Mike Evans (actor)
American actor (1949–2006)
Michael Jonas Evans (November 3, 1949 – December 14, 2006) was an American actor and television writer, best known as Lionel Jefferson on both All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Evans was a creator/writer of the series Good Times (1974–79). He was also a guest celebrity panelist on the TV game show Match Game.
Early life
Evans was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on November 3, 1949. His father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist, and his mother, Annie Sue Evans, was a teacher. He attended Palmer Memorial Institute, a private school for young African Americans in Sedalia, North Carolina. His family later moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from Los Angeles High School. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College.
Career
A college student majoring in drama but with no acting experience, Evans caught his big break when All in the Family producer and director John Rich hired him to play Lionel Jefferson, the son of the Bunkers' new Black neighbors. Show developer Norman Lear preferred Cleavon Little for the role, but Rich lobbied to cast an actor who would appear less "threatening."
Evans continued to play the role on the spinoff The Jeffersons, but left after the first season to pursue other aspects of his career.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mike Evans (actor)” as american actor (1949–2006). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american actor (1949–2006). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2018032. VIAF identifies the subject as 56274563. The Library of Congress control number is no2004042203. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 2006 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mike Evans (actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.