Geraldine Page | |
|---|---|
 Page in 1956 | |
| Born | Geraldine Sue Page (1924-11-22)November 22, 1924 Kirksville, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | June 13, 1987(1987-06-13) (aged 62) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1945–1987 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingAngelica Page andTony Torn |
Geraldine Sue Page (November 22, 1924 – June 13, 1987) was an American actress. With a career which spanned four decades across film, stage, and television, Page was the recipient ofnumerous accolades, including anAcademy Award, aBritish Academy Film Award, twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, and twoGolden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for fourTony Awards.
A native ofKirksville, Missouri, Page studied at theGoodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago and withUta Hagen andLee Strasberg in New York City. During theMcCarthyism era, she wasblacklisted in Hollywood based on her association with Hagen and did not work in film for eight years. Page won theAcademy Award for Best Actress for her role inThe Trip to Bountiful (1985). She was Oscar-nominated for her work inHondo (1953),Summer and Smoke (1961),Sweet Bird of Youth (1962),You're a Big Boy Now (1966),Pete 'n' Tillie (1972),Interiors (1978), andThe Pope of Greenwich Village (1984). She is also known for her roles inWhat Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969),The Beguiled (1971) andThe Rescuers (1977).
On stage, she made herBroadway debut in the 1953 playMid-summer. She went on to receiveTony Award nominations for her performances as Princess Kosmonopolis inSweet Bird of Youth (1959), Marion inAbsurd Person Singular (1974), Mother Miriam Ruth inAgnes of God (1982), and Madame Arcati inBlithe Spirit (1987). For her prolific work onstage she was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1979. For her roles in television she received twoPrimetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for her acting in the adaptations ofTruman Capote'sA Christmas Memory (1967) andThe Thanksgiving Visitor (1969).
Page was born November 22, 1924, inKirksville, Missouri, the first child of Edna Pearl (née Maize) and Leon Elwin Page[1] who worked at Andrew Taylor Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery (combined with the American School of Osteopathy, eventually to formA.T. Still University). He was an author whose works includedPractical Anatomy (1925),Osteopathic Fundamentals (1926), andThe Old Doctor (1932).[2] She had one younger brother, Donald.[3]
At age five, Page relocated with her family toChicago.[1] Raised aMethodist by her mother, Page was an active parishioner of the Englewood Methodist Church in Chicago, where she had her first foray into acting within the church's theatre group, appearing in a play called Excuse My Dust, then playing Jo March in a 1941 production ofLouisa May Alcott'sLittle Women.[4] After graduating from Chicago'sEnglewood Technical Prep Academy, she attended theGoodman School of Drama at theArt Institute of Chicago (which moved toDePaul University in 1978), with the intention of becoming an actress. Page had aspirations of becoming a pianist or visual artist, but at 17 she appeared in her first amateur theatre production, and from that point, she never wavered from her desire to be a professional actress.[5]
After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1945,[6] Page studied acting at the Herbert Berghof School and theAmerican Theatre Wing in New York City,[5] studying withUta Hagen for seven years,[1][7] and then at theActors Studio withLee Strasberg.[1][8] During this time, Page would return to Chicago in the summers to perform inrepertory theatre inLake Zurich, Illinois, where she and several fellow actors had established their own independent theater company.[5] She also spent two critically successful years performing with a winter stock company called the Woodstock Players, another group from Goodman, who performed mostly at theWoodstock Opera House where she was singled out by criticClaudia Cassidy ofThe Chicago Tribune as destined to be a star to bear watching. During that time she was called "the lady with the thousand faces" for her ability to change her looks and actions to an extent that her most devoted fans were unable to recognize her.[9] While attempting to establish her career, she worked various odd jobs, including as a hat-check girl, theater usher, lingerie model, and a factory laborer.[1]
