Sarah Padden
Born: 1881-10-15 in Sunderland, England, UK
Died: 1967-12-04
Known For: Acting
Biography
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.
Filmography
1958
- Screaming Mimi as Landlady
- Girl with an Itch as Cookie
1956
- The Kettles in the Ozarks as Mrs. Tinware
1955
- Prince of Players as Mary Todd Lincoln (uncredited)
1954
- Public Defender as Eula Mae Carter
1953
- The Life Of Riley as Martha Riley
- Letter to Loretta as Frau Lang
1952
- Adventures of Superman as Mrs. Carmody
- The Abbott and Costello Show as Old Lady on Street
- Big Jim McLain as Mrs. Lexiter
1951
- Dragnet
- Utah Wagon Train as Sarah Wendover
1950
- The Cisco Kid as Mrs. Smiley
- House by the River as Mrs. Beach - Stephen's elderly cook
- A Life of Her Own as Betsy Ross Hotel Overseer (uncredited)
- Again Pioneers as Ma Ashby
- The Missourians as Mother Kovacs
- Gunslingers as Rawhide Rosie Rawlins
1949
- The Lone Ranger as Grandma Williams
- Homicide as Mrs. Webb
- Range Justice as Ma Curtis
1948
- The Dude Goes West as Mrs. Hallihan
- The Return of the Whistler as Mrs. Hulskamp
- Frontier Revenge as Widow Owens
- Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad as Mom Palooka
1947
- Trail Street as Mrs. Ferguson (uncredited)
- Ramrod as Mrs. Parks
- Possessed as Mrs. Norris, the Caretaker’s Wife (uncredited)
- Love and Learn as Mrs. Grant (uncredited)
- Joe Palooka in the Knockout as Mom Palooka
1946
- That Brennan Girl as Mrs. Graves, the Nice Landlady
- Angel on My Shoulder as Agatha (uncredited)
- My Dog Shep as Carrie Hodgkins
- Joe Palooka, Champ as Mom Palooka
- So Goes My Love as Bridget
- Gentleman Joe Palooka as Mom Palooka
- Wild West as Carrie Bannister
- Idea Girl as Old Lady
1945
- Dakota as Mrs. Plummer
- Identity Unknown as Mrs. Anderson
- Apology for Murder as Maggie
- The Master Key as Aggie
- Wildfire as Aunt Agatha
- Song of Old Wyoming as Ma Conway
- Riders of the Dawn as Melinda Pringle
- Marshal of Laredo as Mrs. Randall
1944
- Casanova Brown as Mrs. Smith
- The Navy Way as Mrs. Margaret Gimble (uncredited)
- Summer Storm as Beggar Woman (uncredited)
- Range Law as Boots Annie
- San Diego I Love You as Mrs. Gulliver (uncredited)
- This Is the Life as Sarah (uncredited)
- Ghost Guns as Aunt Sally
- Girl Rush as Mrs. Emma Mason
- Trail to Gunsight as Grandma Wagner
1943
- Hangmen Also Die! as Mrs. Georgia Dvorak
- Assignment in Brittany as Albertine
- So This Is Washington as Aunt Charity Speers
- Family Troubles as Mrs. Jones
1942
- This Gun for Hire as Mrs. Mason (uncredited)
- The Pride of the Yankees as Mrs. Roberts (uncredited)
- Wild Bill Hickok Rides as Mrs. Kimball
- Lady in a Jam as Miner’s Wife (uncredited)
- The Mad Monster as Grandmother
- Heart of the Rio Grande as 'Skipper' Forbes
- The Power of God as Esther Worne
- Law and Order as Mary Todd
- Riders of the West as Ma Turner
- Private Snuffy Smith as Lowizie Smith
1941
- The Corsican Brothers as Nurse
- A Woman's Face as Police Matron
- The Man Who Lost Himself as Maid
- Murder by Invitation as Cassandra Hildegard Denham
- In Old Colorado as Ma Harriet Woods
- City of Missing Girls as Mrs. Randolph
- Reg'lar Fellers as Hetty Carter
1940
- Chad Hanna as Mrs. Todd
- Forgotten Girls as Miss Donaldson
- Son of the Navy as Mrs. Baker - Landlady
- Lone Star Raiders as Lydia 'Granny' Phelps
1939
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Woman Wanting Needle Threaded (uncredited)
- I Stole a Million as Lady in Post Office (uncredited)
- Let Freedom Ring as 'Ma' Logan
- Should a Girl Marry? as Mrs. Wilson
- Off the Record as Mrs. Fallon (uncredited)
- The Zero Hour as Sister Theodosia
1938
- Rich Man, Poor Girl as Ma
- Women in Prison as Martha Wilson
- Little Tough Guys in Society as Victim
- Little Orphan Annie as Mrs. Nora Moriarty
- Woman Against Woman as Dora
- Romance of the Limberlost as Sarah
1937
- Youth on Parole as Mrs. Blair
- Exiled to Shanghai as Aunt Jane
1935
- Anna Karenina as Governess
- Mad Love as Crippled Girl's Mother (Uncredited)
- Stranded as Workman's Wife (uncredited)
- A Dog of Flanders as Frau Keller
- The Hoosier Schoolmaster as Sarah
1934
- He Was Her Man as Mrs. Gardella
- The Defense Rests as Mrs. Evans
- As the Earth Turns as Mrs. Janowski
- Tomorrow's Children
- When Strangers Meet as Lucy Tarman
- David Harum as Widow
- Man of Two Worlds as Olago
1933
- The Power and the Glory as Henry's Wife
- Ann Vickers as Lil
- Doctor Bull as Mary the Canning Cook
- Pilgrimage
- The Sin of Nora Moran as Mrs. Watts
- Face in the Sky as Ma Brown
- The Important Witness as Deaf Woman
1932
- Grand Hotel as Chambermaid in Room 174 (uncredited)
- Wild Girl as Lize
- Rasputin and the Empress as Duna the Landlady (uncredited)
- Red-Headed Woman as Mary, Legendre Maid (uncredited)
- Blondie of the Follies as Ma McClune
- Young America as Mrs. Mary Taylor
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm as Mrs Cobb
- The Midnight Lady as Nita St. George
- Cross-Examination as Mary Stevens
- Women Won't Tell as Aggie Specks
- Kongo as Nun (uncredited)
- Tess of the Storm Country as Old Martha
1931
- Mata Hari as Sister Teresa (uncredited)
- Bad Girl as Mrs. Gardner
- Sob Sister as Ma Stevens
- The Great Meadow as Mistress Molly Hall
- The Yellow Ticket as Mother Kalish
1930
- Billy the Kid as Homesteader Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
- Hide-Out as Mrs. Dorgan
- Today as Emma Warner
- Trifles as Mrs. Wright
1929
- The Sophomore as Mrs. Collins
- Wonder of Women as Anna
1928
- Companionate Marriage as Mrs. Williams
1927
- The Bugle Call as Luke's Wife
- The Woman Who Did Not Care as Mrs. Carroll
1926
- Obey the Law as The Mother