Linda Evans Rocks Crystal Hued Hair

Linda Evans Rocks Crystal Hued Hair

Actress Linda Evans chatted with NBC Today's Amy Robach about her new book “Recipes for Life: My Memories."

Note: Linda also chatted with Ann Curry on NBC Today earlier in the week.

The former star of "The Big Valley" in the ‘60s and "Dynasty" in the ‘80s looked lovely with her crystal white hair swept up into a soft crown based twist with a free floating fanned tail.

The actress wore her trademark full bangs which make her beautiful eyes pop.  Linda's fanned tail extended from the top of the twist which was held in place with a simple, but elegant hair clip.

The beloved actress who was a fixture of American pop culture told Amy she was asked to do a memoir of her life, but in reality she wanted to do a recipe book.

Linda said she asked "what if I do both?  I've got so many photos of every moment as well" that she could include as part of the book.  So they told her to do it.

She decided to try and blend her love of cooking with memories of her incredible acting career into one book.  Thus “Recipes for Life: My Memories" was born which is  a very unique combination.  Real food recipes are interwoven with real life Linda Evan stories. 

Linda touched briefly on the fact that she and Joan Collins were the first to do the good girl/bad girl catfights and brawls on Dynasty on night time television which have paved the way for some of today's reality TV shows like the Jersey Housewives.

When asked if Linda thought today's reality TV shows have the same bite, the same style that Dynasty had she said "I think everyone has their own signature.  We had ours.  My god, and good luck to them."

Linda and Joan

Linda and Joan were older leading actresses at the time Dynasty started.  They paved the way. The actress discussed the fact that when she was hired for Dynasty she was just going 'yes'.  I was almost 40 and no one hiring woman my age.  And when Aaron Spelling gave me the job, he certainly could have given it to a younger woman.  Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett were the rage.  And then when he hired Joan (Collins who played Alexis) it was 'my god we can do this. We can do this. Just watch us.'"

Linda said "John Forysthe was the charmer in real life that you saw on television, more, if you could imagine.  It was so easy to love him.  It was so easy to play Crystal loving Blake. John Forysthe was one of the most extraordinary human beings I've ever known."

She loves acting but she also loves food and she started cooking at age 23. Even while filming "The Big Valley" with Barbara Stanwyck the actress was collecting recipes.

She said "Yes, yes, because the minute I found out that you could feed someone and they would just smile and the look on their face and the expression.  I thought I want to do that, I want to do that, I  give everyone their favorite thing to eat. John Wayne was the first recipe that I ever got.  Linda has Duke's Dip from Wayne in her book.  She has some big names in her book.

Linda's Thoughts On Love

Linda talks about love in the book after two marriages and her other great loves of her life like Yanni.  What has she learned about love?  She said "don't ever give up on love and never be sad that it goes away, whether you make it go away or they make it go away just keep going for love.  You'll never lose.  Never, never, never."

What's Next For Crystal At 69?

Crystal said she's always looking for new adventures.  What's next for Crystal?

She said "well you know, we're living to 70, 80, 90 years old.  We have a long life, why don't we just go for it?  Nobody can tell us we're less. We're more.  We're wiser.  When you're young, you're beautiful it's exquisite time.  But when you're older you've gong through all those emotional dramas."

She also said "You're wise You know what you want, what you don't want.  You know how to stand for yourself.  It's a great time. And you've raised the children. We've come into life. Those things are over. Now we're going to go out and show them we're not through.  We're more, we actually are more and we're better."