Louis85
01-03-2007, 01:17 PM
Umm...that was the original Lionel that everybody liked. I never knew that he wrote for "Good Times".
Mike Evans 1949-2006
He was the first Jefferson we met--before George or even Louise. In fact Lionel was already taunting the bigoted Archie Bunker (accusing him of being secretly Jewish) in the very first episode of All in the Family in 1971. The man who brought him to life, Mike Evans, died December 14 of throat cancer. He was 57. His death wasn't revealed until more than a week later.
Born in North Carolina, Evans and his parents moved to Los Angeles when he was a child. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College before landing the role of Mike Stivic's friend, Lionel, on the groundbreaking All in the Family. Eventually we would meet Lionel's mother and father and the three would be spun off into their own show, The Jeffersons, on CBS in 1975.
But before that spin-off, Evans had co-created another groundbreaking Norman Lear-produced sitcom: Good Times, about a working class black family in Chicago. That itself was a spin-off of Maude, with the title character's maid, Florida, moving her family home to Chicago. Evans' writing duties on that show forced him to leave The Jeffersons for four years (1975-79) before returning for two more. Evans' other appearances included Love American Style, The Streets of San Francisco, the miniseries Rich Man Poor Man, and one last appearance on Walker Texas Ranger in 2000. He spent his last few years in real estate.
Mike Evans made a couple of appearances in 1974, during his All in the Family days, on the NBC run of the Marshall Hollywood Squares.
Mike Evans 1949-2006
He was the first Jefferson we met--before George or even Louise. In fact Lionel was already taunting the bigoted Archie Bunker (accusing him of being secretly Jewish) in the very first episode of All in the Family in 1971. The man who brought him to life, Mike Evans, died December 14 of throat cancer. He was 57. His death wasn't revealed until more than a week later.
Born in North Carolina, Evans and his parents moved to Los Angeles when he was a child. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College before landing the role of Mike Stivic's friend, Lionel, on the groundbreaking All in the Family. Eventually we would meet Lionel's mother and father and the three would be spun off into their own show, The Jeffersons, on CBS in 1975.
But before that spin-off, Evans had co-created another groundbreaking Norman Lear-produced sitcom: Good Times, about a working class black family in Chicago. That itself was a spin-off of Maude, with the title character's maid, Florida, moving her family home to Chicago. Evans' writing duties on that show forced him to leave The Jeffersons for four years (1975-79) before returning for two more. Evans' other appearances included Love American Style, The Streets of San Francisco, the miniseries Rich Man Poor Man, and one last appearance on Walker Texas Ranger in 2000. He spent his last few years in real estate.
Mike Evans made a couple of appearances in 1974, during his All in the Family days, on the NBC run of the Marshall Hollywood Squares.