Biography

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 L'école du crime (1938) (her debut), Le vainqueur (1939), and Une femme dangereuse (1940). She was handed the role of her career as one of musical sisters in the classic tearjerker Rêves de jeunesse (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 Filles courageuses (1939), Quatre jeunes femmes (1939) and Four Mothers (1941).

Gale appeared in only 16 films during her career, including the action adventure Troubles au Canada (1938); the Humphrey Bogart crime drama Le châtiment (1939); the musical comedy Fausses notes (1939); the action drama Le vainqueur (1939), the domestic drama A Child Is Born (1939), the film noir Une femme dangereuse (1940); the William Saroyan classic Le bar aux illusions (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 Romance sans lendemain (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.

- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net