Gale Page

Born on July 29, 1910, to R.L. and Isabel Rutter in Spokane, Washington, Gale Page was christened Sally Perkins Rutter in the beginning. Coming from a political family, her uncle, Miles Poindexter (1868-1946), was a U.S. senator from the state of Washington who later became an ambassador to Peru. Her great-grandfather was Joseph Gale (1807-1881), the first governor of Oregon. A one-time radio actress and singer with Ted Weems' Orchestra, she appeared on radio soaps such as "Masquerade" (as blues singer Gertrude Lamont) and as Gloria Marsh on "Today's Children." Spotted for films by Warner Bros, she moved to Hollywood in 1938 and her moniker immediately changed by the studio to the more marquee-friendly "Gale Page." A lovely, wholesome-faced, curly-haired brunette, Gale was a brief fixture in films nominally consigned to play pleasant, decorative roles in such potboilers as Crime School (1938) (her debut), Indianapolis Speedway (1939), and They Drive by Night (1940). She was handed the role of her career as one of musical sisters in the classic tearjerker Four Daughters (1938) co-starring with the three Lane sisters (Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane) when Universal passed on casting their fourth sister, Leota Lane. She went on, with the others, to co-star in the three sequels Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1939) and Four Mothers (1941). Gale appeared in only 16 films during her career, including the action adventure Heart of the North (1938); the Humphrey Bogart crime drama You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939); the musical comedy Naughty But Nice (1939); the action drama Indianapolis Speedway (1939), the domestic drama A Child Is Born (1939), the film noir They Drive by Night (1940); the William Saroyan classic The Time of Your Life (1948). Gale additionally won the lead femme role as the altruistic wife of Knute Rockne All American (1940) starring Pat O'Brien in the title role and Ronald Reagan whose famous catchphrase ("Win just one for the Gipper") showed up here. After completing a secondary role in the film noir Anna Lucasta (1949) starring Paulette Goddard, Gale abandoned the screen for family life. She reappeared just once in a movie a few years later with the soapy Shirley Booth vehicle About Mrs. Leslie (1954). She also was sporadically seen on several episodes of the TV anthology Robert Montgomery Presents (1950), as well as guest appearances on "The United States Steel Hour," "Hawaiian Eye," "Sam Benedict" and, her last, "The Eleventh Hour" in 1964. Page was first married to Frederick Tritschler, with whom she had a son. Following their 1939 divorce, she married Count Aldo Solìto de Solis, a pianist and composer. Their son, Luchino Solito de Solis Jr., was featured on Broadway in a juvenile role in the 1956 production of "Waiting for Godot." Gale died of lung cancer on January 8, 1983, in Santa Monica, California, at age 72.