
Acting
Born October 15, 1881 ยท Sunderland, England, UK
Sarah Padden was a character actress in theater and vaudeville from Chicago, Illinois. She performed on stage in the early 20th century. She is noted for her expressive voice and for her psychological studies of the characters she portrayed. Her finest single-act performance was in The Clod, a stage production in which she played an uneducated woman who lived on a farm during the American Civil War. Padden was a featured player on the Orpheum Circuit, Inc.. She had a role in His Grace de Grammont, a romantic comedy by Clyde Fitch which came to the Park Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts in September 1905. The production starred Skinner and was based on the life of a chevalier in the court of Charles II. Padden appeared again with Skinner in a four-act play produced by Charles Frohman, The Honor of the Family, by Emile Fabre, which was presented in New Rochelle, New York in September 1907. Another of her theatrical parts was in Hell-Bent Fer Heaven, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Hatcher Hughes. It was performed at the Wilkes Orange Grove Theater (Majestic Theater), 845 South Broadway (Los Angeles), in November 1925. She was also an active screen actress from 1926 to 1958, appearing in 178 films and TV shows. In 1938, she played Ma Thayer in MGM's Rich Man Poor Girl, directed by Reinhold Schunzel and starring Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, and Lana Turner. Bill Harrison (Robert Young) a wealthy young businessman moves in with secretary girlfriend Joan Thayer's (Ruth Hussey) eccentric family to convince her they can make their marriage work. In 1941, she played wealthy spinster Aunt Cassandra ("Cassie") Hildegarde Denham in Murder by Invitation, directed by Phil Rosen and starring Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh. In this "closed room" murder comedy, after they unsuccessfully attempt to have her declared legally insane to gain control of her fortune, her nephews and nieces are invited to a week's visit at her mansion where they are murdered one by one.

Girl with an Itch
1958

Screaming Mimi
1958

The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956

Prince of Players
1955

Big Jim McLain
1952

Utah Wagon Train
1951

The Missourians
1950

Again Pioneers
1950

A Life of Her Own
1950

Gunslingers
1950

House by the River
1950

Range Justice
1949

Homicide
1949

Frontier Revenge
1948

The Dude Goes West
1948

The Return of the Whistler
1948

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
1948

Joe Palooka in the Knockout
1947

Possessed
1947

Love and Learn
1947

Ramrod
1947

Trail Street
1947

That Brennan Girl
1946

Wild West
1946

My Dog Shep
1946

Gentleman Joe Palooka
1946

Angel on My Shoulder
1946

Joe Palooka, Champ
1946

So Goes My Love
1946
Idea Girl
1946

Dakota
1945

Riders of the Dawn
1945

Song of Old Wyoming
1945

Marshal of Laredo
1945

Apology for Murder
1945

Wildfire
1945

The Master Key
1945

Identity Unknown
1945

Ghost Guns
1944

Girl Rush
1944

San Diego I Love You
1944

Casanova Brown
1944

Trail to Gunsight
1944

Summer Storm
1944

Range Law
1944

The Navy Way
1944

So This Is Washington
1943

Family Troubles
1943

Hangmen Also Die!
1943

Assignment in Brittany
1943

Riders of the West
1942

Law and Order
1942

The Pride of the Yankees
1942

Lady in a Jam
1942

The Mad Monster
1942

This Gun for Hire
1942

Heart of the Rio Grande
1942

Wild Bill Hickok Rides
1942

Private Snuffy Smith
1942

The Power of God
1942

The Corsican Brothers
1941

Reg'lar Fellers
1941

Murder by Invitation
1941

A Woman's Face
1941

City of Missing Girls
1941

The Man Who Lost Himself
1941

In Old Colorado
1941

Chad Hanna
1940

Lone Star Raiders
1940

Son of the Navy
1940

Forgotten Girls
1940

I Stole a Million
1939

Should a Girl Marry?
1939

The Zero Hour
1939

Let Freedom Ring
1939

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939

Off the Record
1939
Little Orphan Annie
1938

Little Tough Guys in Society
1938

Rich Man, Poor Girl
1938

Woman Against Woman
1938

Romance of the Limberlost
1938

Women in Prison
1938

Exiled to Shanghai
1937

Youth on Parole
1937

Anna Karenina
1935

Mad Love
1935

Stranded
1935

The Hoosier Schoolmaster
1935

A Dog of Flanders
1935

When Strangers Meet
1934

The Defense Rests
1934

Tomorrow's Children
1934

He Was Her Man
1934

David Harum
1934

As the Earth Turns
1934

Man of Two Worlds
1934

The Sin of Nora Moran
1933

The Power and the Glory
1933

Ann Vickers
1933

Doctor Bull
1933

The Important Witness
1933

Pilgrimage
1933

Face in the Sky
1933

Rasputin and the Empress
1932

Tess of the Storm Country
1932

Women Won't Tell
1932

Wild Girl
1932

Kongo
1932

Grand Hotel
1932

Blondie of the Follies
1932

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
1932

Red-Headed Woman
1932

The Midnight Lady
1932

Young America
1932

Cross-Examination
1932

Mata Hari
1931

The Yellow Ticket
1931

Sob Sister
1931

Bad Girl
1931

The Great Meadow
1931

Today
1930

Billy the Kid
1930

Hide-Out
1930

Trifles
1930

The Sophomore
1929

Wonder of Women
1929

Companionate Marriage
1928

The Bugle Call
1927

The Woman Who Did Not Care
1927

Obey the Law
1926