In 1956, while on a business trip, he was by chance spotted by actress Norma Shearer, who thought he would be right to play the role of her late husband Irving Thalberg in Man of a Thousand Faces (1957).

In 1962, Evans went into film producing instead, using his accumulated wealth from the clothing business, and began a meteoric rise in the industry.

With a clear, deep voice as a teenager and a knack for foreign accents, by his estimation he performed in more than 300 radio shows before he turned 18.

He got his start by purchasing the rights to a 1966 novel titled The Detective which Evans made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Jack Klugman, Robert Duvall and Jacqueline Bisset, in 1968.

Peter Bart, a writer for The New York Times, wrote an article about Evans's aggressive production style.

During his tenure at Paramount, the studio turned out films such as Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, The Italian Job, True Grit, Love Story, Harold and Maude, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Serpico, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Save the Tiger, The Conversation, Chinatown, The Great Gatsby, and many others.

After the huge critical and commercial success of the Evans-produced Chinatown, he stepped down as production chief, which enabled him to produce films on his own.

From 1976 to 1980, working as an independent producer, he continued his streak of successful films with Marathon Man, Black Sunday, Popeye and Urban Cowboy.

In 2009, Evans was in talks to produce a film about auto executive John DeLorean, as well as an HBO miniseries titled The Devil and Sidney Korshak.

[8] In the early 1980s, Evans was introduced to theatrical impresario Roy Radin, a producer of traveling musical and comedy revues, by cocaine dealer Karen Greenberger (aka Lanie Jacobs).

Contract killer William Mentzer was among four people sentenced for shooting Radin multiple times in the head and using dynamite to make identification by authorities more challenging.

[13] Heeding the advice of his attorney Robert Shapiro, Evans refused to testify during a May 1989 preliminary hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself.

[14] Police reports that had been submitted to obtain search warrants indicated at least two witnesses said Evans was involved in the Radin murder.

He entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor in federal court after being arrested for engineering a large cocaine buy with his brother Charles.

Subsequently, he married Camilla Sparv (1964–1967), Ali MacGraw (1969–1973), Phyllis George (1977–1978), Catherine Oxenberg (1998),[18] Leslie Ann Woodward (2002–2004), and Victoria White (2005–2006).

[23][24] On May 6, 1998, during a dinner party in honor of director Wes Craven, Evans suffered a stroke while giving a toast, and was rushed to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Suffering a series of three strokes in quick succession, he was left paralyzed on his right side and completely unable to speak.

A few days after Evans's stroke, Frank Sinatra died from a heart attack in one of the adjoining rooms at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.