Will Evans

William Edward Evans (29 May 1866 – 11 April 1931) was an English actor, comedian and playwright. He was well known as a performer in music halls and silent comedy films, and appeared in West End musical shows. As a writer his biggest success was the farce Tons of Money which opened in 1922 and ran for more than 700 performances.

Life and career Evans was born in London in 1866, the son of Frederick William Evans, a well-known clown and acrobat.

Will Evans made his first appearance on the stage at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 26 December 1881, as an animal impersonator in the pantomime Robinson Crusoe, also appearing with his father in the harlequinade of the show. After his wife's death in 1897, he continued to perform as a solo comedian, specialising in farcical domestic sketches such as "Building a Chicken House", "Whitewashing the Ceiling", and "Papering a House", often with a straight man, Arthur Conquest. He appeared in burlesque sketches of his own devising in venues throughout the United Kingdom, and in the United States, Russia, Italy, France, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.

From 1899, he made short silent comic films, such as The Music Eccentric in which he performed acrobatics, tumbling out of and back into the frame. He also made films of his most popular stage sketches. In 1914, he founded the Sunny South and Sealight Film Company in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, and worked with Conquest and designer F. L. Lyndhurst on re-makes of his earlier films as well as new films, including The Showman's Dream (1914). and was filmed in 1924 and again in 1930.

Evans's last stage appearance in London was at the Scala, where he played in Cinderella. He gave several broadcast performances. He died at his home in London on 11 April 1931, aged 64.