Reg Evans

Reginald Evans (27 March 1928 – 7 February 2009) was a British-born actor active in Australian radio, theatre, television and cinema from the 1960s, after having started his career in his native England.

Evans started drama while in the Royal Air Force stationed near Oxford, England, after which he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, followed by work in repertory theatre. He toured Europe with the New Park Theatre Club and later became its artistic director.

Evans immigrated to Australia in the 1960s and worked in commercial radio and toured with the theatre company the Young Elizabethan Players.

Evans' many Australian television appearances include guest roles in Homicide, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Number 96, Division 4, Spyforce, The Evil Touch, A Time for Love, Behind the Legend, The Comedy Game, and The Hour Before My Brother Dies.

In 1980, he featured in the Australian version of British Serial Are You Being Served?

Evans played several roles in Prisoner - a colleague at Eddie Cook's electrical firm (1979), the foreman at the printshop where inmate Bea Smith does her work release (1982), and Foxy, an old friend of Lizzie Birdsworth (1983), before taking the permanent role of Detective Howard Simmons in 1985.

He also appeared in the TV series Blue Heelers as Keith Purvis in the 1990s. In 2005, he returned to Blue Heelers in a smaller guest role.

Evans' film credits include Mad Dog Morgan (1976), the Station Master in Mad Max (1979), a pirate in The Island (1980), Manganinnie (1980), The Plains of Heaven (1982), Kitty and the Bagman (1983), Strikebound (1984), My Letter to George (1986) and Celia (1989). His final role was a part in film Charlie and Boots.

Evans and his partner, Angela Brunton, died in the 2009 Victorian bushfires.