Childhood & Early Life
Chris Evans was born on June 13, 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. to Lisa (née Capuano) and Robert Evans. His mother worked as an artistic director at the Concord Youth Theater while his father is a dentist. He has two sisters, Carly and Shanna, and a brother, Scott. He is of mixed ancestry.
He attended the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School where he often participated in school stage productions. His portrayal of the character Leontes in ‘The Winter's Tale’ earned him much praise from his drama teacher. His acting experience in school plays convinced him to pursue a career in this field. His mother’s job at a youth theater also influenced his choice of a career.
After graduating from high school, he moved to New York City and attended classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Continue Reading Below
Career
Chris Evans started his career as a model for "Tyler" in Hasbro's board game ‘Mystery Date’ in 1999. Though it was a small beginning, his friends encouraged him and prodded him to start auditioning for television roles and films.
He began auditioning for small screen roles and made an appearance as a guest actor on the CBS series ‘The Fugitive’ in 2000. He played the son of a small-town sheriff in an episode called ‘Guilt’.
Soon Evans ventured into films as well. Initially he played small roles in low-budget movies like ‘Cherry Falls’ (2000) and ‘The Newcomers’ (2000) before getting more substantial roles.
In 2001, he bagged his first major movie, ‘Not Another Teen Movie,’ a teen comedy film directed by Joel Gallen. He played the role of Jake Wyler, a handsome and talented football star in the movie which proved to be a commercial hit despite getting negative reviews from critics.
The success of this movie led to many interesting offers for the young actor and he got lead roles in films such as ‘The Perfect Score’, and ‘Cellular.’ Not wanting to be typecast in “chocolate boy” roles, he played a sinister character in Dirk Wittenborn's ‘Fierce People’ and a drug addict in the independent film ‘London'.
In 2005, he played his first superhero role. Cast as the superhero the Human Torch in the film adaptation of the comic book ‘Fantastic Four,’ he portrayed the role so convincingly that it did not take him long to become a much beloved actor of the comic book loving masses. He reprised his role in the 2007 sequel ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'.
In 2008, Chris Evans appeared in ‘Street Kings’ as Detective Paul Diskant and in ‘The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond’ by Jimmy Dobyne. The next year, he portrayed the character of Nick Grant in ‘Push,’ a science fiction action-thriller film directed by Paul McGuigan.
The decade of the 2010s started on a very positive note for the actor. In 2010, he did two movies, ‘The Losers’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.’ The following year, he bagged the role of Steve Rogers / Captain America in the superhero flick ‘Captain America: The First Avenger,’ which proved to be a big hit.
He reprised his role as Captain America in ‘The Avengers’ in 2012. This film was a massive commercial hit and raked in over $1 billion worldwide! The resounding success of this film established Chris Evans as the quintessential Marvel comics superhero.
Continue Reading Below
Having enjoyed much success as an actor, he ventured into direction as well with the romantic comedy ‘Before We Go’ in 2014, in which he also starred. The film was premiered at the special presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2015, he reprised the role of Steve Rogers / Captain America in two movies, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and ‘Ant-Man’, appearing in the latter in an uncredited cameo.
By the mid-2010s, Chris Evans had become almost synonymous with the character of Steve Rogers / Captain America. In 2016, he once again played the same role in ‘Captain America: Civil War.’
He is also slated to reprise the role in the upcoming films ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (to be released in 2018) and an untitled Avengers film scheduled for a 2019 release.
