Evalyn Knapp (born Evelyn Pauline Knapp; June 17, 1906 – June 12, 1981) was an American film actress of the late 1920s, 1930s and into the 1940s. She was a leading B-movieserial actress in the 1930s. She was the younger sister of the orchestra leader Orville Knapp.
She achieved success in cliffhanger serials, which were popular at the time. She played the title character in the 1933 serial The Perils of Pauline. The same year, she starred, with top billing, alongside 26-year-old John Wayne in His Private Secretary, a light comedy in which Wayne portrays a playboy determined to win her over. She also appeared in Corruption that year opposite Preston Foster. One of her better known film roles was opposite Ken Maynard in the 1934 film In Old Santa Fe featuring Gene Autry in his first screen appearance, in which he sang with a bluegrass band.
She worked through 1941, but her career slowed afterward. In 1943, she played her last role, uncredited, in Two Weeks to Live, one of the Lum and Abner films starring Chester Lauck and Norris Goff.
Personal life
In 1931, Knapp spent several months in the hospital[3] after she fell from a cliff during a hike with her brother, Orville. Two vertebrae were fractured.[4]
Two Weeks to Live (1943) – Miss Morris, Dr. O'Brien's Secretary (uncredited) (final film role)
References
^Knapp was born in 1906, not 1908, as has been misreported, according to the Social Security Death Index under the name Evelyn Snyder. Also a search of the 1930 United States census by name shows that Pauline Knapp, as she was then calling herself, was born "around 1907". As the census began on April 1, and Knapp's birthday was not until June, this also supports the 1906 birth year. However the Social Security Death Index info (above) is more dispositive of the matter.
_still_1.jpg)
