Robert Evans at 93: Writing, Oz, Music and What Comes Next
Gary WhittakerCreator Spotlight
Robert Evans at 93: The Man Who Kept Starting Again
A lifetime shaped by war, labor, discipline, film, writing, imagination, and the refusal to let age decide when purpose ends.
Some lives are easy to summarize. Robert Evans is not one of them.
At 93, he is still writing, still imagining, still reflecting, and still open to what can be built next. That alone would make him worth profiling. But what makes his story stand out is not simply that he is still active. It is that his creative life is only one chapter in a much larger story.
Robert’s life stretches across wartime Britain, army service, gold mines in South Africa, decades of conventional work, an unexpected run in film and television that began at age 78, and a writing path shaped by Oz, children’s stories, scripts, and ongoing ideas that still have more life in them.
This is not a nostalgia piece. It is a spotlight on someone who never fully accepted that one chapter had to be the final one.
“You never know what you can do if you don’t try.”
A Life Across Eras
The Reset Most People Never Make
There is one moment in Robert’s story that says almost everything about how he sees life.
At 78, he entered film and television.
Most people are told, directly or indirectly, that late life is for narrowing down. Robert did the opposite. He stepped into a new field, learned by doing, and built a set of experiences most people half his age would be glad to claim.
That turn matters because it was not built on the idea that he had “always been an actor.” It came from willingness. Curiosity. Openness. The refusal to assume that starting late meant starting too late.
Why This Matters
Robert’s story is not about nostalgia.
It is about creative momentum surviving long after most people are expected to slow down.
He did not inherit a late chapter. He built one.
The Acting Years: Small Roles, Real Moments, Big Names
Robert’s time in film and television was not just a matter of standing in the background. His stories from that period are the kind that instantly reveal both his range and his attitude.
He was a stand-in and body double for Ernest Borgnine in Borgnine’s final film and was even in a scene with him playing cards. He was also a stand-in and body double for Arnold Palmer in the Xlibris commercial, appearing in the long shots. After Palmer had already gone home, the director needed one more shot.
Robert had never played golf in his life.
He made the putt anyway.
That shot then became Palmer in the finished commercial.
He was also an extra in Jerry Lewis’s final film, Max Rose, and was introduced to Lewis by the director when they needed a shot of Robert from behind as Mort Sahl because Sahl could not make it to set that day.
He played Jennifer Grey’s elderly rich husband in the music video Rich White Girls by Mansionz. He played Rhea Seehorn’s elderly rich husband in the film Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss. He also appeared in Camila Cabello’s Liar music video and worked on another film called San Andreas Quake, which he was careful to note was not the big blockbuster San Andreas.
These details matter because they show a pattern that runs through his entire life: when an opportunity appeared, Robert stepped into it. Not because he had mapped out a perfect brand strategy. Because he was willing to try.
How Writing Started
Writing came into Robert’s life through family, not ambition.
When his oldest son was around 11, he fell in love with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and asked Robert to write an Oz story of his own. Robert had never written before, but he remembered hearing a simple piece of advice: if you want to write, write every day, even if it is only a few paragraphs, and try to do it at the same time each day.
So he started getting up half an hour earlier and writing before work.
A year later, he had 400 pages.
“I’d just get up a half hour earlier than usual and write maybe half a page or a full page or two before going to work.”
The Oz Thread That Kept Growing
That daily practice grew into a wider creative path, especially through Oz-related storytelling.
Among the works Robert discussed are Dorothy’s Mystical Adventures in Oz, The Wickedest Meanest Witch of Oz, Abducted to Oz, The Forest Monster of Oz, and a non-Oz story later titled The Boy Who Defied Gravity, formerly called The Magic Sneakers.
He describes Dorothy’s Mystical Adventures in Oz as a work with strong core ideas that eventually felt too long and too heavy in certain philosophical directions. Rather than abandon it, he reworked the material into The Wickedest Meanest Witch of Oz.
That rewrite tells you something important about his creative process. Robert does not seem attached to the ego of the first draft. He is willing to revisit ideas, reshape them, and let a story become what it needs to become rather than what it first appeared to be.
That is not the mark of someone who once wrote. It is the mark of someone still writing.
Books, Picture Books, and Scripts
Robert was also clear that his work does not live in one format alone.
He currently points to two picture books as active online works. One is Julie’s Elves, which he describes as a picture book with AI illustrations. The other is Dorothy’s Friends from Oz, which includes hand-drawn illustrations.
He noted that Dorothy’s Friends from Oz later became the first chapter of The Wickedest Meanest Witch of Oz, which again shows how his ideas often connect and evolve rather than stand alone.
He also pointed out something that should not be buried in a profile like this: he writes scripts too, and one script was optioned, specifically tied to The Wickedest Meanest Witch of Oz.
That matters. It means his storytelling has already shown the potential to move beyond the page and into screen development, even if film financing realities kept that version from going further at the time.
