Juanita Quigley

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Juanita 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 Colberts threeyearold 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 Harlows 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 gueststarring 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 Taylors 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 Porkys II The Next Day At the time of this filming Juanita lived in Pennsylvania pursuing her postconvent career fulltime 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 daughterinlaw in Massachusetts Juanita Quigley died in Sudbury MA on 29 October 2017 aged 86