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Silent Era Vixen Anita Page Dies at 98

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LOS ANGELES (Sept. 7) - Anita Page, an MGM actress who appeared in films with Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, has died. She was 98.

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Deaths in Hollywood

Anita Page, Sept. 6: Her intoxicating presence in 1920s Hollywood helped smoothen the transition from silent movies to talkies. Page, seen in her youth and again in 2003, starred in the "Our Dancing Daughters" trilogy with Joan Crawford and also shared the screen Lon Chaney and Buster Keaton. She was 98.

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Don LaFontaine, Sept. 1: In a world where hundreds of movie trailers are produced every year, the one voice likely heard on dozens of them belonged to the legendary LaFontaine. He died following complications resulting from a collapsed lung at age 68.

Damian Dovarganes, AP

Fred Crane, Aug. 21: Armed with that deep Southern accent, Crane scored the bit part of a lifetime in 'Gone With the Wind' as Stuart Tarleton, seated to the right of Vivien Leigh, delivering the opening line of the 1939 classic. Crane, who was the last living male actor to have been featured in the film, died at age 90.

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Julius Carry III, Aug. 19: Despite a busy career over 25 years, Carry is best known for his intentionally campy role as Sho'nuff in the cult classic 'The Last Dragon.' Serving both as an answer and as a moniker, Sho'nuff was the Shogun of Harlem in the urban kung fu parody. He died at 56.

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Evelyn Keyes, July 4: She played Scarlett O'Hara's little sister in 'Gone With the Wind' and was married to entertainment legends Artie Shaw, King Vidor and John Huston. Keyes succumbed to uterine cancer at her home in Montecito, Calif. She was 91.

Kevork Djansezian, AP

Cyd Charisse, June 17: The actress-dancer who had iconic roles in 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'The Band Wagon' died after suffering a heart attack at the age of 86.

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Stan Winston, June 15: Winston's pioneering special effects work on 'Jurassic Park,' the 'Terminator' films and 'Aliens' wowed audiences around the world. He lost his seven-year battle with multiple myeloma at age 62.

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Bob Anderson, June 6: The son of movie makers, who got his start in Shirley Temple's 'Young People' before landing his best known role as a young George Bailey in 'It's A Wonderful Life,' died of cancer at his home in Palm Springs.

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Mel Ferrer, June 2: Ferrer, who was once married to Audrey Hepburn, wore many hats, including actor, director and producer. He died at his home in Santa Barbara, surrounded by family, at the age of 90.

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Harvey Korman, May 29: The tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to 'The Carol Burnett Show' and on the big screen in 'Blazing Saddles,' pictured with Slim Pickens, died from complications of an aneurysm. He was 81.

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Page died in her sleep early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, said actor Randal Malone, her longtime friend and companion.

Page's career, which spanned 84 years, began in 1924 when she started as an extra.

Her big break came in 1928 when she won a major role — as the doomed bad girl — in "Our Dancing Daughters," a film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films.

Page's daughter Linda Sterne said her mother had been good friends with Marion Davies and Jean Harlow, and for about six months in the 1930s lived as a guest in William Hearst's massive castle on the Southern California coast.

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Tribute to Page

'Our Modern Maidens,' 1929

"She was the best mother I could have," Sterne said. "She was wonderful."

In 1928, the New York-born Page starred opposite Chaney in "While the City Sleeps."

The following year, she was co-star of "The Broadway Melody," the 1929 backstage tale of two sisters who love the same man. The film made history as the first talkie to win the best-picture Oscar and was arguably the first true film musical.

In his 1995 book "A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film," author Richard Barrios reserved much of his praise for Bessie Love, the veteran actress who played the other sister. But he called Page "intensely likable — sincere, well-meaning, endearing, in much the same fashion as Ruby Keeler several years later — and, of course, quite beautiful."

Variety wrote in 1929 that Page "is also apt to bowl the trade over with a contribution that's natural all the way, plus her percentage on appearance. ... She can't dance, (but) the remainder of her performance is easily sufficient to make this impediment distinctly negligible."

Among Page's other films were two of Keaton's sound films, "Free and Easy" in 1930, and "Sidewalks of New York" in 1931; "Night Court," with Walter Huston in 1932; and "The Easiest Way" in 1931, in which Clark Gable had a small role.

For a short time Page was married to composer Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote songs for "The Broadway Melody," but the marriage was annulled within a year, Sterne said.

Page stopped acting in 1936 when she fell in love with Herschel House, a Navy aviator. The couple married six weeks later and Page happily adapted to life as an officer's wife, hosting many parties at their home in Coronado, a city peninsula in the San Diego Bay, Sterne said.

The couple had two daughters, Linda and Sandra.

After House died in 1991, Page went on to return to films. In 1994, she appeared in the suspense thriller "Sunset After Dark."

Most recently, she had a cameo in the horror film "Frankenstein Rising," due out later this year.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2008-09-06 22:11:44

Dan Steinberg, AP

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ihav2muchluv4u12

07:15 PMSep 14 2008

She had a great, long run in the movie of life. RIP.

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AmberGagged

02:43 PMSep 08 2008

she was a woman of class,beauty,brains and talent, the world is a better place for her having been in it

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Spike29668

02:41 PMSep 08 2008

Physical beauty quickly fades .Only the beauty of holiness endures and grows.Enjoy your physical beauty while it last but nurture your inner beauty,it will sustain you forever

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dudefromthebronx

02:15 PMSep 08 2008

Anita Page also had a lengthy correspondence with Mussolini and deeply admired Leni Reifenstahl.

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Fperfett

02:12 PMSep 08 2008

Jeepers... she was quite a looker back then. Hubba hubba!!!

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JBinTheSky

02:05 PMSep 08 2008

time waits for no one.....

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Grams31

12:57 PMSep 08 2008

What a wonderful woman! May angel's wings enfold her.

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Sdave7596

12:40 PMSep 08 2008

Good for Anita....that she lived to be 98!! She out lived her contemporaries by decades!! Crawford died some thirty yeard ago!!

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pinksghetti

11:27 AMSep 08 2008

I'm an old movie buff, but I'm not familar with Ms. Page (at least by name). It's nice that she lived a long life. She was quite pretty back in the day. It's fun to check out how different people acted (literally and figuratively) back in time compared to people these days and the clothing styles.

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NYC5577

11:26 AMSep 08 2008

Vice Verse You are completely wrong. Anita Page had no difficulty whatsoever transitioning to talking pictures! Anita Page had been in movies since 1924, a year longer than Joan Crawford. Anita Page was at one point receiving 10,000 fan letters a week! In interviews, Ms. Page states several times that Louis B. Mayer and other top MGM executives expected her to use the "casting couch" i.e. have sex and Anita adamately refused. The quality of her MGM films declined and after her failed marriage to songwriter Nacio Herb Brown she elected to retire from films and lead what turned out to be a very happy and very long married life. Before you make statements like you did, Vice Verse, it would help if you did a little more research! P.S., When asked if she ever used the "casting couch" Joan Crawford replied, "Well, it sure as hell beat the cold hard floor!".

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