Soap star Andrea Evans dead at age 66: Actress who had to leave One Life to Live due to stalker threat dies after battle with breast cancer
Soap star Andrea Evans has died aged 66 after battling breast cancer, it has been confirmed.
The actress was known for playing the vixen Tina Lord on ABC’s One Life to Live — but she famously left the series because the role attracted unwanted attention from a stalker.
Evans — who also played Rebecca Hotchkiss on NBC/DirecTV’s Passions — died at her home in Pasadena, California, casting director Don Carroll said. The Hollywood Reporter
Her role as Tina Lord was considered iconic in the soap opera world, with PEOPLE Magazine calling her character “Daytime’s Diva of Dirt” – which she played from 1979 to 1981 and then again from 1985 to 1990.
Two years later, she abruptly quit the show and gave up her career after being confronted by a stalker in the Manhattan soap studio lobby in 1987.
Soap star Andrea Evans dead at age 66: Actress who had to leave One Life to Live due to stalker threat dies after battle with breast cancer
The stalker terrorized her until his threats became increasingly violent and at one point reportedly injured himself on the front steps of the studio to get her attention.
When the man was taken to a psychiatric hospital, he allegedly listed Evans as his next of kin and sent her death threats written in blood.
Although she eventually started accepting acting roles again, she avoided participating in public events after that.
In a 2008 interview with PEOPLE, she revealed that fear “changed me forever.”
She returned to One Live to Live that same year and again in 2011.
“It’s time to give the public what they want,” she said at the time. “And it’s time for me to wrap up why I left in the first place.”
In 2015, she received her second Daytime Emmy nomination for her performance as Vivian Price on the web series DeVanity.
Recently, Evans had completed her forthcoming memoir titled My One Life to Live.
She is survived by her husband, Steve Rodriguez, and her 19-year-old daughter, Kylie.
Soap star: The actress was known for playing the vixen Tina Lord on ABC’s One Life to Live — but she famously left the series because the role drew unwanted attention from a stalker