Sarah Edwards
Acting • Born 1881-10-11 – Died 1965-01-07
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sarah Edwards (October 11, 1881 – January 7, 1965) was a Welsh-born American film and stage actress. She often played dowagers or spinsters in numerous Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s, mostly in minor roles. Edwards started her acting career as a stage actress, she was described in 1916 by a newspaper article as a leading actress "very popular with West End theatre-goers".[1] She eventually settled in the United States and appeared in six Broadway plays between 1919 and 1931, primarily in comedies like The Merry Malones by George M. Cohan. Among her first movies was the New York-filmed 1929 musical Glorifying the American Girl (1929), where she portrayed the mercenary mother of leading actress Mary Eaton. She came to Hollywood in the mid-1930s where she appeared in about 190 films until her retirement 1951, mostly in uncredited, small character roles. Sarah Edwards died in Hollywood in 1965, aged 83. Edwards seemed older than she was and often portrayed a "kindly grandmother, imperious dowager, hardy pioneer wife, ill-tempered teacher and strict governess". She remains perhaps best-known to modern audiences as the imperious mother of Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) in Frank Capra's film classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) who tries to keep her daughter away from George Bailey. Edwards also played a customer in Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart. She also appeared in another Christmas classic, The Bishop's Wife (1947) with Cary Grant, and as the wife of a doctor on the train in Hitchcock's thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Edwards sometimes also portrayed more substantial roles, for instance in the Charlie Chan movie Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944).
Filmography
109 credits
It's a Wonderful Life
Movie • 1946
Mrs. Hatch
Theodora Goes Wild
Movie • 1936
Mrs. Moffat (uncredited)
The Shop Around the Corner
Movie • 1940
Woman Customer
Air Hostess
Movie • 1949
Bertha Hallum
The Cowboy and the Lady
Movie • 1938
Dinner Party Guest (uncredited)
Three Loves Has Nancy
Movie • 1938
Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited)
Scattergood Survives a Murder
Movie • 1942
Selma Quentin
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
Movie • 1944
Mrs. Hargue
The Bishop's Wife
Movie • 1947
Mrs. Duffy
Allotment Wives
Movie • 1945
Sadie
Miss Polly
Movie • 1941
Angie Turner
Young People
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Stinchfield
California Firebrand
Movie • 1948
Granny Hortense Mason
Saratoga Trunk
Movie • 1945
Miss Diggs (uncredited)
It's Love I'm After
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Hinkle
Persons in Hiding
Movie • 1939
Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited)
Storm Over Lisbon
Movie • 1944
Maude Perry-Tonides
Glorifying the American Girl
Movie • 1929
Mrs. Hughes
Two-Fisted Gentleman
Movie • 1936
Mrs. O'Shea
Lady on a Train
Movie • 1945
Shadow of Doubt
Movie • 1935
Dowager in Taxi
Two-Fisted
Movie • 1935
Abigail Adams
A Doggone Mixup
Movie • 1938
Boy Trouble
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Moots
Judge Hardy's Children
Movie • 1938
Miss Adams (uncredited)
Family Honeymoon
Movie • 1948
Mrs. Carp (uncredited)
Merrily We Live
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Fleming
My Favorite Blonde
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited)
Palm Springs
Movie • 1936
Miss Pinchon
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited)
Good News
Movie • 1947
Miss Pritchard (uncredited)
Two Americans
Movie • 1929
Carson City
Movie • 1952
Spinster on Stagecoach (uncredited)
Bathing Beauty
Movie • 1944
Faculty Member (uncredited)
The Fuller Brush Girl
Movie • 1950
Mrs. East (uncredited)
Meet Dr. Christian
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Minnows
A Man to Remember
Movie • 1938
Clerk (uncredited)
Love Is a Headache
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited)
The Amazing Mr. Williams
Movie • 1939
Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited)
Colleen
Movie • 1936
First Society Woman (uncredited)
Public Wedding
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Van Drexel
Stars Over Broadway
Movie • 1935
Woman Dancing with Fat Man
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
Movie • 1944
Mrs. Bradley
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
Movie • 1944
Mrs. Bradley
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Movie • 1939
Annie Rucker (uncredited)
Blondie Meets the Boss
Movie • 1939
Saleswoman (uncredited)
Coast Guard
Movie • 1939
Florence (uncredited)
Remember?
