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VOL. 15
NO. 1 JANUARY 2015
Linda Evans Finding Peace and Happiness Growing Older in the Northwest
T
he award-winning actress Linda Evans has long been hailed as one of the most beautiful women in the world.
She is also known for her warmth and kindness: in 1985, during the height of her fame, the Los Angeles Times proclaimed Linda Evans (on right) with Joan Collins and John Forsythe, her co-stars from the hit television show “Dynasty” - Photo courtesy of Barry King her to be the most well-liked celebrity in have absolutely no privacy. It’s difficult Hollywood. Linda is known best for her because when you have a public persona, roles of Audra Barkley on The Big Valley people see you in a certain way.” When (1965-1969) and Krystle Carrington Harper’s Bazaar named her one of the 10 on Dynasty (1981 -1989). In 2009 she most beautiful women in the world, she won the British thought, “This is competitive cooking not reality.” She reality show, Hell’s felt tremendous Kitchen. pressure trying Today she spends to live up to the her time writing, illusion of Krystal cooking, working Carrington. with organizations Linda left such as Meals on Dynasty before its Wheels and traveling last season because the country to speak she needed time on aging gracefully to reflect on her in a culture that does life. “That was the not revere aging. whole purpose of Linda makes her coming up here home in the small [to Washington town of Rainier, State], because I Washington. “I have understood that 70 acres with a river so much of my running through life was outside Linda and Alexie. “During the ‘Dynasty’ it,” she said in an of me.” She had years when I opened my purse, I had contents interview on the like a comb, a mirror, lipstick or a credit card. once lived her life Oprah Winfrey Show. Now when I open my handbag, it’s stuffed trying to make her with multi-colored doggie-poop bags! My Her sister, nephew husband happy. dearest Alexie has taken over my life.” Photo and stepdaughter, “To think of just courtesy of Linda Evans Sean Derek (from me never entered her marriage to John Derek), all have my mind,” she says. When her marriages homes on the property. “We’ve got ended, she found herself focusing on dogs. We’ve got deer. I live in heaven,” her career. “But it just seemed there had she exclaims. “I absolutely love it here.” to be more to life than all that…I was While Linda could live anywhere in the looking to find out who I was. I wanted world (thanks to the success of Dynasty), to go on the inner journey.” she fell in love with the Northwest She says she never felt healthier or because of its extraordinary natural more satisfied than after moving out beauty and the people she meets here: of the spotlight to Washington. “I’m “You want to be where your heart feels happier because I don’t define myself by safe,” she says. “I came for a visit and what other people think. You get older couldn’t leave.” and wiser, that’s the great thing about Moving to Washington gave her aging,” she told Oprah. “You get more the peace she was seeking. “Even though certain in yourself…who you are and it was a blessing to have Dynasty, you what you want.”
Award-winning actress Linda Evans, best known for her roles on “The Big Valley” and "Dynasty" makes her home in the Northwest and travels the country speaking on aging gracefully in a culture that does not revere aging. Photo courtesy of ITV/Rex Features
Even as a girl, Linda never placed much value on her looks. She was born November 18, 1942 in Connecticut. When she was six months old, her parents, both professional dancers, moved the family to Hollywood, next door to her grandparents. At age 14, Linda, the second of three daughters, was encouraged by her English teacher to enroll in drama classes to overcome shyness. At 15, she went with a friend who was auditioning for a television commercial and, without wanting to, Linda got the part. Shortly after, in a true Hollywood twist of fate, Linda’s first role on a major television series was in Bachelor Father, starring John Forsythe. Over two decades later she would play his wife on the hit show, Dynasty. Many small roles followed, but Linda’s big break came when she landed the role of Audra in The Big Valley, daughter of Victoria Barkley, played by Barbara “Missy” Stanwyk. “It’s stunning to me that my first television series was with such an incredible legend,” said Linda in an interview with Katherine Scrivens. “What a magnificent actress and beautiful human being. I was very fortunate that she wanted to teach me
how to be a professional. Missy’s love and protection of me in the beginning of my career was really beautiful and her influence on me has been tremendous. She came to me when my mom died and said, ‘I’ll never replace your mom, but I’ll be your mom from now on,’ put her arms around me and was there for me her whole life.” During her time on The Big Valley, Linda met and married actor / director John Derek. She remembers falling in love with him at age 12, years before they met, after seeing him in a movie. He was 16 years older, but, she says, “Age doesn’t matter when you are in love. It was a fabulous marriage,” she adds, although it ended in divorce when John left her for then-teenager Bo Derek. Linda was devastated, of course. “I was only in my late 20s. I wanted to die. I didn’t know what to do.” What she did was to turn her mind to herself. She called her agent, found another job and eventually married again. “Life went on,” she says. Despite the heartbreak, she calls John Derek continued on page 14