Actress Janis Paige danced with Fred Astaire, sang in clubs with Sammy Davis Jr. and was a legend in Hollywood. She performed into her 90s and even added her voice to the #MeToo movement.
Hollywood and Broadway star Janis Paige, who danced with Fred Astaire, toured with Bob Hope and continued to perform into her 90s, has died. She was 101. Paige died of natural causes at her Los Angeles home on Sunday (2 June), announced longtime friend Stuart Lampert.
Paige starred on Broadway with Jackie Cooper in the mystery-comedy, and appeared with John Raitt in the smash hit musical . Her other films included a Hope comedy, ; the Doris Day comedy and . Paige's big break came in wartime when she sang an operatic aria for servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen.
MGM hired her a day later for a brief role in — she spoke two lines in the film, which starred Esther Williams and Red Skelton — then dropped her. The same day, Warner Bros. signed her and cast her in a dramatic segment of the all-star movie .
Her contract started at $150 a week. “I earned more per week than my mother had made in a month during the Great Depression,” she recalled in The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. Her salary rose to $1,000 weekly as the studio kept her busy in lightweight films such as , , , and , which marked Doris Day’s film debut.
Meanwhile, she had changed her name from Donna May Tjaden, adopting her grandfather's name of Paige. She took her first name from Elsie Janis, famed for entertaining troops in W.