Joan Evans, ‘On the Loose’ Actress, Dies at 89

October 28, 2023 @ 5:00 PM

Joan Evans, an actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age and goddaughter of Joan Crawford, died on Oct. 21 at the age of 89.

Her son, John Weatherly, confirmed her passing in Henderson, Nevada, to media, but a cause of death was not given for the “On the Loose” actress.

The actress was the daughter of screenwriters Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert, who also worked as a journalist. She signed her first studio contract at the age of 14 with Samuel Goldwyn. Evans was accidentally shot in the arm while filming 1949’s “Roseanna McCoy,” which resulted in emergency surgery and subsequent hospitalization.

Evans was born in New York on July 18, 1934. Her mother, a journalist for Photoplay magazine, played a role in building her career by writing a number of articles about her.

She married Kirby Weatherly minutes after midnight the day she turned 18. Evans later said, “The head of publicity at Goldwyn had said to me, ‘Joan, I don’t care what you do, just don’t call me in the middle of the night and tell me you’re married.’ So, I called him in the middle of the night and told him I was married.”

The marriage resulted in the estrangement of her parents, with whom she never spoke to again. Evans and Weatherly were married until he died on Jan. 1 of this year.

The Hollywood Reporter first broke news of Evans’ death.