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).
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (50)
Carson City
as Spinster on Stagecoach (uncredited)
1952
The Fuller Brush Girl
as Mrs. East (uncredited)
1950
Air Hostess
as Bertha Hallum
1949
Family Honeymoon
as Mrs. Carp (uncredited)
1948
California Firebrand
as Granny Hortense Mason
1948
The Main Street Kid
as Mrs. Clauson
1948
The Bishop's Wife
as Mrs. Duffy
1947
Good News
as Miss Pritchard (uncredited)
1947
It's a Wonderful Life
as Mrs. Hatch
1946
Undercurrent
as Cora (uncredited)
1946
Song of Arizona
as Dolly Finnuccin
1946
Saratoga Trunk
as Miss Diggs (uncredited)
1945
Allotment Wives
as Sadie
1945
Girls of the Big House
as Dormitory Matron
1945
Lady on a Train
1945
Two O'Clock Courage
as Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited)
1945
The Corn Is Green
as Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited)
1945
Storm Over Lisbon
as Maude Perry-Tonides
1944
Bathing Beauty
as Faculty Member (uncredited)
1944
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
as Mrs. Bradley
1944
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
as Mrs. Bradley
1944
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
as Mrs. Hargue
1944
Nearly Eighteen
as Miss Perkins
1943
All by Myself
as Mrs. Vincent
1943
Dixie Dugan
as Mrs. Kelly
1943
Shadow of a Doubt
as Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited)
1943
Calling All Pa's
as Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited)
1942
The Forest Rangers
as Mrs. Hansen (uncredited)
1942
Scattergood Survives a Murder
as Selma Quentin
1942
Apache Trail
as Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
1942
Sons of the Pioneers
as Housekeeper
1942
My Favorite Blonde
as Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited)
1942
Rings on Her Fingers
1942
Dudes Are Pretty People
as Miss Priddle
1942
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
as Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited)
1941
Miss Polly
as Angie Turner
1941
One Foot in Heaven
as Mrs. Spicer (uncredited)
1941
I Wake Up Screaming
as Customer (uncredited)
1941
Three Girls About Town
as Clubwoman
1941
Sunset in Wyoming
as Susanna Hawkins Peabody
1941
Tom, Dick and Harry
as Mrs. Burton (uncredited)
1941
Mr. District Attorney
as Miss Petherby
1941
The Face Behind the Mask
as Mrs. Perkins (uncredited)
1941
The Invisible Woman
as Showroom Buyer (uncredited)
1940
Little Men
as Landlady
1940
Arise, My Love
as Spinster (Uncredited)
1940
Strike Up the Band
as Miss Hodges
1940
The Howards of Virginia
as Neighbor Girl
1940
Young People
as Mrs. Stinchfield
1940
Lucky Cisco Kid
as Spinster
1940