Janis Paige, star of Broadway’s ‘The Pajama Game’, passes away at 101

Los Angeles [US], June 4 (ANI): Veteran star Janis Paige, who starred in the original Broadway production of ‘The Pajama Game’ and in such Hollywood musicals as Silk Stockings and Romance on the High Seas, has passed away at the age of 101.

Paige, who was discovered in the 1940s while performing at the legendary Hollywood Canteen, died Sunday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her friend Stuart Lampert announced, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Paige starred on her own network sitcom, playing a widowed nightclub singer struggling to raise her 10-year-old daughter, on the 1955-56 CBS series It’s Always Jan, and she had recurring roles as Dick van Patten’s free-spirited sister on ABC’s Eight Is Enough and as a hospital administrator on CBS’ Trapper John, M.D.

The actress also turned in two memorable guest-starring stints in 1976, playing an attractive diner waitress named Denise who tempts Archie (Carroll O’Connor) to cheat on Edith (Jean Stapleton) on All in the Family and a former flame of Lou’s (Edward Asner) on The Mary Tyler Moore show.

In 1968, Paige replaced Angela Lansbury in Mame on Broadway and performed as the title character for nearly two years.

After spending six years working on the stage and on television, Paige returned to the big screen to star alongside Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Silk Stockings (1957), an adaptation of a stage musical that had Greta Garbo’s Ninotchka at its roots.

She also appeared in dozens of episodes of daytime dramas General Hospital as Iona Huntington and Santa Barbara as Minx Lockridge. Her final credit was a 2001 episode of Family Law.