Janis Paige

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Janis Paige
Born	Donna Mae Tjaden September 16, 1922 (1922-09-16) (age 87) Tacoma, Washington, United States
Occupation	Film, television actress

Janis Paige (born as Donna Mae Tjaden, September 16, 1922, Tacoma, Washington) is an American film, musical theatre and television actress. She began singing in public from the age of five in local amateur shows. She then moved to Los Angeles after graduating from high school and then got a job as a singer at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II.

The Canteen, which was a studio-sponsored gathering spot for servicemen, is where Warner Bros. saw her potential and signed her up. She began her film career co-starring in secondary musicals, often paired with either Dennis Morgan or Jack Carson. She later was relegated to rugged adventures and dramas in which she was out of her element. Following her role in the forgettable Two Gals and a Guy released in 1951, she decided to leave the Hollywood scene.

She then took to the Broadway boards and scored a huge hit with the 1951 comedy-mystery play, Remains to Be Seen, co-starring Jackie Cooper. She also toured successfully as a cabaret singer, performing everywhere from New York City and Miami to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Stardom came in 1954 with the feisty role of "Babe" in the Broadway musical, The Pajama Game, however Doris Day went on to play the role on film. After a six-year hiatus, Paige returned to films in Silk Stockings (1957), which starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, and in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960). One of her rare dramatic roles was "Marion", an institutionalized hooker, in the 1963 drama, The Caretakers.

Musical theatre

Paige returned to Broadway in 1963 in the short-lived Here's Love, and as one of a succession of actresses playing the title role in the musical Mame. She also appeared in touring productions of musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Applause, Gypsy: A Musical Fable, and Guys and Dolls.

Television

From the mid-1950s on Janis also made a name for herself on television with such series as "It's Always Jan" 1955-1956, Trapper John, M.D., All in the Family, Columbo and Caroline in the City. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was seen on soap operas such as General Hospital, Capitol, and Santa Barbara.

Marriages

Paige has been married to:

• Frank Louis Martinelli Jr, restaurateur; married 1947, divorced 1950
• Arthur Stander, television producer; married 1956, divorced 1957
• Ray Gilbert, composer and music publisher; married 1962, died 1976; he wrote the classic song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.

She had no children.

Selected films

• Bathing Beauty (1944)
• Hollywood Canteen (1944)
• Her Kind of Man (1946)
• Of Human Bondage (1946)
• Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946)
• The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946)
• Always Together (1947)
• Winter Meeting (1948)
• Wallflower (1948)
• Romance on the High Seas (1948)
• One Sunday Afternoon (1948)
• Fugitive Lady (1949)
• The Younger Brothers (1949)
• The House Across the Street (1949)
• This Side of the Law (1950)
• Mr. Universe (1951)
• Two Gals and a Guy (1951)
• Silk Stockings (1957)
• Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
• Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
• Follow the Boys (1963)
• The Caretakers (1963)
• Welcome to Hard Times (1967)

Documentary/short stories

• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003 documentary)
• I Won't Play (1944)
• So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947)
• So You Want to Be an Actor (1949)

Selected television work

• It's Always Jan (1955 – 1956)
• The Secret World of Eddie Hodges (1960)
• The Fugitive: Ballad for a Ghost (1964)
• Columbo: Blueprint for Murder (1972)
• Happy Days (1981)
• Bret Maverick (1981) (pilot for series)
• Baby Makes Five (1983)
• Night Court (1984)
• Trapper John, M.D. (cast member from 1985 – 1986)
• Capitol (cast member in 1987)
• General Hospital (cast member in 1989)
• Santa Barbara (cast member from 1990 – 1993)

References

External links

• Janis Paige at the Internet Movie Database
• Janis Paige at the Internet Broadway Database
• Janis Paige at Allmovie