Movie • 1939
Lady in Revolving Door
Dudes Are Pretty People
Movie • 1942
Miss Priddle
Espionage Agent
Movie • 1939
Militant American Tourist
Lucky Cisco Kid
Movie • 1940
Spinster
Opened by Mistake
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Karff (uncredited)
Girls of the Big House
Movie • 1945
Dormitory Matron
Here I Am a Stranger
Movie • 1939
Chaperone at Dance
Shadow of a Doubt
Movie • 1943
Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited)
Varsity Show
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Biddle
Woman Against Woman
Movie • 1938
Party Guest
Dixie Dugan
Movie • 1943
Mrs. Kelly
Sunset in Wyoming
Movie • 1941
Susanna Hawkins Peabody
The Golden Arrow
Movie • 1936
Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers
The Invisible Woman
Movie • 1940
Showroom Buyer (uncredited)
The Awful Truth
Movie • 1937
Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited)
The Beloved Brat
Movie • 1938
School Board Member Miss Brundage
Two O'Clock Courage
Movie • 1945
Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited)
My Grandfather's Clock
Movie • 1934
Housekeeper (uncredited)
All by Myself
Movie • 1943
Mrs. Vincent
The Forest Rangers
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Hansen (uncredited)
Wayward
Movie • 1932
Nurse (uncredited)
Strike Up the Band
Movie • 1940
Miss Hodges
The Howards of Virginia
Movie • 1940
Neighbor Girl
Arise, My Love
Movie • 1940
Spinster (uncredited)
New Moon
Movie • 1940
Marquise della Rosa
It's in the Air
Movie • 1935
Old Maid (uncredited)
Little Men
Movie • 1940
Landlady
Big Business
Movie • 1937
Miss Collins - School Principal
The Main Street Kid
Movie • 1948
Mrs. Clauson
I Live My Life
Movie • 1935
Professor Douglas (Uncredited)
Free, Blonde and 21
Movie • 1940
Undetermined Role
Sabotage
Movie • 1939
(uncredited)
Three Girls About Town
Movie • 1941
Clubwoman
Song of Arizona
Movie • 1946
Dolly Finnuccin
Curtain Call
Movie • 1940
Literary Committee Member
Sons of the Pioneers
Movie • 1942
Housekeeper
Apache Trail
Movie • 1942
Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
Early to Bed
Movie • 1936
Miss Barton
We're on the Jury
Movie • 1937
Evelyn Bottomley
Ruggles of Red Gap
Movie • 1935
Mrs. Myron Carey
Mr. District Attorney
Movie • 1941
Miss Petherby
I Wake Up Screaming
Movie • 1941
Customer (uncredited)
The World Accuses
Movie • 1934
Lucille Weymouth
Tom, Dick and Harry
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Burton (uncredited)
Too Busy to Work
Movie • 1939
Undercurrent
Movie • 1946
Cora (uncredited)
Calling All Pa's
Movie • 1942
Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited)
Rings on Her Fingers
Movie • 1942
The Corn Is Green
Movie • 1945
Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited)
Drunk Driving
Movie • 1939
Driver (uncredited)
Women Are Like That
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Snell
Unmarried
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Jones
Sweepstake Annie
Movie • 1935
Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
People Will Talk
Movie • 1935
Martie Beemish
The Shining Hour
Movie • 1938
Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited)
Gold Is Where You Find It
Movie • 1938
Party Guest (uncredited)
One Foot in Heaven
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Spicer (uncredited)
American Madness
Movie • 1932
Gossip on Phone (uncredited)
Nearly Eighteen
Movie • 1943
Miss Perkins
The General Died at Dawn
Movie • 1936
Companion of American without Matches (uncredited)
The Face Behind the Mask
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Perkins (uncredited)
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
Movie • 1947
Mrs. Dessark (uncredited)