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Behind the HeadlinesThe Report
‘The Consummate Gentleman’
H
e was one of the great Hollywood
characters of all time.
Bob had a legendary reputation
that proceeded him, with all those years at
Paramount, where he made some terrific
movies, and Ali MacGraw and all that. But
he was a very charismatic man with a ter-
rific sense of humor.I always enjoyed meetings and dinners
with Bob because you never knew what
was going to happen at them. I remem-
ber once we were having dinner and two
or three gorgeous women walked by our
table. I said, “Bob, are you interested?” He
said, “I haven’t gotten it up since 1971, but
yes, I’m interested.” — AS TOLD TO B.S.O
n a cold,
rainy Los
Angeles day in
2015, I was invited to
Woodland, a legendary
estate in Beverly Hills.
My heart was pound-
ing. I was going to meet
a lion. A lion in winter,
maybe, but still a lion:
Robert Evans. He was
a connection to a time
that now looks like a
mirage in reverse.
Robert Evans was
my kind of Hollywood.
The real Hollywood.
The Hollywood of
mavericks, rascals,
cowboys and larger-
than-life personalities
— not the conglom-
erates that now rule
through mediocrity
and make movies
by consensus.
Evans was the storiedlover of Ava Gardner,
Lana Turner, Ali
MacGraw and prob-
ably a thousand others.
He was an actor who
became the head of
failing Paramount
Studios. He lived the
highest of highs and
the lowest of lows.
His tan was as leg-
endary as his legacy.
But he’s so much more
than white teeth and
unnaturally dark skin.
He was a real bullshit
artist who happened to
be telling the truth.
When I left his
home that day, I wept.
I wept for someone
extraordinary, I wept
for a humble giant.
In those two hours,
I fell in love with
him. That’s my kind
of Hollywood.Joe Eszterhas (writer, Sliver)
‘You Never Knew What
Was Going to Happen’
A
s countless Hollywood men go
down in #MeToo flames, the
common rebuttal from the
fallen is, “Back in the day, this is how
everyone behaved.” They often point
to Bob Evans as that quintessential
member of Hollywood’s boys club. But
as someone who worked for Bob for
14 years, I can say definitively that he
was nothing like the men who have
been exposed as predators and abusers.
Bob was always the consummate gen-
tleman; he hired women and solicitedby Rose McGowan
‘A B.S. ARTIST WHOTOLD THE TRUTH’
Evans sat poolside on two telephones in
the garden of his Beverly Hills home, circa 1978.McGowanI
have a lot of stories, but most of them I can’t
tell. But he was incredibly generous. Those
screenings at his home — it was a collection of
directors, writers and actors that you’d never dream
of meeting. And he prided himself on being the con-
duit. He would introduce you to great luminaries with
such pride. He was so gracious, right up to the end,
which is why people looked after him, because he
looked after so many people for so long. — AS TOLD TO B.S.Phillip Noyce (director, Sliver)
‘HE WAS THE CONDUIT’
NoyceProducer Christine Peters, who worked with Evans for 14 years, remembers
a mentor who ‘understood a woman’s intuition better than anyone else’their insight when others often saw
females as objects who should be seen
and not heard. Conversely, Bob des-
perately wanted to hear a woman’s
perspective. He understood a woman’s
intuition more than anyone else. I con-
sider myself lucky to have been a part
of this legendary man’s life. I witnessed
Hollywood history firsthand, and it
helped me with the next phase of my
career. To use his favorite expressions,
“Let’s make magic, pick your battles and
win the war.” — AS TOLD TO TATIANA SIEGELEszterhas and future wife Naomi Baka (left) and Evans with a date in 1993.