John Robert Evans, known to his friends as Bob, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an only child, born to John Washington Evans, a chauffeur, and Annie Mae Gibson, a domestic. After a stint in the Navy, he met and married Wanda Pollard. They had seven children. He got his undergraduate degree from John Carroll University and his Master's from Case Western Reserve University. He had many jobs before turning towards acting, including working as a librarian for Grumman Aerospace on Long Island, NY. Suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, he became legally blind while in his 40's. It was then that he turned toward acting, working on off-Broadway productions and in television commercials. He appeared several times on the television show "Saturday Night Live". Evans earned rave reviews for his turn as the minister who knew the character John David Stutts as a boy. Stutts, of course, was the man who shot Buck Wheat.