Page, a trainedmethod actor, spent five years appearing in various repertory theater productions in the Midwest and New York after graduating from college.[1] On October 25, 1945, she made her New York stage debut inSeven Mirrors, a play devised byImmaculate Heart High School students fromLos Angeles.[10][11] The play ran for a total of 23 performances at Blackfriars Repertory Theatre on Manhattan'sUpper East Side.[11] In February 1952, directorJosé Quintero cast Page in a minor role inYerma, a theatrical interpretation of a poem byFederico García Lorca, staged atCircle in the Square Theatre in New York City'sGreenwich Village.[12] Page was subsequently cast in the role of Alma in the Quintero-directed production ofSummer and Smoke, written byTennessee Williams (also staged at the Circle Theatre in 1952). Page's role inSummer and Smoke garnered her significant exposure, including aDrama Desk Award,[6] and a profile inTime magazine.[13]
Her official film debut and role inHondo, oppositeJohn Wayne, garnered her a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Prior to this, she appeared in an uncredited role inTaxi. Speaking to a Kirksville newspaper, she said: "ActuallyHondo wasn't my first movie. I had one small, but satisfactory scene in a Dan Dailey picture calledTaxi, which was filmed in New York."[14] Page wasblacklisted in Hollywood after her debut inHondo based on her association withUta Hagen and did not work in film for nearly ten years.[1] Her work continued on Broadway playing a spinster in the 1954–1955 production ofThe Rainmaker, written byN. Richard Nash; and as the frustrated wife whose husband becomes romantically obsessed with a young Arab, played byJames Dean, in the 1954 production ofThe Immoralist, written by Augustus Goetz andRuth Goetz and based on thenovel of the same name (1902) byAndré Gide.[15] Page remained friends with Dean until his death the following year and kept a number of personal mementos from the play—including several drawings by him. After Page's death, these items were acquired byHeritage Auctions in 2006.[16] In 2015Angelica Page revealed that her mother had an affair with Dean during the production ofThe Immoralist.[17] She stated, "According to my mother, their affair went on for three-and-a-half months. In many ways my mother never really got over Jimmy. It was not unusual for me to go to her dressing room through the years, obviously many years after Dean was gone, and find pictures of him taped up on her mirror. My mother never forgot about Jimmy -- never. I believe they were artistic soul mates."[18]
Prior toHondo, in 1952, she appeared in a revival ofSummer and Smoke in 1952 putting herself, the play, and directorJose Quintero at the beginning of the Off-Broadway scene. Page played the same role of Alma Winemiller in a 1953 radio version (oppositeRichard Kiley) and afilm version in 1961 oppositeLaurence Harvey. Both she andUna Merkel earned acting nominations forBest Actress andBest Supporting Actress respectively in the34th Academy Awards in 1961. The awards, however, went toSophia Loren forTwo Women andRita Moreno forWest Side Story.
In 1959, Page earned anEmmy nomination, of Best Single Performance by an Actress, for her role in thePlayhouse 90 episode "The Old Man", written byWilliam Faulkner.[19] She subsequently earned critical accolades for her performance in the 1959–1960 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams'sSweet Bird of Youth oppositePaul Newman, in which she originated the role of a larger-than-life, addicted, sexually voracious Hollywood legend trying to extinguish her fears about her career with a young hustler named Chance Wayne (played by Newman). For her performance, Page received her first nomination for theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play, as well as theSarah Siddons Award for her performance inChicago.[20] She and Newman subsequently starred in the1962 film adaptation of the same name and Page earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.[21]
Geraldine Page actually won consecutive Golden Globe Awards forBest Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama in1961 and1962 forSummer and Smoke andSweet Bird of Youth, respectively.
