Sarah Edwards
Acting
Born October 11, 1881 · Glyn Ceiriog, Denbighshire, Wales
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).
Films (109)
Carson City
1952
The Fuller Brush Girl
1950
Air Hostess
1949
Family Honeymoon
1948
California Firebrand
1948
The Main Street Kid
1948
The Bishop's Wife
1947
Good News
1947
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
1947
It's a Wonderful Life
1946
Undercurrent
1946
Song of Arizona
1946
Saratoga Trunk
1945
Allotment Wives
1945
Girls of the Big House
1945
Lady on a Train
1945
Two O'Clock Courage
1945
The Corn Is Green
1945
Storm Over Lisbon
1944
Bathing Beauty
1944
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
1944
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
1944
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
1944
Nearly Eighteen
1943
All by Myself
1943
Dixie Dugan
1943
Shadow of a Doubt
1943
Calling All Pa's
1942
The Forest Rangers
1942
Scattergood Survives a Murder
1942
Apache Trail
1942
Sons of the Pioneers
1942
My Favorite Blonde
1942
Rings on Her Fingers
1942
Dudes Are Pretty People
1942
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
1941
Miss Polly
1941
One Foot in Heaven
1941
I Wake Up Screaming
1941
Three Girls About Town
1941
Sunset in Wyoming
1941
Tom, Dick and Harry
1941
Mr. District Attorney
1941
The Face Behind the Mask
1941
The Invisible Woman
1940
Little Men
1940
Arise, My Love
1940
Strike Up the Band
1940
The Howards of Virginia
1940
Young People
1940
Lucky Cisco Kid
1940
New Moon
1940
Opened by Mistake
1940
Curtain Call
1940
Free, Blonde and 21
1940
The Shop Around the Corner
1940
Remember?
1939
The Amazing Mr. Williams
1939
Meet Dr. Christian
1939
Too Busy to Work
1939
Drunk Driving
1939
Sabotage
1939
Espionage Agent
1939
Here I Am a Stranger
1939
Coast Guard
1939
Unmarried
1939
Blondie Meets the Boss
1939
Persons in Hiding
1939
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939
Boy Trouble
1939
A Doggone Mixup
1938
The Shining Hour
1938
The Cowboy and the Lady
1938
A Man to Remember
1938
Three Loves Has Nancy
1938
Woman Against Woman
1938
The Beloved Brat
1938
Women Are Like That
1938
Judge Hardy's Children
1938
Merrily We Live
1938
Gold Is Where You Find It
1938
Love Is a Headache
1938
The Awful Truth
1937
It's Love I'm After
1937
Varsity Show
1937
Public Wedding
1937
Big Business
1937
We're on the Jury
1937
The General Died at Dawn
1936
Theodora Goes Wild
1936
Two-Fisted Gentleman
1936
Palm Springs
1936
Early to Bed
1936
The Golden Arrow
1936
Colleen
1936
Stars Over Broadway
1935
It's in the Air
1935
I Live My Life
1935
Two-Fisted
1935
People Will Talk
1935
Ruggles of Red Gap
1935
Shadow of Doubt
1935
Sweepstake Annie
1935
The World Accuses
1934
My Grandfather's Clock
1934
American Madness
1932
Wayward
1932
Glorifying the American Girl
1929
Two Americans
1929