Colleen Townsend, a striking brunette, was born on December 21, 1928, in the Los Angeles area, commencing her brief yet notable career as a Twentieth Century Fox starlet in 1947 at the age of eighteen.
As a devout Mormon at the time, she had completed a year and a half at Brigham Young University in Utah before being discovered by Hollywood scouts. For years, she appeared unbilled in sentimental comedies before finally earning a featured role in the drama The Walls of Jericho (1948).
This promising young actress was hailed as one of Hollywood's most promising fresh-faced starlets after gracing the cover of Life magazine. She then appeared in two other pictures, the modest homespun comedy Chicken Every Sunday (1949),where she played the daughter of Dan Dailey and Celeste Holm, and the war comedy When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950) alongside Dailey and Corinne Calvet, before abruptly abandoning her acting career.
In 1950, Colleen Townsend made a life-changing decision, devoting herself to her faith and abandoning her Hollywood career. She began speaking at churches and Youth for Christ evangelistic events, attending the San Francisco Theological Seminary, and marrying one of her fellow seminarians, Louis H. Evans, Jr.
Assuming she renounced Mormonism, Colleen (Townsend) Evans returned to acting in 1954, this time in roles produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, including Oiltown, U.S.A. (1954) and Souls in Conflict (1955).
Throughout her life, Colleen has served as a pastor's wife at churches across the United States, from Southern California to Washington D.C. A strong advocate for human rights, she has consulted with the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights issues and served on the boards of several ministries, including the Christian College Coalition, World Vision, and International Justice Mission.
Notably, Colleen served as the first female chair of a Billy Graham Crusade and continues to travel the country as a speaker and author of inspirational books, including "A New Joy" (1973),"A Deeper Joy" (1982),and "My Lover, My Friend" (1976),co-written with her husband Louis.
