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Anita Page (born Anita Evelyn Pomares; August 4, 1910 – September 6, 2008) was an American film actress who reached stardom in the final years of the silent film era.
She was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s. She retired from acting in 1936, made a comeback in 1961, then retired again. Page returned to acting 35 years later in 1996 and appeared in four films in the 2000s.
The Broadway Melody (1929) is considered among her more successful films; it won Best Picture at the second annual Academy Awards. Page transitioned to sound films, although she criticized the total loss of silents. "In my opinion, silents were much better than talkies. One thing you had was mood music, which you could have playing throughout your scene to inspire you. My favorite song was 'My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice' from Samson and Delilah. I never seemed to tire of it. The trouble with talkies was, they let you have the music, but they'd stop it when you had to talk, and it was always a let down for me." When not working on films, she was busy with studio photographer George Hurrell creating publicity shots. She was one of his early subjects, and her photograph was his first to be published. MGM played up her heritage in these press releases such as this 1932 blurb: "She is that rarest and most interesting type of beauty...A Spanish blonde" and dubbed her "a blonde, blue-eyed Latin".
During the early 1930s, she was one of Hollywood's busier actresses. She was the leading lady to Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable and others. She was involved romantically with Gable briefly during that time. At the height of her popularity, she received more fan mail than any other female star except Greta Garbo and received several marriage proposals from Benito Mussolini in the mail.
Page was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election. Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers She was a Catholic Church.Morning News, January 10, 1948, Who Was Who in America (Vol. 2)
She married composer Nacio Herb Brown in 1934. The marriage was annulled nine months later because Brown's previous divorce had not been finalized at the time they were married. Page admitted that she had never loved Brown and that she only married him because she had nothing else to do. She married Navy pilot Lieutenant Hershel A. House on January 9, 1937, in Yuma, Arizona.Arizona, County Marriage Records, 1865–1972 They moved to Coronado, California and lived there until his death in 1991. They had two daughters, Linda and Sandra. Page was the last living attendee of the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, and frequently gave interviews as the "last star of the silents", appearing in documentaries about the era. She collapsed at the 1988 Academy Awards ceremony and was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital, where she was said to be in stable condition. A spokesperson reported she had fainted because of a "combination of things--the heat, exhaustion, the excitement."
Page died in her sleep at the age of 98 on September 6, 2008, at her home in Los Angeles, where she had lived with long-time companion Randal Malone. She is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego alongside House.
| 1925 | A Kiss for Cinderella | Uncredited | |
| 1926 | Love 'Em and Leave 'Em | Uncredited | |
| 1927 | Beach Nuts | Short | |
| 1928 | Telling the World | Chrystal Malone | |
| Our Dancing Daughters | Ann 'Annikins' | ||
| While the City Sleeps | Myrtle | portions of 2 reels are missing | |
| West of Zanzibar | bit role | uncredited | |
| 1929 | The Flying Fleet | Anita Hastings | |
| The Broadway Melody | Queenie Mahoney | alternative title: The Broadway Melody of 1929 | |
| The Hollywood Revue of 1929 | herself | ||
| Our Modern Maidens | Kentucky Strafford | ||
| Speedway | Patricia | ||
| Navy Blues | Alice "Allie" Brown | ||
| 1930 | Free and Easy | Elvira Plunkett | alternative title: Easy Go |
| Caught Short | Genevieve Jones | ||
| Our Blushing Brides | Connie Blair | ||
| The Little Accident | Isabel | ||
| War Nurse | Joy Meadows | ||
| Great Day | Incomplete | ||
| Estrellados | herself | uncredited | |
| 1931 | The Voice of Hollywood No. 7 (Second Series) | herself | short |
| Wir schalten um auf Hollywood | herself | uncredited | |
| Reducing | Vivian Truffle | ||
| The Easiest Way | Peg Murdock Feliki | ||
| Gentleman's Fate | Ruth Corrigan | ||
| Sidewalks of New York | Margie Kelly | ||
| Under Eighteen | Sophie | ||
| 1932 | Are You Listening? | Sally O'Neil | |
| Night Court | Mary Thomas | alternative title: Justice for Sale | |
| Skyscraper Souls | Jenny LeGrande | ||
| Prosperity | Helen Praskins Warren | ||
| 1933 | Jungle Bride | Doris Evans | |
| Soldiers of the Storm | Natalie | ||
| The Big Cage | Lilian Langley | ||
| 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 | Anita Bronson | |
| 1998 | Creaturealm: From the Dead | herself | segment "Hollywood Mortuary" |
| 2000 | Sister Seraphina | direct-to-DVD release | |
| 2002 | The Crawling Brain | Grandma Anita Kroger | direct-to-DVD release |
| 2004 | Bob's Night Out | Socialite | |
| 2010 | Frankenstein Rising | Elizabeth Frankenstein | released posthumously |
| 2019 | Doctor Stein | Elizabeth Stein | released posthumously; archive footage |
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