Geraldine Page
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geraldine Sue Page (November 22, 1924 - June 13, 1987) was an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated American actress. Although starring in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater.
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[edit] Early life
Page was born in Kirksville, Missouri. She attended the Goodman Theatre Dramatic School in Chicago and studied acting with Uta Hagen. She began appearing in stock at the age of seventeen.
[edit] Stage career
Page was a trained Method Actor and worked closely with Lee Strasberg.
She earned critical accolades for her performance in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth opposite Paul Newman. Page received her first Tony Award nomination for the play. She and Newman later starred in the film adaptation and Page earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the film. In 1964, she starred in a Broadway revival of Anton Chekov's The Three Sisters with Kim Stanley and Shirley Knight. The production was directed by Lee Strasberg. She also starred in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy/White Lies, in 1967, which was the production in which both Michael Crawford and Lynn Redgrave made their Broadway debuts. Page received her second Tony nomination (for Best Featured Actress in a Play) for a successful production of Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular with Sandy Dennis and Richard Kiley. It would be in a few years and a few mixed-reviewed plays later that Page starred in another successful Broadway play. Agnes of God, which opened in 1982, ran for 599 performances with Page performing in nearly all of them. She received a Tony Award nomination, for Best Lead Actress in a Play, for her performance as the secretive nun Mother Miriam Ruth. The highly acclaimed production garnered co-star Amanda Plummer a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Elizabeth Ashley played the court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Martha Livingstone. After winning an Academy Award in 1985, Page returned to Broadway in a revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit in the role of the psychic medium Madame Arcati. The production, which also starred Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner and Judith Ivey, was Page's last. Page was again nominated for a Tony Award, for Best Lead Actress in a Play, and was considered to be a favorite to win. Unfortunately, she did not win, and several days after the awards ceremony she died. The show lasted several weeks more with co-star Patricia Conolly taking over Page's role.
In 1960 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
[edit] Career
Page gave celebrated performances in movies as well as her work on Broadway. Her film debut was in Out of the Night (1947). Her role in Hondo, garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In all, despite her relatively small filmography, Page received eight Academy Award nominations. She finally won the Oscar in 1986 for a wonderful performance in The Trip to Bountiful, which was based on a play by Horton Foote. Had she not won for Trip to Bountiful, she would have held the record for most nominations without a single win. When she won, she received a standing ovation from the audience at the ceremony. She was surprised by her win (she openly talked about being a seven-time Oscar loser), and took a while to get to the stage to accept the award because she had taken off her shoes while sitting in the audience. She had not expected to win, and her feet were sore.
Her other notable screen roles include Academy Award-nominated performances in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke (1961); Sweet Bird of Youth (1962); and Woody Allen's Interiors (1978). She also appeared in quirky and eccentric roles such as calculating murderer of old ladies in What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969); a repressed schoolmistress in the Clint Eastwood film The Beguiled (1971); a charismatic evangelist in The Day of the Locust (1975); and as Sister Walburga in Nasty Habits (1977).
She also was a voice actress and voiced the hilariously evil Madame Medusa in the Disney animated film The Rescuers and Mickey's Christmas Carol.
Page has also appeared in television productions and won two Emmy Awards as Outstanding Single Performance By an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for her roles in the classic Truman Capote stories, A Christmas Memory (1967) and The Thanksgiving Visitor (1969).
Her final film was the 1987 Mary Stuart Masterson film My Little Girl, which was the film debut of Jennifer Lopez.
[edit] Private life
Page was married to violinist Alexander Schneider from 1954 to 1957. In 1963 she married the 7-years younger Texan actor, Rip Torn, and they remained married until her death, despite the fact that shortly before her death he had been publicly exposed for conducting an extramarital affair with a much younger actress (Amy Wright, born in 1950), whom he got pregnant.
Page and Torn had three children, a daughter (actress Angelica Torn) and twin sons.
Page, who had also been suffering from kidney disease, died of a heart attack in 1987 appearing on Broadway in Sir Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (along with Judith Ivey and Blythe Danner) at the relatively young age of 62.
[edit] Academy Awards and Nominations
- 1953 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Hondo
- 1961 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Leading Role for Summer and Smoke
- 1962 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Leading Role for Sweet Bird of Youth
- 1966 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role for You're a Big Boy Now
- 1972 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Pete 'n' Tillie
- 1978 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Leading Role for Interiors
- 1984 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Pope of Greenwich Village
- 1985 - Won Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Trip to Bountiful
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sally Field for Places in the Heart |
Academy Award for Best Actress 1985 for The Trip to Bountiful |
Succeeded by Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God |
| Preceded by Greer Garson for Sunrise at Campobello |
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 1962 for Summer and Smoke |
Succeeded by Geraldine Page for Sweet Bird of Youth |
| Preceded by Geraldine Page for Summer and Smoke |
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 1963 for Sweet Bird of Youth |
Succeeded by Leslie Caron for The L-Shaped Room |
