Juanita Hansen
| Juanita Hansen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 3, 1895 Des Moines, Iowa |
| Died | September 26, 1961 (aged 66) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Actress, Author, Speaker |
| Years active | 1915–1921 |
Juanita C. Hansen (March 3, 1895 – September 26, 1961) was an American silent film actress. Beginning as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties, she appeared in a variety of serials through the late 1910s. She was well known for her troubled personal life and struggle with addiction to cocaine and morphine. In 1934 she became clean and traveled lecturing on the evils of drugs. She wrote a book about addiction and started her own charity to help raise awareness about drug abuse.
She was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Her family moved to California when she was a girl and Juanita graduated from Los Angeles High School. There she secured her first acting job with L. Frank Baum's "Oz Film Manufacturing Company". She appeared in the The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), a film based on Baum's book. Given a minor role as the bell ringer, Hansen had a major role in her next "Oz" film that same year titled The Magic Cloak of Oz. This was an adaptation of Queen Zixi of Ix, and she played the title role in the film.
Early in her career the actress was also associated with Famous Players-Lasky and acted opposite Jack Pickford. In 1915 Juanita appeared in six films. One was her first feature role starring opposite Tom Chatterton in The Secret of the Submarine. The following year her good looks landed her work as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties doing comedy shorts at Keystone/Triangle Studios. Although she told reporters she liked working for Mack Sennett, she wanted to do more than slapstick comedy.
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