Legendary Hollywood actress and star of the Santa Barbara series dies
4 June 2024 18:51
Janis Paige, a singer, dancer and actress who played a role in the cult TV series Santa Barbara, died on Sunday, 2 June, at her home in Los Angeles. The actress was 101 years old, reports "Komersant Ukrainian" reports with reference to The New York Times.
Janis Paige made a name for herself at the age of 22 in the 1944 star-studded film Hollywood Canteen, but her participation in subsequent films did not bring her much recognition. However, after Page fled to New York to try her hand at Broadway, she became a famous actress.
She landed the role of the crazy, romantically inclined union leader Babe Williams in The Pyjama Game, opposite John Raitt. When the show was adapted into a film, the producers at Warner Bros. decided that at least one big Hollywood name was needed. Therefore, while most of the New York actors, including Mr Reitt, moved on to film, Miss Page was replaced by Doris Day.
However, the actress continued to receive invitations to Broadway and played several leading roles. In addition to her theatrical career, she starred in several films and television series.
Janice Page was born in Tacoma, Washington, and began her career in Los Angeles. Page starred in her own television series, Always Jen, which ran for one season (1955-56) on CBS, playing a widowed nightclub singer. Her last film was The Caretakers (1963), a hospital drama starring Joan Crawford. But she appeared frequently in television series throughout the 1980s and had cameo roles in the daytime dramas General Hospital and Santa Barbara.
Janice Page is known to have been married three times and had several affairs. In 2017, she wrote an essay in which she described an attempted rape in her youth.
