Acting
106
Woman
9 Oct 1881
7 Jan 1965 (83)
Glyn Ceiriog, Denbighshire, Wales
Sarah Edwards
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).
Year | Movie / TV show / Other | Role |
---|---|---|
1952 | Carson City | Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited) |
1950 | The Fuller Brush Girl | Mrs. East (uncredited) |
1949 | Air Hostess | Bertha Hallum |
1948 | Family Honeymoon | Mrs. Carp (uncredited) |
1948 | California Firebrand | Granny Hortense Mason |
1948 | The Main Street Kid | Mrs. Clauson |
1947 | The Bishop's Wife | Mrs. Duffy |
1947 | Good News | Miss Pritchard (uncredited) |
1946 | It's a Wonderful Life | Mrs. Hatch |
1946 | Undercurrent | Cora (uncredited) |
1946 | Song of Arizona | Dolly Finnuccin |
1945 | Lady on a Train | |
1945 | The Corn Is Green | Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited) |
1945 | Two O'Clock Courage | Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited) |
1945 | Saratoga Trunk | Miss Diggs (uncredited) |
1945 | Allotment Wives | Sadie |
1945 | Girls of the Big House | Dormitory Matron |
1944 | Bathing Beauty | Faculty Member (uncredited) |
1944 | Charlie Chan in the Secret Service | Mrs. Hargue |
1944 | Storm Over Lisbon | Maude Perry-Tonides |
1944 | Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid | Mrs. Bradley |
1944 | Henry Aldrich's Little Secret | Mrs. Bradley |
1943 | Shadow of a Doubt | Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited) |
1943 | Dixie Dugan | Mrs. Kelly |
1943 | Nearly Eighteen | Miss Perkins |
1943 | All by Myself | Mrs. Vincent |
1942 | My Favorite Blonde | Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited) |
1942 | Rings on Her Fingers | |
1942 | Apache Trail | Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited) |
1942 | Scattergood Survives a Murder | Selma Quentin |
1942 | Calling All Pa's | Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited) |
1942 | Dudes Are Pretty People | Miss Priddle |
1942 | The Forest Rangers | Mrs. Hansen (uncredited) |
1942 | Sons of the Pioneers | Housekeeper |
1941 | I Wake Up Screaming | Customer (uncredited) |
1941 | One Foot in Heaven | Mrs. Spicer (uncredited) |
1941 | Tom, Dick and Harry | Mrs. Burton (uncredited) |
1941 | H.M. Pulham, Esq. | Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited) |
1941 | Miss Polly | Angie Turner |
1941 | Mr. District Attorney | Miss Petherby |
1941 | Three Girls About Town | Clubwoman |
1941 | Sunset in Wyoming | Susanna Hawkins Peabody |
1940 | The Shop Around the Corner | Woman Customer |
1940 | The Invisible Woman | Showroom Buyer (uncredited) |
1940 | Strike Up the Band | Miss Hodges |
1940 | Arise, My Love | Spinster (Uncredited) |
1940 | The Howards of Virginia | Neighbor Girl |
1940 | Young People | Mrs. Stinchfield |
1940 | Little Men | Landlady |
1940 | New Moon | Marquise della Rosa |
1940 | Lucky Cisco Kid | Spinster |
1940 | Curtain Call | Literary Committee Member |
1940 | Free, Blonde and 21 | Undetermined Role |
1940 | Opened by Mistake | Mrs. Karff (uncredited) |
1939 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Annie Rucker (uncredited) |
1939 | The Amazing Mr. Williams | Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited) |
1939 | Blondie Meets the Boss | Saleswoman (uncredited) |
1939 | Espionage Agent | Militant American Tourist |
1939 | Drunk Driving | Driver (uncredited) |
1939 | Remember? | Lady in Revolving Door |
1939 | Boy Trouble | Mrs. Moots |
1939 | Coast Guard | Florence (uncredited) |
1939 | Sabotage | (uncredited) |
1939 | Persons in Hiding | Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited) |
1939 | Here I Am a Stranger | Chaperone at Dance |
1939 | Unmarried | Mrs. Jones |
1939 | Meet Dr. Christian | Mrs. Minnows |
1939 | Too Busy to Work | |
1938 | Merrily We Live | Mrs. Fleming |
1938 | The Cowboy and the Lady | Dinner Party Guest (uncredited) |
1938 | The Shining Hour | Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited) |
1938 | Gold Is Where You Find It | Party Guest (uncredited) |
1938 | The Beloved Brat | School Board Member Miss Brundage |
1938 | Three Loves Has Nancy | Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited) |
1938 | A Man to Remember | Clerk (uncredited) |
1938 | Judge Hardy's Children | Miss Adams (uncredited) |
1938 | Love Is a Headache | Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited) |
1938 | Women Are Like That | Mrs. Snell |
1938 | Woman Against Woman | Party Guest |
1938 | A Doggone Mixup | |
1937 | The Awful Truth | Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited) |
1937 | It's Love I'm After | Mrs. Hinkle |
1937 | We're on the Jury | Evelyn Bottomley |
1937 | Public Wedding | Mrs. Van Drexel |
1937 | Varsity Show | Mrs. Biddle |
1937 | Big Business | Miss Collins - School Principal |
1936 | Theodora Goes Wild | Mrs. Moffat (uncredited) |
1936 | The Golden Arrow | Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers |
1936 | Colleen | First Society Woman (uncredited) |
1936 | Early to Bed | Miss Barton |
1936 | Two-Fisted Gentleman | Mrs. O'Shea |
1936 | Palm Springs | Miss Pinchon |
1935 | Ruggles of Red Gap | Mrs. Myron Carey |
1935 | I Live My Life | Professor Douglas (Uncredited) |
1935 | Shadow of Doubt | Dowager in Taxi |
1935 | Stars Over Broadway | Woman Dancing with Fat Man |
1935 | Sweepstake Annie | Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited) |
1935 | It's in the Air | Old Maid (uncredited) |
1935 | Two-Fisted | Abigail Adams |
1935 | People Will Talk | Martie Beemish |
1934 | My Grandfather's Clock | Housekeeper (uncredited) |
1934 | The World Accuses | Lucille Weymouth |
1932 | American Madness | Gossip on Phone (uncredited) |
1932 | Wayward | Nurse (uncredited) |
1929 | Glorifying the American Girl | Mrs. Hughes |
1929 | Two Americans |