The actress had her own 1950s sitcom and was also a regular guest on ‘The Bob Hope Show.’
Janis Page, one of the last remaining stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age who racked up more than 100 film, TV, and stage credits, including appearances in All in the Family and Eight Is Enough, has died. Page passed away Sunday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her longtime friend Stuart Lampert told the Associated Press on Monday. She was 101.
Born Donna Mae Tjaden on September 16, 1922, in Tacoma, Washington, per The Hollywood Reporter, Page moved with her sister to Los Angeles after graduating from Stadium High School. It was while she was performing at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II that she was discovered by a talent scout, jump starting her six-decade-long career. The actress, who was signed by MGM and later Warner Bros., made her film debut in Bathing Beauty, starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton and Basil Rathbone, and later portrayed a studio messenger in Hollywood Canteen which featured A-listers Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. On the big screen, Page would go on to star in films including the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse Silk Stockings, Her Kind of Man (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946), Love and Learn (1947), and The House Across the Street (1949), among many others.
On TV, Page starred in her own sitcom, It’s Always Jan, from 1955 to 1956. The show starred Page as a widowed nightclub singer. She also had a recurring role as Dick van Patten’s free-spirited sister Vivian on ABC’s Eight Is Enough, guest starred as diner waitress Denise on All in the Family, and played Minx Lockridge on 106 episodes of the NBC soap Santa Barbara. Her other small screen credits include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, NBC’s Lanigan’s Rabb, Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Charlie’s Angels, The Rockford Files, The Love Boat, Night Court and Trapper John, M.D. Her final credit was a 2001 episode of Family Law.
