Janis Paige , who racked up more than 100 film, TV and stage credits over six decades including The Pajama Game, Silk Stockings and Santa Barbara , died June 2 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 101. Her friend Stuart Lambert told The Associated Press about Paige’s death.
During her long career, Paige toured with Bob Hope and danced onscreen with Fred Astaire, along with originating the Babe Williams role in The Pajama Game on Broadway in 1954. That same year she headlined It’s Always Jan, a CBS sitcom about the problems of single-parenthood during which she usually sang a song. It lasted a single season.
Related Stories News Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2024: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Obituaries Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Paige made her Broadway debut in 1951 opposite Jackie Cooper in Remains to Be Seen but found her signature stage role three years later in the hit musical comedy The Pajama Game . Babe Williams is a union organizer in a factory who falls in love with the new superintendent. Her role was played by Doris Day in the 1957 film version.
Paige later returned to Broadway three times, including starring roles in Here’s Love (1963) and Alone Together (1984). In 1968, she played the title role in Mame as part of a replacement cast. Angela Lansbury was the original star.
Along the way she appeared in dozens of movies and television series including 1946’s Hollywood Canteen , named for the famous nightclub where Paige was disc.