Sarah Edwards

Acting

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).

Filmography Movies

Acting

MOVIE

It's a Wonderful Life

8.3(4.9K)

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

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It's a Wonderful Life

Mrs. Hatch

MOVIE

Theodora Goes Wild

6.6(0.1K)

The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Theodora Lynn, scion of the town's leading family. Michael Grant, devil-may-care book jacket illustrator, penetrates Theodora's incognito and sets out to 'free her' from Lynnfield against her will. But Michael has a secret too, and gets a taste of his own medicine.

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Theodora Goes Wild

Mrs. Moffat (uncredited)

MOVIE

The Shop Around the Corner

8.1(0.8K)

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

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The Shop Around the Corner

Woman Customer

MOVIE

Air Hostess

5.8(0.0K)

The Hansen School for Air Hostesses, operated by Celia Hansen, welcomes a new group of students; a librarian named Ruth Jackson; Lorraine Carter, a nurse; and Jennifer White, whose husband was an aviator killed in World War II. Ruth meets a smart-alec pilot, Dennis Hogan, but complications arise as Lorraine also has an interest in him. Jennifer meets a war-buddy of her husband, Fred MacCoy. All three women, with each other's help, makes it through to graduation day.

The Cowboy and the Lady

6.3(0.0K)

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.

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The Cowboy and the Lady

Dinner Party Guest (uncredited)

MOVIE

Three Loves Has Nancy

4.2(0.0K)

A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men.

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Three Loves Has Nancy

Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited)

MOVIE

Scattergood Survives a Murder

5.9(0.0K)

Rural sage Scattergood Baines (Guy Kibbee) shows big-city newsman how to solve a mystery.

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Scattergood Survives a Murder

Selma Quentin

MOVIE

Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

6.1(0.0K)

Charlie Chan is an agent of the US government working in Washington DC and he is assigned to investigate the murder of the inventor of a highly advanced torpedo. Aiding Chan is his overeager but dull-witted son Tommy and his daughter Iris.

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Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

Mrs. Hargue

MOVIE

The Bishop's Wife

7.1(0.3K)

An Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham, has been working for months on the plans for an elaborate new cathedral which he hopes will be paid for primarily by a wealthy, stubborn widow. He is losing sight of his family and of why he became a churchman in the first place. Enter Dudley, an angel sent to help him. Dudley does help everyone he meets, but not necessarily in the way they would have preferred. With the exception of Henry, everyone loves him, but Henry begins to believe that Dudley is there to replace him, both at work and in his family's affections, as Christmas approaches.

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The Bishop's Wife

Mrs. Duffy