Evelyn Ankers (17 August 1918 – 29 August 1985) was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner. Known as "the Queen of the Screamers", her other films include The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Jungle Woman (1944), Weird Woman (1944), The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) and The Frozen Ghost (1945).
Ankers also appeared in Hold That Ghost (1941), Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), His Butler's Sister (1943), The Pearl of Death (1944), Pardon My Rhythm (1944), Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949), and played Calamity Jane in The Texan Meets Calamity Jane (1950), one of many movies for which she received top billing.

Ankers made over fifty films between 1936 and 1950, then retired from movies at the age of 32 to be a housewife. She occasionally played television roles, such as that of saloon owner Robbie James in the 1958 episode "Gambler" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Cheyenne, with Clint Walker in the title role. She returned ten years later to make one more film, No Greater Love (1960), with her husband Richard Denning.

She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 67 on 29 August 1985 in Maui, Hawaii.

Biography

Née de parents anglais, elle commença sa carrière en Grande-Bretagne et apparut dans quelques films de prestige. La guerre venue, elle émigre aux États-Unis et devient la star féminine des films d'horreur d'Universal, dans les années 1940.
Après avoir rompu ses fiançailles avec Glenn Ford, elle épousa l'acteur Richard Denning, en 1942.