Cast & creator
Sarah Edwards
Best known for It's a Wonderful Life, Shadow of a Doubt, The Shop Around the Corner
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).
Also known as: Sara Edwards
113
film credits
0
television credits
113
1929–1952 · acting roles
6.7
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (113)
Showing 113 of 113 credits
It's a Wonderful Life
Mrs. Hatch
1946
Shadow of a Doubt
Doctor's Wife on Train (uncredited)
1943
The Shop Around the Corner
Woman Customer
1940
The Bishop's Wife
Mrs. Duffy
1947
Bathing Beauty
Faculty Member (uncredited)
1944
The Awful Truth
Lucy's Attorney's Wife (uncredited)
1937
Ruggles of Red Gap
Mrs. Myron Carey
1935
The Walking Dead
1936
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Annie Rucker (uncredited)
1939
Lady on a Train
1945
The Corn Is Green
Mrs. Watty's Friend (uncredited)
1945
Young People
Mrs. Stinchfield
1940
The Sons of the Pioneers
Housekeeper
1942
The Cowboy and the Lady
Dinner Party Guest (uncredited)
1938
Family Honeymoon
Mrs. Carp (uncredited)
1948
The Fuller Brush Girl
Mrs. East (uncredited)
1950
It's Love I'm After
Mrs. Hinkle
1937
Undercurrent
Cora (uncredited)
1946
The Amazing Mr. Williams
Citizens Committee Woman (uncredited)
1939
Strike Up the Band
Miss Hodges
1940
Gold Is Where You Find It
Party Guest (uncredited)
1938
Girl on the Spot
Mrs. Richards (uncredited)
1946
Carson City
Spinster on Stagecoach (uncredited)
1952
Two O'Clock Courage
Mrs. Tuttle (Patty's Landlady) (uncredited)
1945
The Verdict
Housekeeper (uncredited)
1946
The Invisible Woman
Showroom Buyer (uncredited)
1940
The Devil Thumbs a Ride
1947
A Man to Remember
Clerk (uncredited)
1938
Unmarried
Mrs. Jones
1939
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
Mrs. Dessark (uncredited)
1947
American Madness
Gossip on Phone (uncredited)
1932
I Live My Life
Professor Douglas (Uncredited)
1935
Rings on Her Fingers
1942
The Howards of Virginia
Neighbor Girl
1940
Merrily We Live
Mrs. Fleming
1938
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
Mrs. Motford - Kay's Mother (uncredited)
1941
I Wake Up Screaming
Customer (uncredited)
1941
One Foot in Heaven
Mrs. Spicer (uncredited)
1941
It's in the Air
Old Maid (uncredited)
1935
The Face Behind the Mask
Mrs. Perkins (uncredited)
1941
Tom, Dick and Harry
Mrs. Burton (uncredited)
1941
Three Girls About Town
Clubwoman
1941
Love Is a Headache
Mrs. Warden, Fan from New Jersey (uncredited)
1938
The General Died at Dawn
Companion of American without Matches (uncredited)
1936
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
Mrs. Hargue
1944
Arise, My Love
Spinster (uncredited)
1940
Glorifying the American Girl
Mrs. Hughes
1929
Three Loves Has Nancy
Autograph Session Chairwoman (uncredited)
1938
Girls of the Big House
Dormitory Matron
1945
My Favorite Blonde
Mrs. Weatherwax (uncredited)
1942
Dudes Are Pretty People
Miss Priddle
1942
Free, Blonde and 21
Undetermined Role
1940Sweepstake Annie
Friend of Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
1935
Henry Aldrich's Little Secret
Mrs. Bradley
1944
Mr. District Attorney
Miss Petherby
1941
Judge Hardy's Children
Miss Adams (uncredited)
1938
Storm Over Lisbon
Maude Perry-Tonides
1944
New Moon
Marquise della Rosa
1940
Blondie Meets the Boss
Saleswoman (uncredited)
1939
The Shining Hour
Chairwoman of Morals Society (uncredited)
1938
Too Busy to Work
1939
Wayward
Nurse (uncredited)
1932
Saratoga Trunk
Miss Diggs (uncredited)
1945
Women Are Like That
Mrs. Snell
1938Two Americans
1929
Scattergood Survives a Murder
Selma Quentin
1942
Good News
Miss Pritchard (uncredited)
1947
We're on the Jury
Evelyn Bottomley
1937
Theodora Goes Wild
Mrs. Moffat (uncredited)
1936
The Forest Rangers
Mrs. Hansen (uncredited)
1942
Apache Trail
Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
1942
Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
Mrs. Bradley
1944
The Beloved Brat
School Board Member Miss Brundage
1938
Public Wedding
Mrs. Van Drexel
1937
Song of Arizona
Dolly Finnuccin
1946
Allotment Wives
Sadie
1945
The Golden Arrow
Mrs. Lizzie Burke-Meyers
1936
Here I Am a Stranger
Chaperone at Dance
1939
Coast Guard
Florence (uncredited)
1939
Dixie Dugan
Mrs. Kelly
1943
Varsity Show
Mrs. Biddle
1937
Espionage Agent
Militant American Tourist
1939
Air Hostess
Bertha Hallum
1949
The World Accuses
Lucille Weymouth
1934
The Main Street Kid
Mrs. Clauson
1948
Miss Polly
Angie Turner
1941My Grandfather's Clock
Housekeeper (uncredited)
1934
Persons in Hiding
Beauty Shop Proprietor (uncredited)
1939
Boy Trouble
Mrs. Moots
1939
Stars Over Broadway
Woman Dancing with Fat Man
1935
Palm Springs
Miss Pinchon
1936
Colleen
First Society Woman (uncredited)
1936
Sabotage
(uncredited)
1939
California Firebrand
Granny Hortense Mason
1948
All by Myself
Mrs. Vincent
1943
Little Men
Landlady
1940
Opened by Mistake
Mrs. Karff (uncredited)
1940
Early to Bed
Miss Barton
1936
Shadow of Doubt
Dowager in Taxi
1935
Remember?
Lady in Revolving Door
1939
Calling All Pa's
Grandma Vanderscnooze (uncredited)
1942
People Will Talk
Martie Beemish
1935
Lucky Cisco Kid
Spinster
1940
Two-Fisted
Abigail Adams
1935
Meet Dr. Christian
Mrs. Minnows
1939
A Doggone Mixup
1938
Sunset in Wyoming
Susanna Hawkins Peabody
1941
Two-Fisted Gentleman
Mrs. O'Shea
1936
Curtain Call
Literary Committee Member
1940
Big Business
Miss Collins - School Principal
1937
Woman Against Woman
Party Guest
1938
Nearly Eighteen
Miss Perkins
1943
Drunk Driving
Driver (uncredited)
1939