In 1963, Page starred inToys in the Attic, based onLillian Hellman's play of the same name, and garnered aGolden Globe nomination. She received another nomination the following year starring in Delbert Mann'sDear Heart as a self-sufficient but lonely postmistress visiting New York City for a convention, finding love with a greeting card salesman. In 1964, she starred in a Lee Strasberg-directed Broadway revival ofAnton Chekhov'sThree Sisters playing eldest sister Olga toKim Stanley's Masha withBarbara Baxley as the interloper Natasha.[22][23] BothShirley Knight andSandy Dennis played the youngest sister Irina at different stages in this production.[24]
Between 1966 and 1969, Page appeared in two holiday-themed television productions based on stories byTruman Capote: "The Christmas Memory" (forABC Stage 67) and the television filmThe Thanksgiving Visitor, both of which earned her two consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Actress.[25][26][27] In 1967, Page appeared again onstage inPeter Shaffer'sBlack Comedy/White Lies, a production which also includedMichael Crawford andLynn Redgrave, who were making their Broadway debuts.[28] The same year, she appeared oppositeFred MacMurray in theWalt Disney-produced musicalThe Happiest Millionaire.[1] Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times was critical of the film, noting: "Geraldine Page andGladys Cooper...square off in one musical scene of socially up-staging each other that is drenched in perfumed vulgarity. But, then, the whole picture is vulgar. It is an over-decorated, over-fluffed, over-sentimentalized endeavor to pretend the lace-curtain millionaires are—or were—every bit as folksy as the old prize-fighters and the Irish brawlers in the saloon."[29]
Page starred oppositeRuth Gordon in the thrillerWhat Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), the third and final film in theRobert Aldrich-produced trilogy which followedWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) andHush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). The film is based on the novelThe Forbidden Garden byUrsula Curtiss and features Page as Claire Marrable, a recently widowed socialite, who, discovers that her husband has left her virtually nothing. The widow hires a number of unsuspecting housekeepers whom she murders one by one and robs them of their life savings in order to keep up her extravagant lifestyle.[30] Writing forThe New York Times,Vincent Canby deemed the film "an amusingly baroque horror story told by a master misogynist," and praised Page's "affecting" performance.[31]
Page subsequently appeared in theDon Siegel-directed thrillerThe Beguiled (1971) oppositeClint Eastwood, playing the headmistress of a Southern girls' boarding school who takes in a wounded Union soldier.[32] Director Siegel called Page "certainly as fine an actor as I've ever worked with. I never have gotten along better with anyone than I did with her."[33] This was followed by a supporting role in the comedyPete 'n' Tillie (1972), for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.[34] She also appeared in three episodes ofRod Serling'sNight Gallery between 1972 and 1973.[35] In January 1973, she returned to Broadway playingMary Todd Lincoln oppositeMaya Angelou in the two-character playLook Away, written byJerome Kilty.[36] In 1974, Page played Regina in a production of"The Little Foxes" in which she starred opposite her husbandRip Torn (in the role of Benjamin Hubbard) directed by Philip Minor. It was staged for the Academy Festival Theater atBarat College inLake Forest, Illinois and received a rave review from William Leonard of theChicago Tribune: "Geraldine Page is giving one of the greatest performances of her glorious career in Lake Forest and she is surrounded by a cast so superb that the Academy Festival Theater's production of"The Little Foxes" becomes a powerful, searing, unforgettable show... it is a harrowing and ennobling evening in the theater-the kind that comes along all too seldom. We have seen other stars in the role of the malevolently, ruthlessly scheming Regina Giddens—Tallulah Bankhead years ago in her greatest triumph,Eileen Herlie five seasons back at the Ivanhoe. Geraldine Page is a whole new story—I have seen Geraldine Page in innumerable roles, ever since she was playing inEast Lynne with the Lake Zurich Players back in the '40s. I've never seen her more thrillingly convincing than in this production."[37]The legendaryKim Stanley once said of Page's Regina that it "was possibly the finest performance" she had ever seen.[38]received a nomination for theTony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (her second Tony Award nomination) for the 1975 production ofAlan Ayckbourn'sAbsurd Person Singular with Sandy Dennis andRichard Kiley.[22][39]
