Col. Douglas Austin dies

OK, it’s true that “Col. Douglas Austin” is not a real person (that anyone knows of at least), but that was the role that Michael Evans played on The Young and the Restless back in 1970′s, 1980′s, and 1990′s.  Three decades of being someone else, sounds like witness protection.

The Great War ended two years prior to 1920.  In 1920 Sir Auckland Geddes became Ambassador to the United States, he was noticed most for his large size of 6 feet 2 and 1/2 inches tall.  Other less significant events happened in 1920 also.  There was one significant event in 1920 though, the birth of John Michael Evans.

From 1980 to 1995, Evans played Col. Douglas Austin, the friend of billionaire Victor Newman, on CBS’s long-running The Young and the Restless. Newman is played by Eric Braeden, who hailed Evans as “a total professional from the old English school, a gentleman through and through.”

Evans made his London stage debut in 1948. In 1950, he came to Broadway for the short-lived play “Ring Round the Moon.”

He went on co-star in the 1951 production of “Gigi” as the handsome Parisian who falls in love with young Gigi, played by Audrey Hepburn. The play, which made Hepburn a star, was based on the same novel by the French author Colette that was later turned into a Hollywood musical starring Leslie Caron.

In the late 1950s he played Henry Higgins in a touring production of “My Fair Lady,” performing in the United States and abroad, including in Russia at the height of the Cold War.

Evans also appeared on numerous TV shows, including “Dr. Kildare,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Hunter” and “I Spy,” as well as in such films as “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Time After Time.”

John Michael Evans was born in 1920 in Sittingbourne, England; his father had been a flier in the First World War and his mother a concert violinist. The younger Evans served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.

So whatever place you lay in now Col. Douglas Austin, we salute you.