A talented actor of unusual size (3'2"), Josh Ryan Evans proved a great asset to Hollywood with the looks of a young child and the abilities of a seasoned professional. Blonde, with soulful brown eyes and cherubic childlike features that belied his post-adolescent age, the actor got his start with a turn as the Dancing Baby in ice cream commercials for Edy's/Dreyer's. This led to a recurring part on the sitcom "Family Matters" (ABC and later CBS) in 1997 and a two-episode recurring role on "Ally McBeal". Working on the David E Kelley comedy as the pint-sized pain in the neck child prodigy attorney who Ally is up against in court helped the actor to raise his profile, a task that wasn't accomplished in his feature debut, the misfire "Baby Geniuses" (1999). That less than stellar comedy featured Evans' body, but not his head (the head of an actual baby was digitally imposed on his body in post-production), and earned him only a credit as a stunt double. A role as Tom Thumb in A&E's "P.T. Barnum" (2000) proved the actor's abilities, while his talent so impressed director Ron Howard that they added significant dialogue (much of it improvised) to his role as the young Grinch in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in order to offer him more challenging work. Though Evans had developed a varied career, he was undoubtedly best known as Timmy, the living doll sidekick of Harmony's resident witch Tabitha (Juliet Mills), on the campy, cult-inspiring daytime drama "Passions" (NBC, 1999- ) The supernatural and often silly series won a host of fans, most of whom were drawn in by Evans' portrayal of the Pinocchio-like pipsqueak who indulges Tabitha's dress-up desires and gets into heaps of trouble by her side, only to turn into an eerily life-like doll when in the presence of mere mortals. Timmy's adorably compact size, his insistence on speaking in the third person and his cravings for the perfect "martimmy" (shaken not stirred) set him apart from any other contemporary television character, and Evans used the written wackiness, his sense of humor and his talent to his advantage. He and Mills, both of whom could miraculously spout the most ludicrous lines with a straight face, emerged as a comedy duo for the new millennium, stealing every scene they were in, and winning countless loyal fans.
Profession(s):
Actor
Sometimes Credited As:
Blanche-Daniele Boileau
Josh Evans
Joshua Ryan Evans
Soap Opera Digest Award Favorite Scene Stealer "Passions" 2000
YoungStar Award Young Actor in a Daytime TV Series "Passions" 2000
2000 Played the young Grinch in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas", Ron Howard's live-action feature adaptation of the children's holiday favorite
1999 Featured in "Baby Geniuses", doing physical acting; his face was digitally replaced with that of a baby and he was credited as a stunt performer
1999 Played Timmy, the living doll sidekick of local witch Tabitha, in the over-the-top soap opera "Passions"; earned a 2001 Daytime Emmy nomination
1999 Cast as Tom Thumb in the A&E TV-movie biography "P.T. Barnum"
1999 Guest starred on "7th Heaven" as a young patient whose wisdom guides series regular Matt (Barry Watson)
1998 Had a two-episode recurring role as a child prodigy lawyer in the David E Kelley legal comedy "Ally McBeal" (Fox)
1997 Played a recurring role on the sitcom "Family Matters" (ABC, CBS)
Began career as the "Dancing Baby" in commercials for Dreyer's/Edy's Ice Cream