Evans was discovered by actor Norma Shearer, who hand-picked him to play her then-deceased husband Irving Thalberg in the movie "The Man with a Thousand Faces" in 1957. But he fit better behind the camera and soon Robert Evans had worked his way up to production director at the film company Paramount.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he produced films such as "Rosemary's Baby"; "Chinatown", "Godfather" and "Love story" when he met his third wife, actor Ali McGraw.
His star dropped in the 1980s, when he was convicted of cocaine possession and failed to testify in the trial of the murder of business partner Roy Radin during the filming of Francis Ford Coppola's "Cotton Club".
Evans' 1994 memoir "The kid stays in the picture" made him something of a cult figure in Hollywood. His last film was the Kate Hudson comedy "How to Get Rid of a Guy in 10 Days" from 2003.
Robert Evans turned 89 years old.