Bob Hope and Janice Paige embrace during the annual Christmas show in Saigon, Vietnam, on Dec. 25, 1964. Paige, a popular actor in Hollywood and Broadway musicals and comedies who danced with Fred Astaire, toured with Bob Hope and continued to perform until she was in her 80s, died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 2, 2024, her longtime friend Stuart Lampert said on Monday, June 3. | PHOTO CREDIT: ANONYMOUS
Janis Paige, a popular actress of Hollywood and Broadway musicals and comedies who danced with Fred Astaire, toured with Bob Hope and continued performing until her 90s, has died. She was 101.
Page’s longtime friend Stuart Lampert said Monday that Page died of natural causes Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.
Page starred on Broadway with Jackie Cooper in the mystery-comedies, remains to be seenand appeared in the smash hit musical with John Raitt The Pajama GameHis other films include Hope Comedy, Bachelor in Paradise; Doris Day Comedy Please don’t eat daisies And Follow the Boys,
In 2018, she added her voice to the #MeToo movement, alleging that she was assaulted when she was 22 by the late department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale, who died in 1982. “I could feel his hands, not just on my breasts but everywhere. He was big and strong, and I began to fight, kick, bite, and scream,” she wrote. “At 95, time is not on my side, and neither is silence. I just want to add my name and say, ‘Me too.'”
Page got her big wartime break when she sang an opera song for the troops at the Hollywood Canteen. MGM hired her a day later for a brief role in Bathing Beauty – he spoke two lines in the film, which starred Esther Williams and Red Skelton – then was released. That same day, Warner Bros. signed him and cast him in a dramatic part in the all-star movie Hollywood Canteen. Her contract began at $150 a week. “I made as much a week as my mother made in a month during the Great Depression,” she said. The Hollywood Reporter In 2018.
His salary rose to $1,000 a week as the studio kept him busy in light-hearted films such as Two Guys from Milwaukee, Time, place and girl, love and learn, Always together, wallflower And Romance on the seaWhich was Doris Day’s first film. Meanwhile, she had changed her name from Donna Mae Tjaden to Paige, her grandfather’s name. She took her first name from Elsie Janis, who was famous for entertaining the troops in World War I.
Page’s contract expired in 1949, at a time when studios were shedding talent because of the advent of television. “That was a blow,” she remarked in 1963. “It meant I was finished at age 25.” She took her talents to Broadway, where she starred in “Remains to Be Seen” (her role was snatched by June Allyson for the screen adaptation), and played Babe opposite Raitt as Sid in the original 1954 production of “The Pajama Game,” directed by George Abbott. (Doris Day played her in the film version.)
MGM producer Arthur Freed saw her nightclub act at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and offered her a role opposite Astaire silk stockingswhich also co-stars Cyd Charisse. The film is famous for her and Astaire performing new-movie gimmicks in the Cole Porter number “Stereophonic Sound,” including swinging from a chandelier. “I was a pile of bruises. I didn’t know how to fall. I didn’t know how to land on a table — I didn’t know how to save myself because I was never a classic dancer,” she explained The Miami Herald In 2016.
In May 2003, Page began entertaining again after a long hiatus. He opened a show called “The Third Act” at the Plush Room in San Francisco. He told stories about Astaire, Frank Sinatra and others and sang tunes from his films and stage musicals. Chad Jones, critic Alameda Times-Starcommented that even at 80 “the charming Paige exudes a vitality, vigour and spirit that actors half her age would envy.”
Peggy grew up in Tacoma, Washington. Her father abandoned the family when she was 4, and her mother worked at the Bank of Tacoma to support herself. “We always had enough to eat, but not much leftovers,” Peggy told the Saturday Evening Post in 1963. “My mother worked very hard. And she always said she wished I had been a boy so I could help out more. I always wanted to be a success for them, to make up for my father.”
After leaving Warner Bros., he turned to TV and starred in a TV series in 1955–1956. It’s always the people and playing recurring roles Flamingo Road, Santa Barbara, eight is enough, Capitol, Fantasy Island And Trapper John, M.D.. But all in the familyShe played a diner waitress who becomes involved with Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker. Page replaced Angela Lansbury in the New York production maternal uncle on Broadway in 1968 and toured with the show in 1969. He Gypsy, annie grab your gun, Born Yesterday And Desk SetHis last performance on Broadway was in 1984 alone togetherShe also provided the glamour for Hope’s Christmas tours to Cuba and the Caribbean in 1960, Japan and South Korea in 1962, and Vietnam in 1964. She sang in clubs with Sammy Davis Jr., Alan King, Dinah Shore, and Perry Como.
His autobiography in 2020, Reading Between the Lines: A Memoirwas published, describing his relationships with Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, David Niven, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, and Lucille Ball.
She married twice, once to San Francisco restaurateur Frank Martinelli and the other to writer-producer Arthur Stander. In 1962 she married songwriter Ray Gilbert, who won an Oscar for the song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da” from the Disney film The Witch. Song of the SouthHe died in 1976 and she took over the management of his music company.
