Geraldine Page

Lore & Background

A native of Kirksville, Missouri, Page studied at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg in New York City. During the McCarthyism era, she was blacklisted in Hollywood because of her association with Hagen and did not work in film for eight years. Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Trip to Bountiful (1985). She was Oscar-nominated for her work in Hondo (1953), Summer and Smoke (1961), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), You're a Big Boy Now (1966), Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), Interiors (1978), and The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984). She is also known for her roles in What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), The Beguiled (1971), and The Rescuers (1977). On stage she made her Broadway debut in the 1953 play Mid-summer. She went on to receive Tony Award nominations for her performances as Princess Kosmonopolis in Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Marion in Absurd Person Singular (1974), Mother Miriam Ruth in Agnes of God (1982), and Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit (1987). For her prolific work on stage she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979. For television she received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for her acting in the adaptations of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory (1967) and The Thanksgiving Visitor (1969).

Reader's Guide

Page was born in Kirksville, Missouri, the first child of Edna Pearl (née Maize) and Leon Elwin Page. At age five she relocated with her family to Chicago. Raised a Methodist, she had her first foray into acting within the church's theatre group. After graduating from Chicago's Englewood Technical Prep Academy, she attended the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating in 1945, she studied acting at the Herbert Berghof School and the American Theatre Wing in New York City, studying with Uta Hagen for seven years, and then at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg. She made her New York stage debut on October 25, 1945, in Seven Mirrors. Her official film debut was in Hondo (1953), opposite John Wayne, earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was blacklisted in Hollywood shortly after her debut due to her association with Uta Hagen and did not work in film for nearly ten years. She won consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Summer and Smoke (1961) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).

Did You Know?

• Page 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.
• She had an affair with James Dean during the production of The Immoralist, according to her daughter Angelica Page.
• Page was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979.