Anita Page
Encyclopedia
Anita Evelyn Pomares better known as Anita Page, was a Salvadoran-American film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 era. She became a highly popular young star, reportedly at one point receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 lot. When Page died in 2008 at age 98, she was the last surviving "famous" film star of the silent era except for child actresses such as Baby Peggy
Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary , best known as Baby Peggy, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie....

 and Baby Marie. A few silent leading ladies who did not achieve wide fame survive her. She was referred to as "a blond
Blond
Blond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...

, blue-eyed Latin
White Hispanic and Latino Americans
White Hispanic and Latino Americans are citizens and residents of the United States who are racially White and ethnically Hispanic or Latino.White American, itself an official U.S...

" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s.

Early life

Page was born in Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...

 to Helen and John Pomares. She had one brother, Marino, who later worked for her as a gym instructor while her mother worked as her secretary and her father as her chauffeur. Of Salvadoran and Spanish
Spanish American
A Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.-Immigration waves:...

 ancestry, Page's grandfather was a consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 from El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

.

Career

Page entered films with the help of friend, actress Betty Bronson
Betty Bronson
Betty Bronson was an American television and film actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was a famous actress in silent and sound films.-Film career:...

. Page's picture was spotted by a man who handled Bronson's fan mail who was also interested in representing actors. With the encouragement of her mother, Page telephoned the man who arranged a meeting for her with a casting director at Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. After screentesting for Paramount, Page also tested for MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

. After being offered a contract for both studios, Page decided on MGM. Page's first film for MGM was the 1928 comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 Telling the World, opposite William Haines
William Haines
Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...

. Her performances in her second MGM film, Our Dancing Daughters
Our Dancing Daughters
Our Dancing Daughters is a 1928 MGM silent drama film starring Joan Crawford and John Mack Brown , about the "loosening of youth morals" that took place during the 1920s. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont and produced by Hunt Stromberg...

(1928) opposite Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 (with whom she appeared in three films), and The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody is a 1929 American musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929-1930...

(1929) opposite Bessie Love
Bessie Love
Bessie Love was an American motion picture actress who achieved prominence mainly in the silent films and early talkies. With a small frame and delicate features, she played innocent young girls, flappers, and wholesome leading ladies. Her role in The Broadway Melody earned her a nomination for...

 were her greatest successes of the period, and her popularity allowed her to make a smooth transition into talking pictures
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

.

She was the leading lady to Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr. , born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney...

, Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

, Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery (actor)
Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...

, and Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

 (among others) and during the early 1930s, she was one of Hollywood's busiest actresses. She was involved briefly with Gable romantically during that time. At the height of her popularity, she was receiving more fan mail than any other female star, with the exception of Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...

, and received multiple marriage proposals from Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 in the mail.

Retirement

When her contract expired in 1933, she surprised Hollywood by announcing her retirement at the age of 23. She made one more movie, Hitch Hike to Heaven, in 1936, and then left the screen, virtually disappearing from Hollywood circles for sixty years. In a 2004 interview with author Scott Feinberg, she claimed that her refusal to meet demands for sexual favors by MGM head of production Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...

, supported by studio chief Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

, is what truly ended her career. She said that Mayer colluded with the other studio bosses to ban her and other uncooperative actresses from finding work.

She married composer Nacio Herb Brown
Nacio Herb Brown
Nacio Herb Brown was an American writer of popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s.-Biography:...

 in 1934, but the marriage was annulled a year later because Brown's previous divorce had not been finalized at the time they were married. She married Lieutenant Hershel A. House, a Navy pilot, in 1937 and they moved to Coronado, California
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...

 and lived there until his death in 1991. They had two daughters, Linda (now Linda Sterne) and Sandra (who predeceased her mother).

Return to spotlight

Page returned to the screen in 1996 after sixty years retirement and appeared in several low budget horror films, several of which appeared to have been uncompleted or not released. Film veteran Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...

 appeared in two of them. During this period, she moved in with her co-star and occasional director, Randal Malone
Randal Malone
Randal Johnson Malone is an American actor.-Early life:Malone was born as the sole living heir to a tobacco farming empire dating back to the early 19th century, but he was more attracted to working in show business and Hollywood than managing the family industry in Kentucky...

 at his Van Nuys home.

Page relished her status as "last star of the silents" and frequently gave interviews and appeared in documentaries about the era. Although ill health prevented her from making public appearances in her final years, her reputation for answering letters from fans never diminished.

At the time of her death in September 2008, she was among the last to have acted as an adult in silent films (Barbara Kent
Barbara Kent
Barbara Kent was a Canadian-born U.S.-based silent film actress. Following the death of Miriam Seegar, she was the last North American actor still alive to have achieved substantial fame during the silent film era as an adult.-Career:Born as Barbara Cloutman in Gadsby, Alberta, to Jullion Curtis...

 and Miriam Seegar
Miriam Seegar
Miriam Seegar Whelan , was an American silent film actress.-Early Life:Born in Greentown, Indiana, Her parents were teachers. She was one of four daughters. Her father later opened up a hardware store but died when Miriam was 14. The third of four talented sisters: Dr...

 are among the handful of others) to live into the 21st century. She was also the last living attendee of the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929.

