Judith Evelyn

Evelyn was born Evelyn Morris[2][3] in 1909 (later shaving four years off of her age) in Seneca, South Dakota, United States and raised in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.[3] She attended the University of Manitoba, where she was active in drama, and she developed her acting skills at Hart House at the University of Toronto.[4]

Evelyn worked on radio both for the British Broadcasting Corporation and for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.[5]

Her early stage experience included being a member of a Canadian Chautauqua unit in 1932. The next year, she performed with the Pasadena Community Playhouse in California.[5]

Evelyn appeared on Broadway in the following plays:

• The Shrike as Ann Downs (January 15, 1952 – May 31, 1952)
• Craig's Wife (February 12, 1947 – April 12, 1947) (revival)
• The Rich Full Life (November 9, 1945 – December 1, 1945)
• Angel Street as Bella Manningham (December 5, 1941 – December 30, 1944)

All of the four plays were made into films, but Evelyn did not appear in any of them. She did appear in other films, including the role as Miss Lonelyhearts, the lonely alcoholic in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.[6] In 1956, Evelyn played the role of Nancy Lynnton in George Stevens' Giant. She had a brief performance as Queen Mother Taia in Michael Curtiz's The Egyptian and was featured with Vincent Price in The Tingler (1959).[7]

The gravesite of Judith Evelyn

In the fall of 1958, Evelyn guest-starred as Clara Keller, a lonely widow who falls prey to communist agents in the episode "Man in the Moon" of the docudrama Behind Closed Doors.[8]

In Tales of Wells Fargo, she was the person of interest that needed to be looked at by Jim Hardie for the episode titled "Double Reverse". She played Ann Rawlins, wife of a recently escaped bank robber, trying to make a life for her and their son outside the shade of shame from her husband.

On September 3, 1939, she and her fiancé, Canadian radio producer Andrew Allan, survived the sinking of the Anchor-Donaldson liner SS Athenia. The Athenia was the first British passenger liner to be sunk by a German submarine in World War II.[9][10]

In 1942, Evelyn won the Distinguished Performance Award from The Drama League, an award that is "bestowed each season on a single performer from over sixty nominated performances from Broadway and Off-Broadway."[11]

Evelyn died from cancer in New York City on May 7, 1967. She was 58 years old. She is interred at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Judith Evelyn.

• Judith Evelyn at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judith Evelyn at IMDb 
• Judith Evelyn at AllMovie
• Judith Evelyn at Find a Grave