Cast & creator
Sarah Padden
Best known for Dragnet, The Lone Ranger, Adventures of Superman
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.
Also known as: Sarah Ann Padden, Sara Padden
133
film credits
9
television credits
142
1926–1958 · acting roles
6.5
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (142)
Showing 142 of 142 credits
Dragnet
1951
The Lone Ranger
Grandma Williams
1949
Adventures of Superman
Mrs. Carmody
1952
The Abbott and Costello Show
Old Lady on Street
1952
Public Defender
Eula Mae Carter
1954
The Cisco Kid
Mrs. Smiley
1950The Cisco Kid
Sara
1950
The Life Of Riley
Martha Riley
1953
Letter to Loretta
Frau Lang
1953
This Gun for Hire
Mrs. Mason (uncredited)
1942
Grand Hotel
Chambermaid in Room 174 (uncredited)
1932
A Woman's Face
Police Matron
1941
Mata Hari
Sister Teresa (uncredited)
1931
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Woman Wanting Needle Threaded (uncredited)
1939
The Pride of the Yankees
Mrs. Roberts (uncredited)
1942
Rasputin and the Empress
Duna the Landlady (uncredited)
1932
House by the River
Mrs. Beach - Stephen's elderly cook
1950
Anna Karenina
Governess
1935
Angel on My Shoulder
Agatha (uncredited)
1946
Casanova Brown
Mrs. Smith
1944
Hangmen Also Die!
Mrs. Georgia Dvorak
1943
Bad Girl
Mrs. Gardner
1931
Wild Girl
Lize
1932
Lady in a Jam
Miner’s Wife (uncredited)
1942
Blondie of the Follies
Ma McClune
1932
Forgotten Girls
Miss Donaldson
1940
A Life of Her Own
Betsy Ross Hotel Overseer (uncredited)
1950
Mad Love
Crippled Girl's Mother (Uncredited)
1935
The Kettles in the Ozarks
Mrs. Tinware
1956
Ramrod
Mrs. Parks
1947
The Defense Rests
Mrs. Evans
1934
The Corsican Brothers
Nurse
1942
Rich Man, Poor Girl
Ma
1938
I Stole a Million
Lady in Post Office (uncredited)
1939
City of Missing Girls
Mrs. Randolph
1941
Trail Street
Mrs. Ferguson (uncredited)
1947
Summer Storm
Beggar Woman (uncredited)
1944
Big Jim McLain
Mrs. Lexiter
1952
The Dude Goes West
Mrs. Hallihan
1948
A Dog of Flanders
Frau Keller
1935
He Was Her Man
Mrs. Gardella
1934
Man of Two Worlds
Olago
1934
Wild Bill Hickok Rides
Mrs. Kimball
1942
Possessed
Mrs. Norris, the Caretaker’s Wife (uncredited)
1947
The Sin of Nora Moran
Mrs. Watts
1933
The Man Who Lost Himself
Maid
1941
Should a Girl Marry?
