jean Stapleton, Mike Evans, Carroll O'Connor. Don’t Miss A Story.Cast of All in the Family. It just so happened that a couple of years after that, he died and the rest is history.” that point I decided ‘You know what? I’m not going to the media’…and eventually, I decided I just had to suck it up, ‘this man doesn’t want me,’ you know? It was pathetic but I had to come to the conclusion that I can’t make a person acknowledge, accept, or want me. She continued, “So I mean it was a long story, he ended up calling me back because that was like pretty tragic and I was just like ‘Who’s my father?’ I’m calling my Momma, I’m calling my Grandmomma like ‘What’s going on?’ And they both told me “You know who your dad is, he knows who he is too, whatever.” I even put an ad that was in the National Enquirer, Wendy Williams did something and it was just, it was a mess. Harris explained, “The last time that I talked to him literally I was 21 years old and at that time is when…his last couple words in that conversation to me was that he didn’t know if he was even my father and I said ‘uh I have blood tests that say you are my father’ and he said “Well I don’t know, maybe you should consider my brother.” I said ‘WHAT?!! Who’s your brother? Nobody even knows who your brother is.’ This is clearly some stuff that took place with him and my Momma that I know nothing about…um, I’m clearly innocent, and at that time I’m just like ‘I just don’t understand, I just don’t.’ ” Pictured from left is Zara Cully (as Mother Jefferson), Isabel Sanford (as Louise Jefferson), Mike Evans (as Lionel Jefferson), Sherman Hemsley (as George Jefferson) in the CBS television situation comedy, THE JEFFERSONS. At one point, Wendy Williams got involved in the mess. “And so uh, it was actually quite a sad and tragic death and he ultimately died in his mother’s house.”īefore his passing, Harris and her father never established a bond and he continued to deny being her father. He was a smoker without a tongue in his mouth, broke and very miserable,” she shared. “ He died in December of ’06 and it’s interesting because he actually died of throat cancer.
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