Janis Paige, star of the Broadway musical “The Pajama Game,” has died at the age of 101

Janis Paige, a stunning singer, dancer and actress who starred in the original 1954 Broadway production of the hit musical “The Pajama Game,” died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Her death was confirmed by one of her long-time friends, Stuart Lampert.

Ms. Paige made her name at age 22 in the 1944 starring film “Hollywood Canteen,” but over the next seven years she appeared in 17 films and remained little more than a collection of minor beauty titles such as “Miss Wingspread” and “Miss Naval Air Reserve.” But when she ran away to try her hand at the New York stage, it took just three years for her to become a star on Broadway.

She was cast opposite John Raitt as Babe Williams, the fiery, romance-hating union leader, in “The Pajama Game.” The production – which featured such theater greats as George Abbott (book), Richard Adler (music) and Hal Prince (one of the producers) – won three Tony Awards in 1955: for Best Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Carol Haney) and Best Choreography (Bob Fosse).

When the show was adapted for film, producers at Warner Bros. Studio decided that at least one big Hollywood name was needed, so while most of the New York cast, including Mr. Raitt, moved to the film, Ms. Paige was replaced by Doris Day.

Broadway continued to be good to Ms. Paige, and she took on four more leading roles. Notably, she replaced the seemingly irreplaceable Angela Lansbury in “Mame” in 1968. Clive Barnes wrote in his review in the New York Times that Ms. Paige did “an excellent job.”

“She is less of a personality” than Ms. Lansbury, he continued, “but perhaps more of a performer to compensate.”

Memorable supporting roles in films followed. She played a not-so-bright American film actress in the 1957 musical Silk Stockings, which was inspired by Greta Garbo’s 1939 romantic comedy Ninotchka. (When asked by journalists what she thought of Tolstoy, her character replied, “We’re just good friends.”)

In that film, which featured songs by Cole Porter, Ms. Paige sang a memorable duet with Fred Astaire, “Stereophonic Sound.” She also played a vengeful, poorly reviewed stage actress determined to seduce a married theater critic (David Niven) in the comedy “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1960).

Janis Paige was born Donna Mae Tjaden in Tacoma, Washington, on September 16, 1922, to George and Hazel Tjaden. (She changed her name to Janis to honor World War I entertainer Elsie Janis; Paige was a family name on her mother’s side.)

She studied singing in Washington state and performed in local amateur shows until she and her mother moved to Los Angeles. There, she financed her singing lessons with office work and other jobs, including singing at the Hollywood Canteen, a hangout for soldiers on leave.

Although her role in the film “Hollywood Canteen” was her film debut, two more of her films – “Bathing Beauty”, a musical comedy, and “I Won’t Play”, a war drama with music – were released in 1944.

Ms. Paige had her own television series, “It’s Always Jan,” on CBS for one season (1955-56), in which she played a widowed nightclub singer. She often accompanied Bob Hope on his overseas tours entertaining American troops.

Her last feature film was The Caretakers (1963), a hospital drama starring Joan Crawford. However, she made frequent guest appearances on television series in the 1980s, playing recurring roles on the soap operas General Hospital and Santa Barbara. Her last film appearance was in a 2001 episode of the CBS series Family Law.

Mrs. Paige was married three times and divorced twice. Her first husband (1947-51) was Frank Martinelli Jr., a restaurant owner. Her second (1956-7) was Arthur Stander, the producer of “It’s Always Jan.” In 1962, she married film composer Ray Gilbert. He died in 1976. She had no immediate survivors.

While her curvaceous figure was mentioned as often in reviews as her talent, Ms. Paige faced the same attitudes off-camera as well.

In a 2017 essay in the Hollywood Reporter, as the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum, she wrote that in the 1940s, when she was 22, department store heir Alfred S. Bloomingdale tried to rape her after inviting her to dinner and then to his Los Angeles apartment. She escaped, she wrote, by biting him and running down six flights of stairs.

Mr. Bloomingdale died in 1982.

“Maybe there’s a special place in hell” for men like him, she said in the essay. She added: “Even at 95, I remember everything.”

Alex Traub contributed to the reporting.