Soap star Andrea Evans dead at 66: Actress who had to quit One Life to Live due to a stalker threat passes away after battle with breast cancer
Soap star Andrea Evans has passed away at the age of 66 following a battle with breast cancer, it has been confirmed.
The actress was famous for playing the vixen Tina Lord on ABC’s One Life to Live – however she famously left the series because the role brought 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 told The Hollywood Reporter
Her role as Tina Lord was considered iconic in the soap world, with PEOPLE Magazine dubbing 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 abandoned her career after she was confronted by a stalker inside the lobby of the soap’s studio in Manhattan in 1987.
Soap star Andrea Evans dead at 66: Actress who had to quit One Life to Live due to a stalker threat passes away after battle with breast cancer
The stalker terrorized her until his threats became increasingly violent and, at one point, he had reportedly committed self-harm 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.
In an interview with PEOPLE in 2008, she revealed that the fear ‘forever changed me’.
Although she eventually started accepting acting roles again, she avoided participating in any public events thereafter.
