Why did Mike Evans leave such a popular sitcom?
Michael Jonas Evans was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on November 3, 1949. Mike’s father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist while his mother, Annie Sue Evans, was a school teacher. He initially attended a private school in North Carolina. Later his family moved to California, and they settled in Los Angeles.
Upon graduating high school, Mike decided to study drama at Los Angeles City College. Interestingly enough, Mike had zero acting experience when he landed the plum role of Lionel on the controversial and popular 70s sitcom, All in the Family which spawned The Jeffersons. How did Mike secure the role of Lionel in one of the hottest sitcoms at the time? The story goes, Mike, who was a drama major, was hitchhiking to class and got picked up by a talent agent. The stars must have been aligned for Mike because he was hired for the All in the Family role just a few days after meeting the agent.
The abrasive but lovable George Jefferson played by Sherman Hemsley became such a big hit with All in the Family viewers that Norman Lear, the show’s creator, developed The Jeffersons debuting in 1975. The show’s co-star, Isabel Sanford, who played Louise Jefferson, along with Mike Evans, also reprised their roles for the new series.
Mike was a fixture during the first season of The Jeffersons but then called it quits to work with Eric Monte, as the co-creator of the sitcom, Good Times. The show which centered around a Black family living in a Chicago project was also produced by Lear. Good Times which ran from 1974 to 1979 was made in direct response to Evans’ uncredited rewrites on All in the Family scripts, where he was constantly asked to make his lines more natural for a young Black man.
It seems, however, that Mike was not particularly fond of acting. By the time he reached his mid-twenties, the young man was already talking about retiring from his craft. “Acting is something that is profitable,” Mike told The San Francisco Examiner in ’73. “And it’s something I don’t mind doing. Believe me, I’d rather starve to death than wash cars or work at a grease rack. When I’m 30, I want to settle down for good on a ranch with a horse.” Apparently, acting was a short-term means to another kind of end for the talented performer.
Mike eventually returned to The Jeffersons briefly as a recurring star for the sixth, seventh and eighth seasons. After the series ended, Mike continued acting sporadically in TV shows such as Rich Man Poor Man, Love American Style, and The Streets of San Francisco. In 2000, Mike’s final acting job was on an episode of Walker Texas Ranger and then, he finally stepped away from the industry altogether.
Sadly, Mike was only 57 years young when he passed away at his mother’s home on December 14, 2006 after battling throat cancer. At the time, he had become a real estate investor in Southern California. Mike, who had never married, left behind two daughters. The oldest of the two, Carlena Harris, claims he denied her for most of her life.
According to Carlena, Mike was an “absent and deadbeat father.” The young woman who was interviewed on the community talk show, The Charay Vaughn Show, back in 2012 revealed, how Mike was a smoker who had died without a “tongue in his mouth, broke, and very miserable.” Carlena stated that even after a blood test had proven how Mike was indeed her father, he still chose to deny and alienate her. She finally gave up trying to convince her famous father of his paternity when she turned age 21.