Death

Page died on September 6, 2008 at her Los Angeles home, at the age of 98. She is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery (San Diego)
Holy Cross Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Chollas View neighborhood of San Diego, California.Holy Cross was dedicated in 1919 for the exclusive use of Roman Catholics, with expansions in 1945 and 1956. The mausoleum, with its distinctive blue roof visible from California State Route 94, is...

 in San Diego.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Anita Page has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6116 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1925 A Kiss for Cinderella
A Kiss for Cinderella
A Kiss for Cinderella is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was featured on Broadway in 1916 and starred Maude Adams. The play opened at the Empire Theater on December 25, 1916 and ran for 152 performances...

Uncredited
1926 Love 'Em and Leave 'Em Uncredited
1927 Beach Nuts Short film
1928 Telling the World Chrystal Malone
1928 Our Dancing Daughters
Our Dancing Daughters
Our Dancing Daughters is a 1928 MGM silent drama film starring Joan Crawford and John Mack Brown , about the "loosening of youth morals" that took place during the 1920s. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont and produced by Hunt Stromberg...

Ann 'Annikins'
1928 While the City Sleeps
While the City Sleeps (1928 film)
While the City Sleeps, is a 1928 silent film, about a tough New York City police detective, played by Lon Chaney, out to get a murdering gangster...

Myrtle
1928 West of Zanzibar Bit role Uncredited
1929 The Flying Fleet Anita Hastings
1929 The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody is a 1929 American musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929-1930...

Queenie Mahoney Alternative title: The Broadway Melody of 1929
1929 Our Modern Maidens
Our Modern Maidens
Our Modern Maidens is a 1929 silent film directed by Jack Conway. Starring Joan Crawford in her last silent film role, the film also stars Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Anita Page. Our Modern Maidens is the second of three film where Crawford and Page appear together...

Kentucky Strafford
1929 Speedway
Speedway (1929 film)
Speedway is a 1929 silent film about a car racer who clashes with his father, also a driver, at the Indianapolis Speedway.-Cast:*William Haines as Bill Whipple*Anita Page as Patricia Bonner*Ernest Torrence as Jim MacDonald*Karl Dane as Dugan...

Patricia
1929 Navy Blues
Navy Blues (1929 film)
Navy Blues is a 1929 romance film starring William Haines as a sailor and Anita Page as the girl he romances and leaves. This was Haines' first talking picture.-Cast:*William Haines as Jack Kelly*Anita Page as Alice Brown* Karl Dane as Sven Swanson...

Alice "Allie" Brown
1930 Great Day Incomplete
1930 Free and Easy Elvira Plunkett Alternative title: Easy Go
1930 Caught Short Genevieve Jones
1930 Our Blushing Brides
Our Blushing Brides
Our Blushing Brides is a 1930 drama film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, and Dorothy Sebastian. The film was a follow-up to Our Dancing Daughters and Our Modern Maidens , and was a commercial success when it was released.The two previous installments in the series were both...

Connie Blair
1930 Little Accident Isabel
1930 War Nurse Joy Meadows
1931 The Voice of Hollywood No. 7 (Second Series)
1931 Reducing Vivian Truffle
1931 The Easiest Way
The Easiest Way
The Easiest Way is a 1931 American MGM drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name by David Belasco, the film stars Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, and Anita Page.-Plot:...

Peg Murdock Feliki
1931 Gentleman's Fate Ruth Corrigan
1931 Sidewalks of New York Margie Kelly
1931 Under 18
Under 18
Under 18 is a romantic drama film starring Marian Marsh, Anita Page, Regis Toomey, and Warren William. It is based on the short story "Sky Life" by Frank Mitchell Dazey and Agnes Christine Johnston...

Sophie
1932 Are You Listening?
Are You Listening? (film)
Are You Listening? is a 1932 drama film starring William Haines, Madge Evans and Anita Page. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont. It was Haines' final film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Plot:...

Sally O'Neil
1932 Night Court Mary Thomas Alternative title: Justice for Sale
1932 Skyscraper Souls
Skyscraper Souls
Skyscraper Souls is a Pre-Code 1932 drama film starring Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was directed by Edgar Selwyn and is based upon the novel Skyscraper by Faith Baldwin.-Plot:...

Jenny LeGrande
1932 Prosperity
Prosperity (film)
Prosperity is a 1932 American comedy-drama film starring Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. The two leading actresses play longtime matriarchal ladies comically sparring off each other, and trying to control their intertwined lives.-Plot:...

Helen Praskins Warren
1933 Jungle Bride
Jungle Bride
Jungle Bride is a 1933 American film directed by Harry O. Hoyt, Albert H. Kelley.- Cast :*Anita Page as Doris Evans*Charles Starrett as Gordon Wayne*Kenneth Thomson as John Franklin*Eddie Borden as Eddie Stevens*Gertrude Simpson as Laura...

Doris Evans
1933 Soldiers of the Storm Natalie
1933 The Big Cage
The Big Cage
The Big Cage is a 1933 circus film released by Universal Pictures starring Clyde Beatty and Anita Page and featuring Raymond Hatton, Wallace Ford, Andy Devine and Mickey Rooney, with Walter Brennan and Louise Beavers in bit roles....

Lilian Langley
1933 I Have Lived Jean St. Clair Alternative titles: After Midnight
Love Life
1936 Hitch Hike to Heaven Claudia Revelle Alternative title: Footlights and Shadows
1961 The Runaway Nun
1996 Sunset After Dark
2000 Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood Sister Seraphina Direct-to-DVD release
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

2002 The Crawling Brain Grandma Anita Kroger Direct-to-DVD release
2004 Socialite Socialite
2009 Frankenstein Rising Elizabeth Frankenstein Released posthumously

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK