Anita Page, an MGM actress who appeared in films with Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, died Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 98. Page's career, which spanned 84 years, began when she started as an extra in 1924. Her big break came in 1928 when she won a major role -- as the doomed bad girl -- in "Our Dancing Daughters," a film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films. In 1928, the New York-born Page starred opposite Chaney in "While the City Sleeps." The following year, she was co-star of "The Broadway Melody," the 1929 backstage tale of two sisters who love the same man. The film made history as the first talkie to win the best-picture Oscar and was arguably the first true film musical.
Mila Schoen, whose understated designs and precisely tailored clothes made her a stalwart of Italian haute couture beginning in the 1960s and a leader in high-end ready-to-wear, died late last week in Alessandria, southwest of Milan. She was 91.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
