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Hot stuff
Sam Elliott ’98 lands role on ABC soap

Photo: Sam Page (formerly known as Sam Elliott) made People magazine’s list of the 50 “hottest bachelors.”(Virginia Sherwood/ABC)

While his friends were interviewing with banking and consulting companies senior year, Sam Elliott ’98, now known as Sam Page, was sitting those interviews out. He had his own postgraduation plans, though he kept them close to the vest.

“My friends knew I went to the movies a lot,” says Page. And indeed, his love for film drove him, solo, to many a movie at local theaters. So in the summer of 1998, after a short stay at home in Wisconsin to earn some money, he headed to Hollywood to give acting a shot. Page, who changed his name to avoid confusion with character actor Sam Elliott, had never performed anywhere before.

After a few years and some commercials and small parts on TV shows such as the WB’s Seventh Heaven, and the Saturday morning children’s show Hang Time, Page landed the role in March of evil lawyer Trey Kenyon on ABC’s All My Children. Life since then has been not only a series of 12-hour days on the set, but increasing recognition and being named one of People magazine’s “hottest bachelors.” Gracing the opening spread of the magazine story were Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, and Page.

People chose Page not only for his good looks and charm, but also for his unassuming manner, says People staff writer Jennifer Wulff. “Graduating from Princeton certainly didn’t hurt,” she says, “but he doesn’t seem to think he’s smarter than anyone else. He’s one of the most humble guys we’ve ever featured in this issue, and that’s sexier than anything. In an industry often driven by ego, Sam really seems to have none.”

A biology major and baseball player, Page coauthored a paper for the journal Current Biology with his adviser, Professor James Gould, while at Princeton. But Page didn’t seriously consider pursuing science after graduation. “I don’t know that I could have been a great scientist unless I loved it as much as what I’m doing it now.”

Yet he knew that the same drive that motivated him at Princeton could be applied to his new profession. “Acting was what I wanted to do,” says Page.

By K.B.F.