Juanita Hansen's illustrious career in the film industry commenced as early as 1915, with her working under the esteemed direction of D.W. Griffith before joining Mack Sennett's esteemed troupe of "Bathing Beauties". Sennett was so captivated by her beauty that he frequently featured her above the other girls, which led to some tension among them. This could very well be the reason she departed Sennett in 1918 to join Universal, where she began assuming straight dramatic roles as opposed to the slapstick comedy of Sennett's one- and two-reelers.
She soon began performing in Universal's serials and from there went on to work on serials for William Nicholas Selig, Warners, and Pathe, among others. Her success earned her a lucrative contract for $1500 a week, a substantial salary for those times, but it also brought her a penchant for fast cars, all-night partying, and, worst of all, a taste for cocaine, to which she soon became addicted.
Her drug use caused Pathe immense trouble, and she struggled to complete the studio's 1921 serial, The Yellow Arm (1921). When it was finally completed, over schedule and over budget, the company dropped her. After a few small roles in independent films, she found herself unemployable.
She was next heard from in 1928, after apparently cleaning herself up and getting off drugs, when she was hired for a Broadway play. However, an accident in the hotel where she was staying resulted in her being burned with scalding-hot water, and to ease the pain she was given morphine - to which she became almost immediately addicted.
Although she received a large settlement from the hotel, much of the money she got went for lawyers and hospital bills, and either drugs or drug cures. She went back and forth between bouts of drug use and sobriety, and by 1934, having apparently cleaned up again, she began lecturing at carnivals and traveling shows on the evils of drug abuse.
Her life took another turn for the worse in 1941, when she attempted suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She finally gave up all hopes of resuming her career, took a job as a clerk for a railroad, and died of a heart attack in 1961.
