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.
Acted in 139
1950s
- 1958
Girl with an Itch
Cookie
Screaming Mimi
Landlady
- 1956
The Kettles in the Ozarks
Mrs. Tinware
- 1955
Prince of Players
Mary Todd Lincoln (uncredited)
- 1954
- 1953
- 1952
Big Jim McLain
Mrs. Lexiter
- 1951
Utah Wagon Train
Sarah Wendover
- 1950
The Missourians
Mother Kovacs
Again Pioneers
Ma Ashby
Gunslingers
Rawhide Rosie Rawlins
1940s
- 1949
Range Justice
Ma Curtis
Homicide
Mrs. Webb
- 1948
Frontier Revenge
Widow Owens
The Dude Goes West
Mrs. Hallihan
The Return of the Whistler
Mrs. Hulskamp
Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
Mom Palooka
- 1947
Joe Palooka in the Knockout
Mom Palooka
Love and Learn
Mrs. Grant (uncredited)
- 1946
That Brennan Girl
Mrs. Graves, the Nice Landlady
Wild West
Carrie Bannister
My Dog Shep
Carrie Hodgkins
Gentleman Joe Palooka
Mom Palooka
Joe Palooka, Champ
Mom Palooka
So Goes My Love
Bridget
Idea Girl
Old Lady
- 1945
Dakota
Mrs. Plummer
Riders of the Dawn
Melinda Pringle
Song of Old Wyoming
Ma Conway
Marshal of Laredo
Mrs. Randall
Apology for Murder
Maggie
The Master Key
Aggie
Identity Unknown
Mrs. Anderson
- 1944
Ghost Guns
Aunt Sally
San Diego I Love You
Mrs. Gulliver (uncredited)
Trail to Gunsight
Grandma Wagner
Range Law
Boots Annie
This Is the Life
Sarah (uncredited)
The Navy Way
Mrs. Margaret Gimble (uncredited), Mrs. Margaret Gimble
- 1943
So This Is Washington
Aunt Charity Speers
Family Troubles
Mrs. Jones
Assignment in Brittany
Albertine
- 1942
Riders of the West
Ma Turner
Law and Order
Mary Todd
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
- 1941
Reg'lar Fellers
Hetty Carter
Murder by Invitation
Cassandra Hildegard Denham
City of Missing Girls
Mrs. Randolph
The Man Who Lost Himself
Maid
In Old Colorado
Ma Harriet Woods
- 1940
Chad Hanna
Mrs. Todd
Lone Star Raiders
Lydia 'Granny' Phelps
Son of the Navy
Mrs. Baker - Landlady
Forgotten Girls
Miss Donaldson
1930s
- 1939
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)
- 1938
Little Tough Guys in Society
Victim
Rich Man, Poor Girl
Ma
Woman Against Woman
Dora
Romance of the Limberlost
Sarah
Women in Prison
Martha Wilson
- 1937
Exiled to Shanghai
Aunt Jane
Youth on Parole
Mrs. Blair
- 1935
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
- 1934
When Strangers Meet
Lucy Tarman
The Defense Rests
Mrs. Evans
He Was Her Man
Mrs. Gardella
David Harum
Widow
As the Earth Turns
Mrs. Janowski
Man of Two Worlds
Olago
- 1933
The Power and the Glory
Henry's Wife
Ann Vickers
Lil
Doctor Bull
Mary the Canning Cook
The Important Witness
Deaf Woman
Face in the Sky
Ma Brown
- 1932
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)
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
- 1931
The Yellow Ticket
Mother Kalish
Bad Girl
Mrs. Gardner
The Great Meadow
Mistress Molly Hall
- 1930
Today
Emma Warner
Billy the Kid
Homesteader Mrs. Foster (uncredited)
Hide-Out
Mrs. Dorgan
Trifles
Mrs. Wright
1920s
- 1929
The Sophomore
Mrs. Collins
Wonder of Women
Anna
- 1928
Companionate Marriage
Mrs. Williams
- 1927
The Bugle Call
Luke's Wife
The Woman Who Did Not Care
Mrs. Carroll
- 1926
Obey the Law
The Mother