Personal Info
Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
October 9, 1881
Place of Birth:
Glyn Ceiriog, Denbighshire, Wales
Social Media
Sarah Edwards
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).
Known For
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Carson City | Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited) |
| 1950 | The Fuller Brush Girl | Mrs. East (uncredited) |
| 1949 | Air Hostess | Bertha Hallum |
| 1948 | California Firebrand | Granny Hortense Mason |
| 1948 | Family Honeymoon | Mrs. Carp (uncredited) |
| 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 | Song of Arizona | Dolly Finnuccin |
| 1946 | Undercurrent | Cora (uncredited) |
| 1945 | Allotment Wives | Sadie |
| 1945 | Saratoga Trunk | Miss Diggs (uncredited) |
| 1945 | Lady on a Train | |
| 1945 | Girls of the Big House | Dormitory Matron |
| 1945 | Two O'Clock Courage | Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited) |
| 1945 | The Corn Is Green | Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited) |
| 1944 | Charlie Chan in the Secret Service | Mrs. Hargue |
| 1944 | Storm Over Lisbon | Maude Perry-Tonides |
| 1944 | Bathing Beauty | Faculty Member (uncredited) |
| 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 | All by Myself | Mrs. Vincent |
| 1943 | Nearly Eighteen | Miss Perkins |
| 1942 | Scattergood Survives a Murder | Selma Quentin |
| 1942 | My Favorite Blonde | Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Dudes Are Pretty People | Miss Priddle |
| 1942 | The Forest Rangers | Mrs. Hansen (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Sons of the Pioneers | Housekeeper |
| 1942 | Apache Trail | Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Calling All Pa's | Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Rings on Her Fingers | |
| 1941 | Miss Polly | Angie Turner |
| 1941 | H.M. Pulham, Esq. | Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited) |
| 1941 | Sunset in Wyoming | Susanna Hawkins Peabody |
| 1941 | Three Girls About Town | Clubwoman |
| 1941 | Mr. District Attorney | Miss Petherby |
| 1941 | I Wake Up Screaming | Customer (uncredited) |
| 1941 | Tom, Dick and Harry | Mrs. Burton (uncredited) |
| 1941 | One Foot in Heaven | Mrs. Spicer (uncredited) |
| 1941 | The Face Behind the Mask | Mrs. Perkins (uncredited) |
| 1940 | The Shop Around the Corner | Woman Customer |
| 1940 | Young People | Mrs. Stinchfield |
| 1940 | Lucky Cisco Kid | Spinster |
| 1940 | Opened by Mistake | Mrs. Karff (uncredited) |
| 1940 | The Invisible Woman | Showroom Buyer (uncredited) |
| 1940 | Strike Up the Band | Miss Hodges |
| 1940 | The Howards of Virginia | Neighbor Girl |
| 1940 | Arise, My Love | Spinster (Uncredited) |
| 1940 | New Moon | Marquise della Rosa |
| 1940 | Little Men | Landlady |
| 1940 | Free, Blonde and 21 | Undetermined Role |
| 1940 | Curtain Call | Literary Committee Member |
| 1939 | Persons in Hiding | Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Boy Trouble | Mrs. Moots |
| 1939 | Meet Dr. Christian | Mrs. Minnows |
| 1939 | The Amazing Mr. Williams | Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited) |
| 1939 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Annie Rucker (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Blondie Meets the Boss | Saleswoman (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Coast Guard | Florence (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Remember? | Lady in Revolving Door |
| 1939 | Espionage Agent | Militant American Tourist |
| 1939 | Here I Am a Stranger | Chaperone at Dance |
| 1939 | Sabotage | (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Too Busy to Work | |
| 1939 | Drunk Driving | Driver (uncredited) |
| 1939 | Unmarried | Mrs. Jones |
| 1938 | The Cowboy and the Lady | Dinner Party Guest (uncredited) |
| 1938 | Three Loves Has Nancy | Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited) |
| 1938 | A Doggone Mixup | |
| 1938 | Judge Hardy's Children | Miss Adams (uncredited) |
| 1938 | Merrily We Live | Mrs. Fleming |
| 1938 | A Man to Remember | Clerk (uncredited) |
| 1938 | Love Is a Headache | Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited) |
| 1938 | Woman Against Woman | Party Guest |
| 1938 | The Beloved Brat | School Board Member Miss Brundage |
| 1938 | Women Are Like That | Mrs. Snell |
| 1938 | The Shining Hour | Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited) |
| 1938 | Gold Is Where You Find It | Party Guest (uncredited) |
| 1937 | It's Love I'm After | Mrs. Hinkle |
| 1937 | Public Wedding | Mrs. Van Drexel |
| 1937 | Varsity Show | Mrs. Biddle |
| 1937 | The Awful Truth | Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited) |
| 1937 | Big Business | Miss Collins - School Principal |
| 1937 | We're on the Jury | Evelyn Bottomley |
| 1936 | Theodora Goes Wild | Mrs. Moffat (uncredited) |
| 1936 | Two-Fisted Gentleman | Mrs. O'Shea |
| 1936 | Palm Springs | Miss Pinchon |
| 1936 | Colleen | First Society Woman (uncredited) |
| 1936 | The Golden Arrow | Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers |
| 1936 | Early to Bed | Miss Barton |
| 1936 | The General Died at Dawn | Companion of American without Matches (uncredited) |
| 1935 | Shadow of Doubt | Dowager in Taxi |
| 1935 | Two-Fisted | Abigail Adams |
| 1935 | Stars Over Broadway | Woman Dancing with Fat Man |
| 1935 | It's in the Air | Old Maid (uncredited) |
| 1935 | I Live My Life | Professor Douglas (Uncredited) |
| 1935 | Ruggles of Red Gap | Mrs. Myron Carey |
| 1935 | Sweepstake Annie | Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited) |
| 1935 | People Will Talk | Martie Beemish |
| 1934 | My Grandfather's Clock | Housekeeper (uncredited) |
| 1934 | The World Accuses | Lucille Weymouth |
| 1932 | Wayward | Nurse (uncredited) |
| 1932 | American Madness | Gossip on Phone (uncredited) |
| 1929 | Glorifying the American Girl | Mrs. Hughes |
| 1929 | Two Americans |
| Year | TV Show | Role |
|---|