The Barbara Stanwyck - Only I Knew

LINDA EVANS REMEMBERS HER LONG, CLOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LEGENDARY ACTRESS

- Fortune Benatar

Call me Missy,” silver-screen veteran Barbara Stanwyck told 23-year-old Linda Evans shortly after Linda was cast as Barbara’s daughter, Audra, on the ’60s western series The Big Valley. “She was known by her friends and the crew as Missy,” Linda says. “And she always called me Audra, never Linda. It was very dear.”

Other actresses might have seen Linda as a threat, but Barbara thought of the young beauty as a surrogate daughter. “My time with her professionally and personally changed my life,” Linda, 80, tells Closer about the friendship that lasted until Barbara’s passing in 1990. “I was so fortunate to work with her when I was so young.”

Linda had only a few guest-starring roles on her résumé when she was hired on The Big Valley in 1965. “I’m still in awe,” she says. “Here I am working with a living legend. I mean, Missy was just an exceptional human being. She was so beautiful. She mentored me. She just took me under her wing.”