Robert Paige

American actor, TV newscaster, political correspondent and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime. He may be best-remembered today for his heroic leading role in the classic 1943 horror film Son of Dracula. He was the only actor ever allowed to sing on film with Deanna Durbin (in 1944's Can't Help Singing). His handsome features and assured speaking voice earned him prominent roles in motion pictures, such as Cain and Mabel with Clark Gable and Marion Davies. He worked primarily for Warner Brothers and Republic Pictures during the 1930s. In 1938 he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures, which changed his screen name to Robert Paige. Columbia cast him in "B" features. When the Columbia contract lapsed, he moved to Paramount Pictures, appeared in the 1941 horror film The Monster and the Girl, and then finally found a home in 1941 at Universal Pictures. Robert Paige quickly became one of Universal's reliable stars, playing romantic leads in many of their comedies and musicals, including those of Abbott and Costello, Olsen and Johnson, Gloria Jean, and Hugh Herbert, as well as numerous B-musicals, often paired with the vivacious Grace McDonald. Paige left Universal after a corporate shakeup in 1946. He became an independent film producer in 1947 and entered the new field of television. He was the last permanent host of NBC's variety series The Colgate Comedy Hour, and won an Emmy in 1955 for "Best Male Personality" (a category which no longer exists). In the 1960s, he became a TV newscaster in Los Angeles at KABC-TV, Channel 7. Paige continued to work in occasional films through 1963; his last two films were The Marriage-Go-Round (1961) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963). From 1966 to 1970 Paige was a newscaster and political correspondent for ABC News in Los Angeles. He left the news desk to become Deputy Supervisor of Los Angeles under Baxter Ward, and then moved into the public relations field. Robert Paige married three times, divorced twice and had one daughter. He died from a sudden aortic aneurysm on 21 December 1987, aged 76, in San Clemente, California. Link to Wikipedia biography