LOS ANGELES — 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.
Page’s career began in 1924 as an extra. Her break came in 1928 when she won a major role as the bad girl in “Our Dancing Daughters,” which 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.
The following year, she was co-star of “The Broadway Melody,” a 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.
Among Page’s other films were two of Keaton’s sound films, “Free and Easy” in 1930 and “Sidewalks of New York” in 1931, and “The Easiest Way” in 1931, in which Clark Gable had a small role.
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