Juanita Quigley
1931 - 2017Juanita Quigley (24 June 1931 – 29 October 2017) was an American child actress in motion pictures of the 1930s and 1940s. She had a sister, Rita Quigley, who was also a child actress.
Juanita Quigley was billed as "Baby Jane" in several early roles. Her screen debut was as Claudette Colbert's three-year-old daughter in Imitation of Life (1934). She went on to play featured parts in several films, including The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934) and was Jean Harlow's niece in Riffraff (1936). Quigley became a familiar face to moviegoers of the era, but major roles for children so young were few and she often played bits as well as featured roles. She was one of the most popular child stars of her day, and was Universal Pictures' youngest star in 1934.
Quigley was briefly involved in the Our Gang film series. In 1940, she was the guest-starring lead in The New Pupil when cast as Sally, who briefly takes Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer away from Darla Hood. Two years later, she reprised the character in Going to Press (1942), the only time in the MGM era where the female lead was played by someone other than Darla Hood (who had recently left the series) or Janet Burston.
Quigley acted alongside her older sister, Rita Quigley, in Whispering Footsteps (1943). Her last major role was in National Velvet (1944), in which she played Elizabeth Taylor's sister.
Quigley made only a handful of small appearances after National Velvet, her last being in 1950. At the age of 20, in August 1951, she became a religious sister in the order of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, teaching at Precious Blood Catholic School. After several years in her convent, she left the vocation and married.
Inaccurate documentation exists that Juanita made an uncredited appearance as an extra in the locally filmed Porky's II: The Next Day. At the time of this filming, Juanita lived in Pennsylvania pursuing her post-convent career full-time. Juanita was retired and was an intensely private person with regard to her past. Most who knew her as a friend were unaware of her previous life as an actress. As of 2016, Juanita lived a peaceful retired life with her son and daughter-in-law in Massachusetts.
Juanita Quigley died in Sudbury, MA, on 29 October 2017, aged 86.
National Velvet
Clarence Brown
Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp
Mi Taylor is a young wanderer and opportunist who finds himself in the quiet English countryside home of the Brown family. The youngest daughter, Velvet, has a passion for horses and when she wins the spirited steed Pie in a town lottery, Mi is encouraged to train the horse.
National Velvet
Mystery Street
John Sturges
Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest
When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.
Mystery Street
The Devil-Doll
Tod Browning
Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan
Wrongfully convicted of a robbery and murder, Paul Lavond breaks out of prison with a genius scientist who has devised a way to shrink humans. When the scientist dies during the escape, Lavond heads for his lab, using the shrinking technology to get even with those who framed him and vindicate himself in both the public eye and the eyes of his daughter, Lorraine. When an accident leaves a crazed assistant dead, however, Lavond must again make an escape.
The Devil-Doll
You and Me
Fritz Lang
Sylvia Sidney, George Raft
Mr. Morris, the owner of a large metropolitan department store, gives jobs to paroled ex-convicts in an effort to help them reform and go straight. Among his 'employed-prison-graduates' are Helen Roberts and Joe Dennis, working as sales clerks. Joe is in love with Helen and asks her to marry him, but she is forbidden to marry as she is still on parole, but she says yes and they are married. In spite of their poverty-level life, their marriage is a happy one until Joe discovers she has lied about her past, in order to marry him. Disillusioned, he leaves, goes back to his old gang and plans to rob the department store.
You and Me
Born to Dance
Roy Del Ruth
Eleanor Powell, James Stewart
Ted meets and falls in love with Nora Paige, an aspiring Broadway dancer who tries out for a show starring Lucy James. After Ted rescues Lucy's pet dog during a public relations campaign on his submarine, Lucy falls for him. Ted is ordered to meet Lucy for a date at a night club, who later sees their picture in the newspaper and no longer wants anything to do with him.
Born to Dance
That Certain Age
Edward Ludwig
Deanna Durbin, Melvyn Douglas
Dashing reporter Vincent Bullit has just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War. His boss, newspaper magnate Fullerton, has more plans to send him off to China. However, first Fullerton invites Bullit to the peace and quiet of his own home to write a series of European affair articles. When Fullerton's adolescent daughter Alice develops a crush on Bullit, her suitor, boyscout Ken Warren, doesn't seem to stand a chance. Mr. and Mrs. Fullerton, Ken Warren, and even Vincent Bullit himself do their best to sway young Alice's feelings away from the older man. It's a difficult task though, as she is at 'that certain age.'
That Certain Age
Riffraff
J. Walter Ruben
Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy
Fisherman Dutch marries cannery worker Hattie. After he is kicked out of his union and fired from his job he leaves Hattie who steals money for him and goes to jail. He gets a new job, foils a plot to dynamite the ship, and promises to wait for Hattie.
Riffraff
