Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor. He voiced Buzz Lightyear in the 2022 Pixar animated feature film, Lightyear.
Roles[]
Films[]
- Lightyear (upcoming) - Buzz Lightyear (2022)
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Christopher Robert Evans was born on June 13, 1981, in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in the town of Sudbury. His mother, Lisa, is an artistic director at the Concord Youth Theater, and his father, Bob, is a dentist. His parents sadly divorced in 1999. Evans has two sisters, Carly and Shanna, and a brother, actor Scott Evans. He and his siblings were raised as Catholics. Their uncle, Mike Capuano, represented Massachusetts's 8th congressional district. Evans has Irish, and from his maternal grandfather, Italian, ancestry. He enjoyed musical theater as a child, and attended acting camp. He played Randolph MacAfee in the musical Bye Bye Birdie. He and siblings also performed in front of relatives during Christmases, recalling that being onstage "felt like home." Before starting his senior year of high school, Evans spent the summer in New York City, and took classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Evans eventually graduated early from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.[1]
Career[]
Evans made his screen debut in the television film The Newcomers, a family drama in which he plays a boy called Judd who falls in love with a girl. Evans also had a lead role in the television series Opposite Sex which lasted for eight episodes. In 2001, he starred in Not Another Teen Movie, a parody of teen movies in which he plays a high school football player. The film received mainly negative reviews, but grossed $38 million domestically and $28 million overseas for a worldwide $66 million. In 2004, he had a lead role in The Perfect Score, a teen heist-comedy about a group of students who break into an office to steal answers to the SAT exam. The film was critically panned; Matthew Leyland of the BBC thought Evans' performance was "bland", and the cast had "little chemistry".[1]
Also that year, he co-starred in the action-thriller Cellular, with Jason Statham, Kim Basinger and William H. Macy. Evans plays college student Ryan, who must save a kidnapped woman after randomly receiving a phone call from her. Although the feature received a mixed response, Slant Magazine's review opined that "Evans proves himself a sufficiently charismatic leading man". In a retrospective interview, Evans remarked that some of his early films were "really terrible".[1]
For his first comic book role, he portrayed superhero Johnny Storm/Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2005), based on the Marvel Comic of the same name. Upon release, the film was a commercial success despite a divided reception. In his mixed review, Joe Leydon of Variety praised the cast for their efforts and thought Evans gave a "charismatic breakout performance". Two years later, he reprised the role of Johnny Storm / Human Torch in the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Toronto Star's Rob Salem thought the film was a "significant improvement" from the first, and the critic from Chicago Reader thought the cast were "amusing enough" to carry the sequel. In 2016, reflecting on his experience of the Fantastic Four films, Evans said they left him "a little uneasy – because the movies weren't exactly the way I'd envisioned them".[1]
In 2010, he made his breakthrough in the Marvel Studios film Captain America: The First Avenger. The story follows the protagonist who is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull from using the Tesseract as an energy-source for world domination. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning over $370 million worldwide box office. In their positive review, The Sydney Morning Herald thought the film was a "fresh twist on 20th-century history", and praised Evans' "confident-but-subtle treatment" displayed in his role. Two year later, he reprised the character in The Avengers, with a large ensemble cast that included Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner. The feature was another commercial success; it grossed $1.519 billion and became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 92% based on more than 350 reviews. The Avengers received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects and a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Special Visual Effects.[1]
Over the next years, he appeared in many different films for Marvel Studios and others. Some of his other Marvel films include Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Avengers: Endgame.
Upcoming Projects[]
Some of his upcoming project are The Gray Man, a Netflix film adaption of the 2009 novel. He will star with Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas, and the film will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. He will voice Buzz Lightyear in the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated film Lightyear that will be directed by Angus MacLane. Evans is also expected to play Gene Kelly in a yet-untitled film written and produced by John Logan, in addition to starring opposite Dwayne Johnson in the action comedy Red One.[1]
Gallery[]
