Sunshine Hart

Sunshine Hart (6 July 1886 - 3 January 1930) was an American silent-film comedy actress active in the 1920s. She is known for her roles in Syncopating Sue (1926), My Best Girl (1927), and Five and Ten Cent Annie (1928).

She usually played the parts of funny mothers and was a very popular character actress. She was often called the female Fatty Arbuckle (named after American film actor Roscoe Arbuckle).

She appeared in over 70 films and had a long-standing association with comedy filmmakers Jack White and Mack Sennett.

Sunshine Hart was born on Lucia Adams on July 6, 1886, in Vevay, Indiana, to Mary Sullivan Adams and her husband, who was a minister on an Indian reservation. She got the nickname "Sunshine" from an Indian nurse.

After finishing her high school education, Hart began acting in stock companies and for many years worked in vaudeville using the stage "Miss Sunshine". She made her film debut in 1916, aged 30, playing a minor role in the short film A Scoundrel's Toll. Her credit appeared as "Miss Sunshine."

She continued to work on the stage and appeared in several of Jack White's Mermaid comedies, such as Free and Easy (1921), The Steeplechaser (1922), and Uncle Sam (1923).

In 1924, she landed her most memorable role in producer Producer Mack Sennett's film Scarem Much, starring Madeline Hurlock, Kalla Pasha, and George Cooper. She was offered a long-term contract and subsequently appeared in over 20 of Sennett's comedies including Smith's Baby (1926), Smith's Picnic (1926), Hoboken to Hollywood (1926), and Crazy to Act (1927).

In 1927, she was cast as Mary Pickford's mother in My Best Girl. During the filming, she badly injured her foot when she fell doing an automobile stunt. Although she kept working she never fully recovered from this accident.

1930 saw her last on the silver screen, in a minor role of a bridge player in Mack Sennett's comedy Midnight Daddies.

Sunshine Hart was married to Walter O. Morgan from 2 January 1899 to 1902, until his death. In 1903, she married Charles Wesley Hart. In 1911, the couple parted and Hart attempted suicide by swallowing carbolic acid. Her mouth and throat were badly burned but she recovered. The couple reconciled and had a daughter Leora in March 1911.

After spending a few weeks bedridden, Sunshine Hart died on January 3, 1930, from heart failure, in Los Angeles, California. She was 43. She is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles, California.