Lucia Adams, later known as Sunshine Hart, was born on July 6, 1886, in Vevay, Indiana. According to her own account, her father was a minister on an Indian reservation, and an Indian nurse gave her the nickname "Sunshine".
After completing her high school education, Sunshine began her acting career in stock companies and later transitioned to vaudeville, performing under the stage name "Miss Sunshine". In 1910, she married Charles W. Hart, a machinist, and had a daughter named Leora.
At the age of thirty, Sunshine made her film debut in the 1916 comedy short "A Scoundrel's Toll". She continued to work on the stage, appearing in several of Jack White's Mermaid comedies. In 1924, producer Mack Sennett offered her a long-term contract, and she went on to star in more than two dozen of his comedies, including "Crazy To Act", "Hoboken To Hollywood", and "Smith's Baby".
Sunshine, who weighed over 250 pounds, typically played comical mothers and earned the nickname "female Fatty Arbuckle". Despite her age and size, she was always willing to perform dangerous stunts to get a laugh. Her main priority in life, however, was raising her daughter.
In 1927, Sunshine was cast as Mary Pickford's mother in the film "My Best Girl". During filming, she suffered a severe injury to her foot after falling while performing an automobile stunt. Although she continued working, she never fully recovered from the accident.
Sunshine had a small role in the 1930 comedy "Midnight Daddies", which would be her last film. Sadly, she passed away on January 3, 1930, at the age of forty-three, due to heart failure. The last few weeks of her life were spent bedridden. She was laid to rest at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
