Anita Page

Of Spanish extraction, petite blonde leading lady Anita Page entered films as an extra in 1924. Graduating to larger roles fairly rapidly, Page is best remembered as Ann, the mercenary jazz-baby who tricks millionaire Johnny Mack Brown into marriage, gets royally drunk, then tumbles down a huge flight of stairs to her death in the silent Our Dancing Daughters (1928). Page and her Dancing Daughters co-stars Joan Crawford and Dorothy Sebastian starred in two follow-ups (but not sequels), Our Modern Maidens (1929) and Our Blushing Brides (1930), but only Crawford went on to lasting fame. Making a graceful transition to talkies, Page did some nice work as Bessie Love's headstrong sister in the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody (1929), and proved a sprightly heroine for Buster Keaton in Free and Easy (1930) and Sidewalks of New York (1931). After her MGM contract came to an end in 1932, she made do with independent B-pictures, retiring to get married at the age of 26.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide