Janis Paige, a popular Hollywood and Broadway actress who danced with Fred Astaire, has died at age 101.
Paige also toured with American comedy giant Bob Hope during her career, which continued into her 80s.
He died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home on Sunday, his longtime friend Stuart Lampert said Monday.
Paige made her Broadway debut opposite Jackie Cooper in the mystery comedy Remains To Be Seen in 1951, and appeared with John Raitt in the hit musical The Pajama Game three years later.
In 1957 she appeared alongside the iconic dancer Astaire in the film Silk Stockings.
The film is famous because she and Astaire parodied novel film tricks in Cole Porter’s Stereophonic Sound number, including swinging from a chandelier.
“I was a mass of bruises. I didn’t know how to fall. I didn’t know how to get off a table; I didn’t know how to save myself because I was never a classical dancer,” she said. the Miami Herald in 2016.
Paige would appear in a number of films in the 1960s, including the Hope comedy Bachelor In Paradise, the Doris Day comedy Please Don’t Eat The Daisies, and the film Follow The Boys, directed by Richard Thorpe.
He also brought glamor to Hope’s Christmas visits to American troops in Cuba and the Caribbean in 1960, Japan and South Korea in 1962, and Vietnam in 1964.
Paige also sang in clubs with Sammy Davis Jr, Alan King, Dinah Shore and Perry Como.
In 1968, she replaced Angela Lansbury in the New York production of Mame on Broadway and toured with the show in 1969. She also toured with Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun, Born Yesterday and The Desk Set.
His last time on Broadway was in 1984’s Alone Together.
In May 2003, Paige returned to acting after a long absence. She opened a show she called The Third Act at San Francisco’s Plush Room, telling stories about Astaire, Frank Sinatra and others and singing tunes from her films and musicals.
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Janis Paige with Bob Hope entertaining the troops in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1964 Photo: AP
In 2018, he added his voice to the Me too movement, alleging an assault when he was 22 by the late department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale.
“I could feel his hands, not just on my breasts, but seemingly everywhere. He was big and strong, and I started struggling, kicking, biting and screaming,” she wrote. “At 95 years old, time is not on my side, nor 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, Paige.
It took its name from Elsie Janis, famous for entertaining troops in the First World War.
Paige had two brief marriages, to San Francisco restaurateur Frank Martinelli and to writer and producer Arthur Stander.
In 1962 she married composer Ray Gilbert, who won an Oscar for the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da from Disney’s Song Of The South.
He died in 1976 and she took over management of his music company.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
