LOS ANGELES Anita Page, early movie star, dies

Anita Page, the beautiful blond MGM actress who appeared in the films of Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silents to talkies, has died. She was 98.

Her longtime friend and companion Randal Malone said Page died in her sleep of natural causes early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles.

The New York-born Page began her film career as an extra in 1924.

She had a major role -- as the doomed bad girl -- in "Our Dancing Daughters," a 1928 film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides."

Page and Crawford were in all three films.