Janis Paige

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Janis Paige

Born Donna Mae Tjaden
September 16, 1922 (1922-09-16) (age 85)
Tacoma, Washington, United States

Janis Paige (b. 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.

Real stardom came in 1954 with the feisty role of "Babe" in the hit Broadway musical, The Pajama Game, co-starring John Raitt. However, Doris Day, a bigger name in Hollywood, went on to play the role on film with Raitt. After a six-year hiatus, Janis returned to films in tongue-in-cheek support, all but stealing the movie Silk Stockings in 1957 from co-stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.

She then grabbed her share of laughs in Please Don’t Eat the Daisies in 1960, which starred Doris Day. One of her most remarkable dramatic roles was her streetwise characterization of "Marion", an institutionalized hooker, in the 1963 drama, The Caretakers. Paige returned to Broadway in 1963 in 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, as "Margo Channing" in Applause, "Mama Rose" in Gypsy: A Musical Fable, and as "Miss Adelaide" in Guys and Dolls.

From the mid-1950s on Janis also made a name for herself on television with such series as It's Always Jan, Lanigan’s Rabbi, Trapper John, M.D., Caroline in the City, and All in the Family.

In the 1980s and 1990s, she was seen on soap operas such as General Hospital, Capitol, and Santa Barbara.

Thrice married, but childless, she is the widow of composer Ray Gilbert, who wrote the classic song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.

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Persondata
NAME Paige, Janis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tjaden, Donna Mae
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1922-9-16
PLACE OF BIRTH Tacoma, Washington, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH