Obituaries

The ingénue who achieved immortality in Casablanca

Joy Page

1924–2008

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One day in 1942, a budding actress named Joy Page read the draft of a movie script brought home by her stepfather, studio mogul Jack L. Warner. Her acting coach, Sophie Rosenstein, suggested that she audition for the part of a Bulgarian refugee named Annina Brandel. Page didn’t think much of the movie; she called it “corny” and “old-fashioned.” But after learning that Ingrid Bergman would be co-starring, she changed her mind and got the role. The film, Casablanca, would be Page’s first screen credit. Fresh out of high school, she was just 17 years old.

Page’s appearance was small but memorable, said The Washington Post. “As the newlywed refugee in need of exit visas so she and her husband could get out of Casablanca, the character is faced with the moral dilemma of giving herself to Capt. Renault (Claude Rains) in exchange for the documents.” At one point, she appeals poignantly for advice from Humphrey Bogart, “the worldly proprietor of Rick’s Café Américain.” Bogie replies cynically, “Go back to Bulgaria.” But in a scene that foreshadows his climactic conversion from bitter bystander to freedom fighter, he relents and lets her husband win at roulette, providing the couple with the cash they need to begin life anew in America. When she embraces Bogart in gratitude, he disengages himself and mutters, “He’s just a lucky guy.”

Page would remember the experience fondly, said the Los Angeles Times. As a neophyte, she was especially grateful to Bogart for rehearsing with her and putting her at ease. But “although Warner was pleased with Page’s work in the film, he would not sign her to a studio contract or cast her in other Warner Bros. movies.” Page made a handful of other films, among them Kismet (1944), in which she played Ronald Colman’s daughter, and The Shrike (1955), with José Ferrer and June Allyson. She also appeared in a few television shows, including Cheyenne and Wagon Train, before retiring in 1962.

In her later years, Page became a recluse, the only evidence of her career a leather scrapbook that remained two-thirds empty. “When she was younger, she was very torn by success,” said her son, Gregory Orr, who survives her. “She was raised very strongly Catholic, and success was unseemly, not a proper thing to achieve.”