Sarah Padden

Actor

Born October 15, 1881 in Sunderland, England, UK

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

Girl with an Itch

Screaming Mimi

Landlady

The Kettles in the Ozarks

Mrs. Tinware

Prince of Players

Mary Todd Lincoln (uncredited)

Public Defender

Eula Mae Carter

Letter to Loretta

Frau Lang

The Life Of Riley

Martha Riley

The Abbott and Costello Show

Old Lady on Street

Adventures of Superman

Mrs. Carmody

Big Jim McLain

Mrs. Lexiter

Dragnet

Utah Wagon Train

Sarah Wendover

The Missourians

Mother Kovacs

Again Pioneers

Ma Ashby

A Life of Her Own

Betsy Ross Hotel Overseer (uncredited)

Gunslingers

Rawhide Rosie Rawlins

House by the River

Mrs. Beach - Stephen's elderly cook

The Lone Ranger

Grandma Williams

Range Justice

Ma Curtis

Homicide

Mrs. Webb

Frontier Revenge

Widow Owens

The Dude Goes West

Mrs. Hallihan

The Return of the Whistler

Mrs. Hulskamp

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad

Mom Palooka

Joe Palooka in the Knockout

Mom Palooka

Possessed

Mrs. Norris, the Caretaker’s Wife (uncredited)

Love and Learn

Mrs. Grant (uncredited)

Ramrod

Mrs. Parks

Trail Street

Mrs. Ferguson (uncredited)

That Brennan Girl

Mrs. Graves, the Nice Landlady

Wild West

Carrie Bannister

My Dog Shep

Carrie Hodgkins

Gentleman Joe Palooka

Mom Palooka

Angel on My Shoulder

Agatha (uncredited)

Joe Palooka, Champ

Mom Palooka

So Goes My Love

Bridget

Dakota

Mrs. Plummer

Riders of the Dawn

Melinda Pringle

Song of Old Wyoming

Ma Conway

Marshal of Laredo

Mrs. Randall

Apology for Murder

Maggie

Wildfire

Aunt Agatha

The Master Key

Aggie

Identity Unknown

Mrs. Anderson

Ghost Guns

Aunt Sally

Girl Rush

Mrs. Emma Mason

San Diego I Love You

Mrs. Gulliver (uncredited)

Casanova Brown

Mrs. Smith

Trail to Gunsight

Grandma Wagner

Summer Storm

Beggar Woman (uncredited)

Range Law

Boots Annie

This Is the Life

Sarah (uncredited)

The Navy Way

Mrs. Margaret Gimble (uncredited)

So This Is Washington

Aunt Charity Speers

Family Troubles

Mrs. Jones

Hangmen Also Die!

Mrs. Georgia Dvorak

Assignment in Brittany

Albertine

Riders of the West

Ma Turner

Law and Order

Mary Todd

The Pride of the Yankees

Mrs. Roberts (uncredited)

Lady in a Jam

Miner’s Wife (uncredited)

The Mad Monster

Grandmother

This Gun for Hire

Mrs. Mason (uncredited)

Heart of the Rio Grande

'Skipper' Forbes

Wild Bill Hickok Rides

Mrs. Kimball

Private Snuffy Smith

Lowizie Smith

The Power of God

Esther Worne

The Corsican Brothers

Nurse

Reg'lar Fellers

Hetty Carter

Murder by Invitation

Cassandra Hildegard Denham

A Woman's Face

Police Matron

City of Missing Girls

Mrs. Randolph

The Man Who Lost Himself

Maid

In Old Colorado

Ma Harriet Woods

Chad Hanna

Mrs. Todd

Lone Star Raiders

Lydia 'Granny' Phelps

Son of the Navy

Mrs. Baker - Landlady

Forgotten Girls

Miss Donaldson

I Stole a Million

Lady in Post Office (uncredited)

Should a Girl Marry?

Mrs. Wilson

The Zero Hour

Sister Theodosia

Let Freedom Ring

'Ma' Logan

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Woman Wanting Needle Threaded (uncredited)

Off the Record

Mrs. Fallon (uncredited)

Little Tough Guys in Society

Victim

Rich Man, Poor Girl

Woman Against Woman

Dora

Romance of the Limberlost

Sarah

Women in Prison

Martha Wilson

Exiled to Shanghai

Aunt Jane

Youth on Parole

Mrs. Blair

Anna Karenina

Governess

Mad Love

Crippled Girl's Mother (Uncredited)

Stranded

Workman's Wife (uncredited)

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

Sarah

A Dog of Flanders

Frau Keller

When Strangers Meet

Lucy Tarman

The Defense Rests

Mrs. Evans

Tomorrow's Children

He Was Her Man

Mrs. Gardella

David Harum

Widow

As the Earth Turns

Mrs. Janowski

Man of Two Worlds

Olago

The Sin of Nora Moran

Mrs. Watts

The Power and the Glory

Henry's Wife

Ann Vickers

Lil

Doctor Bull

Mary the Canning Cook

The Important Witness

Deaf Woman

Pilgrimage

Face in the Sky

Ma Brown

Rasputin and the Empress

Duna the Landlady (uncredited)

Tess of the Storm Country

Old Martha

Women Won't Tell

Aggie Specks

Wild Girl

Lize

Kongo

Nun (uncredited)

Grand Hotel

Chambermaid in Room 174 (uncredited)

Blondie of the Follies

Ma McClune

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Mrs Cobb

Red-Headed Woman

Mary, Legendre Maid (uncredited)

The Midnight Lady

Nita St. George

Young America

Mrs. Mary Taylor

Cross-Examination

Mary Stevens

Mata Hari

Sister Teresa (uncredited)

The Yellow Ticket

Mother Kalish

Sob Sister

Ma Stevens

Bad Girl

Mrs. Gardner

The Great Meadow

Mistress Molly Hall

Today

Emma Warner

Billy the Kid

Homesteader Mrs. Foster (uncredited)

Hide-Out

Mrs. Dorgan

Trifles

Mrs. Wright

The Sophomore

Mrs. Collins

Wonder of Women

Anna

Companionate Marriage

Mrs. Williams

The Bugle Call

Luke's Wife

The Woman Who Did Not Care

Mrs. Carroll

Obey the Law

The Mother