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
Mrs. Hatch
It's a Wonderful Life
Mrs. Moffat (uncredited)
Theodora Goes Wild
Woman Customer
The Shop Around the Corner
Bertha Hallum
Air Hostess
Dinner Party Guest (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Lady
Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited)
Three Loves Has Nancy
Selma Quentin
Scattergood Survives a Murder
Mrs. Hargue
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
Mrs. Duffy
The Bishop's Wife
Sadie
Allotment Wives
Angie Turner
Miss Polly
Mrs. Stinchfield
Young People
Granny Hortense Mason
California Firebrand
Miss Diggs (uncredited)
Saratoga Trunk
Mrs. Hinkle
It's Love I'm After
Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited)
Persons in Hiding
Maude Perry-Tonides
Storm Over Lisbon
Mrs. Hughes
Glorifying the American Girl
Mrs. O'Shea
Two-Fisted Gentleman
Lady on a Train
Dowager in Taxi
Shadow of Doubt
Abigail Adams
Two-Fisted
A Doggone Mixup
Mrs. Moots
Boy Trouble
Miss Adams (uncredited)
Judge Hardy's Children
Mrs. Carp (uncredited)
Family Honeymoon
Mrs. Fleming
Merrily We Live
Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited)
My Favorite Blonde
Miss Pinchon
Palm Springs
Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited)
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
Miss Pritchard (uncredited)
Good News
Two Americans
Spinster on Stagecoach (uncredited)
Carson City
Faculty Member (uncredited)
Bathing Beauty
Mrs. East (uncredited)
The Fuller Brush Girl
Mrs. Minnows
Meet Dr. Christian
Clerk (uncredited)
A Man to Remember
Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited)
Love Is a Headache
Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited)
The Amazing Mr. Williams
First Society Woman (uncredited)
Colleen
Mrs. Van Drexel
Public Wedding
Woman Dancing with Fat Man
Stars Over Broadway
Mrs. Bradley
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
Mrs. Bradley
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
Annie Rucker (uncredited)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Saleswoman (uncredited)
Blondie Meets the Boss
Florence (uncredited)
Coast Guard
Lady in Revolving Door
Remember?
Miss Priddle
Dudes Are Pretty People
Militant American Tourist
Espionage Agent
Spinster
Lucky Cisco Kid
Mrs. Karff (uncredited)
Opened by Mistake
Dormitory Matron
Girls of the Big House
Chaperone at Dance
Here I Am a Stranger
Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited)
Shadow of a Doubt
Mrs. Biddle
Varsity Show
Party Guest
Woman Against Woman
Mrs. Kelly
Dixie Dugan
Susanna Hawkins Peabody
Sunset in Wyoming
Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers
The Golden Arrow
Showroom Buyer (uncredited)
The Invisible Woman
Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited)
The Awful Truth
School Board Member Miss Brundage
The Beloved Brat
Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited)
Two O'Clock Courage
Housekeeper (uncredited)
My Grandfather's Clock
Mrs. Vincent
All by Myself
Mrs. Hansen (uncredited)
The Forest Rangers
Nurse (uncredited)
Wayward
Miss Hodges
Strike Up the Band
Neighbor Girl
The Howards of Virginia
Spinster (Uncredited)
Arise, My Love
Marquise della Rosa
New Moon
Old Maid (uncredited)
It's in the Air
Landlady
Little Men
Miss Collins - School Principal
Big Business
Mrs. Clauson
The Main Street Kid
Professor Douglas (Uncredited)
I Live My Life
Undetermined Role
Free, Blonde and 21
(uncredited)
Sabotage
Clubwoman
Three Girls About Town
Dolly Finnuccin
Song of Arizona
Literary Committee Member
Curtain Call
Housekeeper
Sons of the Pioneers
Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
Apache Trail
Miss Barton
Early to Bed
Evelyn Bottomley
We're on the Jury
Mrs. Myron Carey
Ruggles of Red Gap
Miss Petherby
Mr. District Attorney
Customer (uncredited)
I Wake Up Screaming
Lucille Weymouth
The World Accuses
Mrs. Burton (uncredited)
Tom, Dick and Harry
Too Busy to Work
Cora (uncredited)
Undercurrent
Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited)
Calling All Pa's
Rings on Her Fingers
Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited)
The Corn Is Green
Driver (uncredited)
Drunk Driving
Mrs. Snell
Women Are Like That
Mrs. Jones
Unmarried
Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
Sweepstake Annie
Martie Beemish
People Will Talk
Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited)
The Shining Hour
Party Guest (uncredited)
Gold Is Where You Find It
Mrs. Spicer (uncredited)
One Foot in Heaven
Gossip on Phone (uncredited)
American Madness
Miss Perkins
Nearly Eighteen
Companion of American without Matches (uncredited)
The General Died at Dawn
Mrs. Perkins (uncredited)
The Face Behind the Mask
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
108
Gender
Female
Birthday
1881-10-09
Place of Birth
Glyn Ceiriog, Denbighshire, Wales
Also Known As
Sara Edwards