Sarah Edwards
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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).
Acted in
Carson City
1952
as Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
The Fuller Brush Girl
1950
as Mrs. East (uncredited)
Air Hostess
1949
as Bertha Hallum
Family Honeymoon
1948
as Mrs. Carp (uncredited)
California Firebrand
1948
as Granny Hortense Mason
The Main Street Kid
1948
as Mrs. Clauson
The Bishop's Wife
1947
as Mrs. Duffy
Good News
1947
as Miss Pritchard (uncredited)
It's a Wonderful Life
1946
as Mrs. Hatch
Undercurrent
1946
as Cora (uncredited)
Song of Arizona
1946
as Dolly Finnuccin
Saratoga Trunk
1945
as Miss Diggs (uncredited)
Allotment Wives
1945
as Sadie
Girls of the Big House
1945
as Dormitory Matron
Lady on a Train
1945
Two O'Clock Courage
1945
as Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited)
The Corn Is Green
1945
as Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited)
Storm Over Lisbon
1944
as Maude Perry-Tonides
Bathing Beauty
1944
as Faculty Member (uncredited)
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
1944
as Mrs. Bradley
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
1944
as Mrs. Bradley
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
1944
as Mrs. Hargue
Nearly Eighteen
1943
as Miss Perkins
All by Myself
1943
as Mrs. Vincent
Dixie Dugan
1943
as Mrs. Kelly
Shadow of a Doubt
1943
as Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited)
Calling All Pa's
1942
as Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited)
The Forest Rangers
1942
as Mrs. Hansen (uncredited)
Scattergood Survives a Murder
1942
as Selma Quentin
Apache Trail
1942
as Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
Sons of the Pioneers
1942
as Housekeeper
My Favorite Blonde
1942
as Mrs. Weatherwax
Rings on Her Fingers
1942
Dudes Are Pretty People
1942
as Miss Priddle
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
1941
as Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited)
Miss Polly
1941
as Angie Turner
One Foot in Heaven
1941
as Mrs. Spicer (uncredited)
I Wake Up Screaming
1941
as Customer (uncredited)
Three Girls About Town
1941
as Clubwoman
Sunset in Wyoming
1941
as Susanna Hawkins Peabody
Tom, Dick and Harry
1941
as Mrs. Burton (uncredited)
Mr. District Attorney
1941
as Miss Petherby
The Face Behind the Mask
1941
as Mrs. Perkins (uncredited)
The Invisible Woman
1940
as Showroom Buyer (uncredited)
Little Men
1940
as Landlady
Arise, My Love
1940
as Spinster (Uncredited)
Strike Up the Band
1940
as Miss Hodges
The Howards of Virginia
1940
as Neighbor Girl
Young People
1940
as Mrs. Stinchfield
Lucky Cisco Kid
1940
as Spinster
New Moon
1940
as Marquise della Rosa
Opened by Mistake
1940
as Mrs. Karff (uncredited)
Curtain Call
1940
as Literary Committee Member
Free, Blonde and 21
1940
as Undetermined Role
The Shop Around the Corner
1940
as Woman Customer
Remember?
1939
as Lady in Revolving Door
The Amazing Mr. Williams
1939
as Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited)
Meet Dr. Christian
1939
as Mrs. Minnows
Too Busy to Work
1939
Drunk Driving
1939
as Driver (uncredited)
Sabotage
1939
as (uncredited)
Espionage Agent
1939
as Militant American Tourist
Here I Am a Stranger
1939
as Chaperone at Dance
Coast Guard
1939
as Florence (uncredited)
Unmarried
1939
as Mrs. Jones
Blondie Meets the Boss
1939
as Saleswoman (uncredited)
Persons in Hiding
1939
as Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939
as Annie Rucker (uncredited)
Boy Trouble
1939
as Mrs. Moots
A Doggone Mixup
1938
The Shining Hour
1938
as Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Lady
1938
as Dinner Party Guest (uncredited)
A Man to Remember
1938
as Clerk (uncredited)
Three Loves Has Nancy
1938
as Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited)
Woman Against Woman
1938
as Party Guest
The Beloved Brat
1938
as School Board Member Miss Brundage
Women Are Like That
1938
as Mrs. Snell
Judge Hardy's Children
1938
as Miss Adams (uncredited)
Merrily We Live
1938
as Mrs. Fleming
Gold Is Where You Find It
1938
as Party Guest (uncredited)
Love Is a Headache
1938
as Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited)
The Awful Truth
1937
as Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited)
It's Love I'm After
1937
as Mrs. Hinkle
Varsity Show
1937
as Mrs. Biddle
Public Wedding
1937
as Mrs. Van Drexel
Big Business
1937
as Miss Collins - School Principal
We're on the Jury
1937
as Evelyn Bottomley
The General Died at Dawn
1936
as Companion of American without Matches (uncredited)
Theodora Goes Wild
1936
as Mrs. Moffat (uncredited)
Two-Fisted Gentleman
1936
as Mrs. O'Shea
Palm Springs
1936
as Miss Pinchon
Early to Bed
1936
as Miss Barton
The Golden Arrow
1936
as Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers
Colleen
1936
as First Society Woman (uncredited)
Stars Over Broadway
1935
as Woman Dancing with Fat Man
It's in the Air
1935
as Old Maid (uncredited)
I Live My Life
1935
as Professor Douglas (Uncredited)
Two-Fisted
1935
as Abigail Adams
People Will Talk
1935
as Martie Beemish
Ruggles of Red Gap
1935
as Mrs. Myron Carey
Shadow of Doubt
1935
as Dowager in Taxi
Sweepstake Annie
1935
as Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
The World Accuses
1934
as Lucille Weymouth
My Grandfather's Clock
1934
as Housekeeper (uncredited)
American Madness
1932
as Gossip on Phone (uncredited)
Wayward
1932
as Nurse (uncredited)
Glorifying the American Girl
1929
as Mrs. Hughes
Two Americans
1929