She also had a supporting role as a charismatic Hollywood evangelist (modeled afterAimee Semple McPherson)[40] inThe Day of the Locust (1975), an adaptation of theNathanael Westnovel of the same name.[1] In 1977, she appeared as a nun in the British comedyNasty Habits,[41] and provided the voice role of thevillainess Madame Medusa in theWalt Disney animated filmThe Rescuers.[42] During this time, she also appeared on television, guest-starring in the popular seriesKojak (1976)[43] andHawaii Five-O (1977).[44]
Page appeared as the mother of three siblings and wife of a prominent attorney inWoody Allen'sInteriors (1978). For her performance, Page was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress,[45] and won aBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.[46]The New York Times's Vincent Canby lauded her performance in the film, writing: "Miss Page, looking a bit like a youthfulLouise Nevelson with mink-lashed eyes, is marvelous — erratically kind, impossibly demanding, pathetic in her loneliness and desperate in her anger."[47] The following year, in November 1979, Page was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame.[48]
Page starred asZelda Fitzgerald in the last major Broadway production of a Williams play,Clothes for a Summer Hotel in 1980,[22] followed by a supporting role inHarry's War (1981). Page starred as the secretive nun Mother Miriam Ruth in the Broadway production ofAgnes of God, which opened in 1982 and ran for 599 performances with Page performing in nearly all of them; for her role, she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[22]
Also in 1983,Sabra Jones Strasberg and her husbandJohn Strasberg foundedthe Mirror Theater Ltd and invited Page to accept the role of Founding Artist in Residence for its repertory program the Mirror Repertory Company.[49] Page remained continually active in theater, appearing in numerous repertory, Broadway, and Off-Broadway productions throughout the 1980s; this included roles in a revivals ofInheritors bySusan Glaspell[50] andParadise Lost byClifford Odets in 1983,[51]Rain byJohn Colton (based on the short story "Miss Thompson" byW. Somerset Maugham) the following year.[52] Further revivals followed in 1985:Vivat! Vivat Regina! byRobert Bolt (in which she playedElizabeth I),[53]Clarence byBooth Tarkington,[54] andThe Madwoman of Chaillot (byJean Giraudoux) in which she played the Madwoman to great acclaim).[55]
Page earned her seventh Academy Award nomination for her performance in the dark comedyThe Pope of Greenwich Village (1984).[56] This marked a record at the time for most Academy Award nominations without a win,[57] for which Page was tied withPeter O'Toole andRichard Burton (who themselves had also garnered seven nominations without winning).[58] On television, Page had a supporting role in the miniseriesThe Dollmaker (1984), oppositeJane Fonda andAmanda Plummer.[59] She appeared in the Britishhorror filmThe Bride oppositeSting andJennifer Beals; the dramaWhite Nights, directed byTaylor Hackford; and oppositeRebecca De Mornay in the dramaThe Trip to Bountiful (all 1985), in which she played an aging Southern Texas woman seeking to return to her hometown. The role earned Page wide critical acclaim, with theLos Angeles Times referring to it as "the performance of a lifetime."[26]
In 1986, she appeared on Broadway inThe Circle byW. Somerset Maugham; during this production, Page won theAcademy Award for Best Actress for her performance inThe Trip to Bountiful.[3] During her acceptance speech, she thankedThe Mirror Theater Ltd. Page wore her costume fromThe Circle, which had been designed and made by Gail Cooper-Hecht, the Mirror Theater's costume designer.[60] She received the award fromF. Murray Abraham, who, after winning hisOscar forAmadeus, also joined the Mirror Repertory Company to play the rag-picker inThe Madwoman of Chaillot.[61] Prior to winning the Academy Award, Page said toPeople magazine: "If I lose the Oscar this year, I'll have the record for the most nominations without ever winning... I'd love to be champion, [but the loser] doesn't have to get up there and make a fool of herself."[62]
After winning the Academy Award, Page returned to finish her run performing inThe Circle forMirror Theater and appeared oppositeCarroll Baker,Oprah Winfrey, andElizabeth McGovern inNative Son (1986).[41] Page followed upNative Son with a lead role oppositeMary Stuart Masterson inMy Little Girl (1987).[41] In the fall of 1986, Page asked permission to return to Broadway in a revival ofNoël Coward'sBlithe Spirit in the role of Madame Arcati. She was cast in the role, though the production would be Page's last. She was again nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, though she did not win. A week after the Tony Awards ceremony, Page failed to appear for two performances of the play and was found dead in her Manhattan home.[63] The show lasted several weeks more, with Page's understudyPatricia Conolly taking over her role.[3]
If [other actors] have trained the way you've been trained there is at least the hope of communication. But wonderful actors are wonderful to act with–it doesn't matter how they've been trained.