Explore Robert Evans’ Work
Robert’s books and Oz-related works already exist across Amazon, Project Gutenberg, and public reading platforms. If this profile sparked your curiosity, this is the strongest place to start.
Picture Books & Published Titles
Project Gutenberg Titles
Quotes, Excerpts & Reading Trails
Why He Writes
When asked what he most enjoys writing, Robert’s answer was simple: mostly children’s stories, especially stories tied to Oz.
When asked what excites him most about writing those stories, he said he enjoys visualizing different scenarios and dialogue and that it almost feels as if he too is waiting to see what happens next.
That is one of the clearest descriptions of real storytelling you will hear. Writing, for him, is not just a method of control. It is a method of discovery.
On Longevity, Purpose, and the Danger of Feeling Finished
Robert also brought up something deeper than productivity.
He said that after retirement, many people no longer feel useful to society and then begin, in effect, to give up on life. In his view, that loss of purpose can shape longevity in ways people do not talk about enough.
He was careful not to pretend that everyone can suddenly become a writer or a composer if they never did it before. But his point is stronger than that. You do not know what you can do unless you try.
Years ago, he took oil painting classes and still has a couple of paintings hanging on the wall that, in his words, “are not too bad.” Later, at 78, he became an extra in movies and television. Then he did a little acting. Then he built credits. Then he kept writing.
That is what makes his story more than inspirational decoration. It is evidence against the lie that usefulness has an expiry date.
“Nobody gets out of this world alive.”
The Deeper Belief Underneath It
Robert’s outlook on purpose is also tied to something more spiritual and personal.
After a near-death experience more than 60 years ago, he became convinced that nobody dies in the complete sense of the word. In his view, only the body dies. What we truly are, he says, are units of consciousness and eternal beings.
Whether a reader agrees with that belief or not, it clearly matters to how Robert lives. It helps explain why he does not write like someone trying to simply pass the time. It helps explain why he still talks about purpose instead of just aging. It helps explain why the tone of his life is not resignation.
He does not sound like a man waiting for the end. He sounds like a man still interested in what remains possible.
Music, Taste, and a Wider Imagination
Robert also shared some of the artists he loves: Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson.
That list tells its own story. These are not disposable names. They are artists known for voice, character, phrasing, story, and emotional presence.
It also helps explain why music is not a side note in this spotlight. For Robert, music belongs to the same imaginative territory as story.
That point matters even more now, because Robert is actively interested in finding musicians who may connect with his music and his wider creative world. There is more to come on that front.
Watch, Follow, and Discover More
Going forward, the focus is on Robert’s YouTube presence as the main public platform for updates, discovery, and wider rollout. His film and screen credits are also part of that story and can be explored directly through IMDb.
Robert Evans is not interesting because he has lived a long time. He is interesting because he has stayed willing to begin again.
What Happens Next
This profile is not being published as a final word on Robert Evans. It is a beginning.
The next chapter now taking shape includes strengthening his YouTube presence, improving presentation around his work, and introducing his stories, music, and broader creative identity to a wider audience with more structure.
There are also interesting projects currently in discussion, which makes this moment feel less like a retrospective and more like an active transition into what could become a new public phase of Robert’s work.
Just as important, Robert is actively looking for musicians who may be interested in his music, his stories, and the creative possibilities around both. That part of the story is still developing, but it deserves attention now because it points toward collaboration, not closure.
That matters because Robert’s story is not only about what he has already done. It is about what still deserves to be seen clearly.
Some creators need help getting started. Others need help being taken seriously at the stage they are already in. Robert belongs in the second category.
Why This Profile Matters
There is a lazy cultural assumption that creativity belongs mostly to the young because youth is associated with speed, novelty, and momentum.
Robert represents something else. He represents continuity. He represents reinvention. He represents the possibility that usefulness and imagination can survive well past the point where society expects people to shrink.
His story will not apply to every person in the same way. Not everyone will become a writer. Not everyone will act in films at 78. Not everyone will take the same path. That is not the point.
The point is that a meaningful life does not automatically end when one career ends, when retirement begins, or when the world quietly expects a person to step aside.
First Draft Note
This spotlight is built from Robert Evans’ direct input, early interview exchange, and current planning discussions. It is intended as the beginning of a wider rollout and may later be updated with additional context, links, visuals, credited work, YouTube developments, and project refinements as the next stage takes shape.
That feels fitting. Robert’s story is not static. The article should not pretend it is.
Why This Story Matters for Creators Today
Robert Evans did not wait for permission, perfect timing, or ideal conditions.
He started, restarted, adapted, and kept building across decades, industries, and formats.
That is the same mindset required in today’s creator economy.
If you are trying to build your own path with more clarity, structure, and staying power, the lesson is simple: keep creating, keep refining, and keep moving before the world decides your chapter is over.