Evans was born in
Aurora, Illinois, on June 18, 1957. As a child, Evans appeared in beauty pageants, and later regional theater and commercials. She graduated early from high school and attended the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there Evans was cast as an extra in the 1978
Brian De Palma film
The Fury, and the same year in the miniseries
The Awakening Land. where she stayed until 1981. Evans then went on to portray
Patty Williams,
Paul Williams' little sister and
Jack Abbott's wife, on
The Young and the Restless from 1983 to 1984. and has appeared on the cover of
Soap Opera Digest five times, every year from 1986 to 1990.
People magazine called her "Daytime's Diva of Dirt" in 1985. In January 1990, Evans abruptly quit
One Life to Live At the time, the stalker incident had been played down heavily in the press. In a 2005 episode of the
CBS News show
48 Hours, Evans discussed working with
Rebecca Schaeffer, who played Annie Barnes on
One Life to Live for six months in 1985, and how it was Schaeffer's murder by her own stalker in July 1989 that finally led Evans to decide to leave
One Life to Live. She taped her last scenes in December 1989, and last aired January 18, 1990. Evans made two feature films during the 1990s, performing a small part in
A Low Down Dirty Shame in 1994 and a major role in
Ice Cream Man in 1995. In 1999, Evans returned to television, appearing as
Amber Moore's "trashy" mother Tawny on
The Bold and the Beautiful until 2000. That year she stepped into the role of
Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane on the
NBC soap opera
Passions When NBC canceled
Passions, it was announced in July 2007 that she would stay with the series for its continued run on
DirecTV.
Passions finished taping in March 2008, though new episodes were broadcast on DirecTV through August 2008. In the June 26, 2007 issue of
Soap Opera Digest, Evans was asked what her favorite role was besides her current one on
Passions; she answered "That's an easy one ... Tina Lord Roberts on
One Life to Live because in every actor's life, you hope for a role that becomes bigger than yourself and for me, Tina was that role." ABC announced in April 2008 that Evans would soon return as Tina; she reappeared onscreen on June 11, 2008.
Executive Producer Frank Valentini noted, "Even though Andrea has not appeared on
OLTL since 1990, she has remained among the most requested characters to return to the show ... I welcome her home to
OLTL and to the role where she made an indelible mark on our audience." Evans' departure from the series was announced on November 5, 2008. Evans and ABC noted that the actress' return was always set to be short-term, as her "life, family and home" are in
California while
One Life to Live taped in
New York City. On April 6, 2010, TVGuide.com announced that Evans would be returning to
The Young and the Restless, not as Patty Williams, but as Evans'
The Bold and the Beautiful character Tawny. The one-episode stint aired on May 12, 2010. On November 8 of the same year, it was announced that Evans would be temporarily returning to
The Bold and the Beautiful as Tawny. While still appearing in recurring capacity on
B&B, Evans reprised the role of Tina on
OLTL on September 27, 2011, as the series was ending its run. In the story, her character Tina was reunited with her 1980s
supercouple partner,
Cord Roberts, played by
John Loprieno. Her short-term run ended as Cord and Tina remarried on November 15, 2011. In 2012, Evans had a supporting role in the
Joey Lawrence film
Hit List. In August 2013, Evans was cast as Vivian Price in the fourth season of the
web series DeVanity, which was
streamed in 2014. She was nominated for a 2015
Daytime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Performer in a New Approaches Drama Series for her performance, and won a 2015
Indie Series Award for
Best Guest Actress in a Drama for the role. Evans was executive producer of the documentary
Rocking the Couch, released in 2018. She portrayed the recurring role of Patty Walker on the web series
The Bay from 2017 to 2020. ==Personal life and death==