VITAL STATISTICS
Birthday: July 12
Marital Status: Evans married Michael Luciano, a field cameraman for CNBC, in 1993. She was previously married to Robert Eth from 1990-'92.
Children: Austin Michael (born May 26, 1996)
BIOGRAPHY
Though Judi Evans was born in Montebello, Calif. and grew up in Monterey Park, it would be accurate to add that the actress grew up professionally on daytime. Evans made her television debut on the CBS drama GUIDING LIGHT in 1983 as the troubled Beth Raines. Her performance won her the 1984 Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress. In 1986 Evans joined NBC's DAYS OF OUR LIVES, where she portrayed the popular Adrienne Kiriakis opposite Wally Kurth's (ex-Ned, GENERAL HOSPITAL) Justin. From 1991 to 1999 Evans played Paulina Carlino on ANOTHER WORLD, a character that she described as "sweet and devilish." The role won her the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 1998. Evans was nominated for two additional Soap Opera Digest awards — Hottest Female Star in 1993 and Favorite Daytime Supercouple on a Daytime Serial — shared with Vincent Irizarry (ex-Lujack, GL; now David, Y&R) in 1986. After the cancellation of AW, Evans took time off to focus on her family and moved back to California following her husband, an L.A.-based cameraman for CNBC. She returned briefly to acting in 2000 when she played Patsy Ramsey in the made-for-TV movie Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Mystery. To the delight of her fans she came back to daytime in 2003 to play Mimi's trashy mother Bonnie Lockhart on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Bonnie left Salem in early 2007, but Adrienne soon returned to town.
TRIVIA
—Is the youngest of four children
—Her parents were trapeze artists, so Evans spent her childhood traveling with the circus as a baby clown
—Considered a career in medicine
—Got GUIDING LIGHT gig nine months after graduating from college
—Loves the books of Stephen King and Anne Rice
—Her real-life son, Austin, played her character's son on ANOTHER WORLD
—Has been very open about her weight struggles which eventually were written into an AW storyline.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Other Soap Roles
DAYS OF OUR LIVES (Bonnie Lockhart) (2003-'07)
ANOTHER WORLD (Paulina Carlino) (1991-'99)
DAYS OF OUR LIVES (Adrienne Kiriakis) (1986-'91)
GUIDING LIGHT (Beth Raines) (1983-'86)
TV Roles
GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER: THE JONBENET RAMSEY MYSTERY (2000) (TV) (Patsy Ramsey)
DREAMS OF GOLD: THE MEL FISHER STORY (1986) (TV) (Penelope Cabot)
Film Roles
The Party Animal (1984)
MEMORABLE QUOTES
"In any eating situation, I used to save the best for last — and that's how I got fat so often. I would eat everything I didn't hanker for just to get to the item I did. So now I'll say, 'I'lll have the apple pie. Yes, before the salad, OK? See, with food, or anything else, as long as you're enjoying it, truly, you're not being a pig. Pigs don't enjoy things."—Soap Opera Weekly, 9/13/94
"When I walk by people and they are smoking, it makes me want to throw up. I never thought I would feel like that because I loved, honestly loved, smoking. I would never tell someone not to smoke because that's not the type of nonsmoker I want to be, but it truly makes me nauseated. It's actually great because, whenever I quit before, I would hang around smokers and be like, 'Please blow it in my face. Ahhh, that smells so good! Now it's like, 'Yuck.'"—Soap Opera Digest, 5/21/02
"I was telling my husband about the fantasy scene where I made out with Eric Winter (Rex) and didn't realize that my son was there. Austin said, 'You kissed somebody else? You can't kiss anybody else. He was livid. I actually had to lie to his face — like any good mom — and say, 'I won't do it again.'"—Weekly, 11/11/03
