Actress Janis Paige, Known for Hollywood and Broadway Roles and Dancing with Fred Astaire, Passes Away | Entertainment and Arts Updates
Janis Paige, a popular Hollywood and Broadway actress who danced with Fred Astaire, has passed away at the age of 101.
Paige also performed with US comedy legend Bob Hope during her career, which continued well into her 80s.
She passed away of natural causes at her residence in Los Angeles on Sunday, as confirmed by her close friend Stuart Lampert on Monday.
Paige made her Broadway debut alongside Jackie Cooper in the mystery comedy “Remains To Be Seen” in 1951, and later starred with John Raitt in the successful musical “The Pajama Game” three years later.
In 1957, she shared the screen with iconic dancer Astaire in the film “Silk Stockings.”
The movie is renowned for Paige and Astaire’s parody of modern movie gimmicks in the Cole Porter number “Stereophonic Sound,” which included swinging from a chandelier.
“I was covered in bruises. I didn’t have the skills of a classic dancer,” she recounted to the Miami Herald in 2016.
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Paige went on to appear in several films in the 1960s, including the Hope comedy “Bachelor In Paradise,” the Doris Day comedy “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies,” and the Richard Thorpe-directed film “Follow The Boys.”
She also brought glamour to Hope’s Christmas tours to US troops in Cuba and the Caribbean in 1960, Japan and South Korea in 1962, and Vietnam in 1964.
Paige also sang in clubs alongside Sammy Davis Jr, Alan King, Dinah Shore, and Perry Como.
In 1968, she took over Angela Lansbury in the New York production of “Mame” on Broadway and toured with the show in 1969. She also toured in “Gypsy,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Born Yesterday,” and “The Desk Set.”
Her final Broadway appearance was in 1984’s “Alone Together.”
In May 2003, Paige returned to entertaining after a long hiatus. She launched a show titled “The Third Act” at San Francisco’s Plush Room, sharing stories about Astaire, Sinatra, and others while singing songs from her films and stage musicals.
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Janis Paige with Bob Hope entertaining troops in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1964 Pic: AP
In 2018, she added her voice to the MeToo movement, alleging an assault when she was 22 by the late department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale.
“I could feel his hands, not only on my breasts, but seemingly 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 simply want to add my name and say, ‘Me too’.”
The actress, who grew up in Tacoma, Washington, was born Donna May Tjaden but adopted her grandfather’s name of Paige.
She took her first name from Elsie Janis, renowned for entertaining troops in the First World War.
Paige had two brief marriages, to San Francisco restaurateur Frank Martinelli and writer-producer Arthur Stander.
In 1962, she married songwriter Ray Gilbert, who won an Oscar for the song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da” from Disney’s “Song Of The South.”
He passed away in 1976, and she took over the management of his music company.