Mrs. Wilson
1939
Sob Sister
Ma Stevens
1931
Girl with an Itch
Cookie
1958
Ann Vickers
Lil
1933
The Return of the Whistler
Mrs. Hulskamp
1948
Red-Headed Woman
Mary, Legendre Maid (uncredited)
1932
This Is the Life
Sarah (uncredited)
1944
Son of the Navy
Mrs. Baker - Landlady
1940
Dakota
Mrs. Plummer
1945
Chad Hanna
Mrs. Todd
1940
Riders of the West
Ma Turner
1942
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Mrs Cobb
1932
Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
Mom Palooka
1948
The Power and the Glory
Henry's Wife
1933
San Diego I Love You
Mrs. Gulliver (uncredited)
1944
Range Law
Boots Annie
1944
Little Tough Guys in Society
Victim
1938
So Goes My Love
Bridget
1946
So This Is Washington
Aunt Charity Speers
1943
Riders of the Dawn
Melinda Pringle
1945
Doctor Bull
Mary the Canning Cook
1933
Off the Record
Mrs. Fallon (uncredited)
1939
Romance of the Limberlost
Sarah
1938
The Mad Monster
Grandmother
1942
Heart of the Rio Grande
'Skipper' Forbes
1942
Face in the Sky
Ma Brown
1933
Pilgrimage
1933
As the Earth Turns
Mrs. Janowski
1934
Frontier Revenge
Widow Owens
1948
Women Won't Tell
Aggie Specks
1932
That Brennan Girl
Mrs. Graves, the Nice Landlady
1946
Screaming Mimi
Landlady
1958
Again Pioneers
Ma Ashby
1950
Assignment in Brittany
Albertine
1943
Reg'lar Fellers
Hetty Carter
1941
Song of Old Wyoming
Ma Conway
1945
Gentleman Joe Palooka
Mom Palooka
1946
When Strangers Meet
Lucy Tarman
1934
Tomorrow's Children
1934
My Dog Shep
Carrie Hodgkins
1946
David Harum
Widow
1934
Stranded
Workman's Wife (uncredited)
1935
Homicide
Mrs. Webb
1949
Wonder of Women
Anna
1929
Women in Prison
Martha Wilson
1938
The Navy Way
Mrs. Margaret Gimble (uncredited)
1944The Navy Way
Mrs. Margaret Gimble
1944
Prince of Players
Mary Todd Lincoln (uncredited)
1955
Joe Palooka, Champ
Mom Palooka
1946
The Power of God
Esther Worne
1942
Identity Unknown
Mrs. Anderson
1945
The Zero Hour
Sister Theodosia
1939
The Yellow Ticket
Mother Kalish
1931
Love and Learn
Mrs. Grant (uncredited)
1947
Billy the Kid
Homesteader Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
1930
Range Justice
Ma Curtis
1949
Girl Rush
Mrs. Emma Mason
1944
Lone Star Raiders
Lydia 'Granny' Phelps
1940
Today
Emma Warner
1930
Murder by Invitation
Cassandra Hildegard Denham
1941
Ghost Guns
Aunt Sally
1944
In Old Colorado
Ma Harriet Woods
1941
Kongo
Nun (uncredited)
1932
Joe Palooka in the Knockout
Mom Palooka
1947
Tess of the Storm Country
Old Martha
1932
Wildfire
Aunt Agatha
1945
Young America
Mrs. Mary Taylor
1932
The Important Witness
Deaf Woman
1933
Wild West
Carrie Bannister
1946
Marshal of Laredo
Mrs. Randall
1945
Let Freedom Ring
'Ma' Logan
1939
The Woman Who Did Not Care
Mrs. Carroll
1927
Woman Against Woman
Dora
1938
Law and Order
Mary Todd
1942
Utah Wagon Train
Sarah Wendover
1951
Apology for Murder
Maggie
1945
Youth on Parole
Mrs. Blair
1937
The Midnight Lady
Nita St. George
1932
The Master Key
Aggie
1945
Exiled to Shanghai
Aunt Jane
1937
The Great Meadow
Mistress Molly Hall
1931
Trail to Gunsight
Grandma Wagner
1944
The Missourians
Mother Kovacs
1950
The Sophomore
Mrs. Collins
1929
The Hoosier Schoolmaster
Sarah
1935
Cross-Examination
Mary Stevens
1932
Family Troubles
Mrs. Jones
1943
Companionate Marriage
Mrs. Williams
1928
Obey the Law
The Mother
1926
Gunslingers
Rawhide Rosie Rawlins
1950
The Bugle Call
Luke's Wife
1927Little Orphan Annie
Mrs. Nora Moriarty
1938
Private Snuffy Smith
Lowizie Smith
1942
Idea Girl
Old Lady
1946
Trifles
Mrs. Wright
1930
Hide-Out
Mrs. Dorgan
1930