Page was trained as amethod actor,[6] and at times worked withpsychoanalysts when developing her interpretations of roles.[65] She once told theLos Angeles Times: "If I read a part and think I can connect to it, that I can touch people with it, I will do it, no matter what its size. And if I think I can't do something with a part, I won't take it."[63] In a 1964 interview after completing the Broadway run ofThe Three Sisters, Page discussed her method acting at length.[66] When asked if she usedemotional recall as a technique, she responded: "I would never shut it out. But I don't try to get one. My whole effort is to relax and keep the doors open so that there's room if one should pop up."[67]
During her life, Page was regarded as a respectedcharacter actress.[57] Speaking of her stage career in 1986, she said: "I used to think that by opening [night] all the work was done. Now I'm finding how much you can learn from the audience."[57] She described acting as a "bottomless cup", adding, "If I studied for the next ninety years I'd just be scratching the surface."[68]
Page was married to violinistAlexander Schneider from 1954 to 1957.[69] On September 8, 1963, she married actorRip Torn, who was six years her junior, inPinal, Arizona.[70] They had played opposite each other inSweet Bird of Youth on Broadway and in the1962 film. They had three children: a daughter, actressAngelica Page, and twin sons, actorAnthony "Tony" and Jonathan "Jon" Torn.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Page and Torn lived separately[71] after he began an affair with actressAmy Wright;[72] Torn had first met Wright in 1976 and began the affair shortly after.[73] Page was aware of Torn and Wright's relationship, and had appeared onstage opposite Wright in the 1977 Off-Broadway production ofThe Stronger, under Torn's direction.[73] In 1983, Torn fathered a child with Wright.[73] After the birth of the child, Page was questioned about her marriage by columnistCindy Adams, to which she responded: "Of course Rip and I are still married. We've been married for years. We're staying married. What's the big fuss?"[69] In spite of their separation, Page and Torn remained married until her death; her daughter described their relationship as still "close" up until Page died in 1987.[71]
Page considered herself agourmand, once joking: "'Greedy Gut' is my middle name...Rip is wonderful. He does the cooking, and I do the eating. I love everything but eggplant."[62]
On June 13, 1987, Page failed to arrive at theNeil Simon Theatre for both the afternoon and evening performances ofNoël Coward'sBlithe Spirit, which had begun its run in March.[22] At the end of the show's evening performance, the play's producer announced that Page had been found dead in her lower Manhattan townhouse.[3][63] It was determined that she died of aheart attack.[3]
On June 18, "an overflow crowd of colleagues, friends and fans", includingSissy Spacek,James Earl Jones,Amanda Plummer,Jerry Stiller,Anne Meara and husband Torn attended a memorial service held at the Neil Simon Theatre.[74]
Highlighting Page's achievements, actressAnne Jackson said, "[Page] used a stage like no one else I'd ever seen. It was like playing tennis with someone who had 26 arms."[74] Rip Torn called her "Mi corazón, mi alma, mi esposa" ("My heart, my soul, my wife") and said that they had "never stopped being lovers, and ... never will".[74]
Page earned a total of eight nominations before winning her firstAcademy Award for Best Actress in 1986 forThe Trip to Bountiful.[63] She was also a winner of twoGolden Globe Awards,[75] twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, and oneBAFTA award.[76]
For her stage work on Broadway, Page earned a total of fourTony Award nominations,[77] and was referred to by theNew York Daily News as "one of the finest stage actors of her generation".[71] She was inducted into theAmerican Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979.[48]
Sarah Paulson portrayed Page in the 2017 anthology television seriesFeud, which chronicles the rivalry between actressesBette Davis andJoan Crawford on the set ofWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).[78]
She was also portrayed by her daughter,Angelica Page, in the stage productionTurning Page. Amonologue play chronicling Page's life, it was also written by her daughter:[79] "I grew up in the center of her sparkling career," Angelica recalled. "As her only daughter I feel compelled to share her lessons and gifts with others who did and did not have the opportunity to know her magic intimately. She was a true rebel and trail blazer. A masterful woman who was ahead of her time and should not be forgotten anytime soon."[79] The play premiered in Los Angeles in 2016, followed by performances in New York City in 2017.[79]
There is one performance that deserves a vivat, although "performance" may not be the appropriate word. Elijah William Burkhardt is carried on stage as the infant James, the future king. Impeccably behaved, even as he is passed from lord to lord, he is, as his role demands, wide-eyed at the wonders around him. Perhaps one can attribute the baby's aplomb to his genes. He is Miss Page's grandson
Academic resources
Videography
