
Sarah Padden
Born October 15, 1881 · 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.
Notable Appearances
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A Woman's Face

The Pride of the Yankees

Should a Girl Marry?

Anna Karenina

Hangmen Also Die!

Mata Hari

Blondie of the Follies

Casanova Brown

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Bad Girl

Lady in a Jam

A Life of Her Own

I Stole a Million

Summer Storm

Lone Star Raiders

Rasputin and the Empress

A Dog of Flanders

Ramrod

Red-Headed Woman

Angel on My Shoulder

Rich Man, Poor Girl

Wild Bill Hickok Rides

He Was Her Man

So Goes My Love

The Return of the Whistler

Mad Love

Possessed

Big Jim McLain

The Dude Goes West

Dakota

San Diego I Love You

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad

This Is the Life

The Sin of Nora Moran

Wild Girl

The Kettles in the Ozarks

Forgotten Girls

The Man Who Lost Himself

Little Tough Guys in Society

Song of Old Wyoming

Tess of the Storm Country

The Power and the Glory

Girl with an Itch

So This Is Washington

Trail Street

Riders of the West

Heart of the Rio Grande

David Harum

As the Earth Turns

Sob Sister

Face in the Sky

The Defense Rests

Man of Two Worlds

Son of the Navy

Women in Prison

The Mad Monster

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Doctor Bull

Joe Palooka in the Knockout

Homicide

Girl Rush

City of Missing Girls

Women Won't Tell

Chad Hanna

Billy the Kid

Screaming Mimi

That Brennan Girl

Romance of the Limberlost

Tomorrow's Children

Off the Record

The Power of God

Range Law

Prince of Players

Gentleman Joe Palooka

Wild West

Ann Vickers

Kongo

The Master Key

Love and Learn

Pilgrimage

My Dog Shep

Wildfire

The Navy Way

Wonder of Women

Let Freedom Ring

Assignment in Brittany

Stranded

Young America

The Sophomore

The Yellow Ticket

In Old Colorado

Utah Wagon Train

Murder by Invitation

Apology for Murder

Range Justice

Identity Unknown

The Woman Who Did Not Care

Again Pioneers

Riders of the Dawn

The Midnight Lady

The Bugle Call

Frontier Revenge

Companionate Marriage

The Zero Hour

Exiled to Shanghai

The Important Witness

Law and Order

Joe Palooka, Champ

Family Troubles

Youth on Parole

Woman Against Woman

Cross-Examination

When Strangers Meet

The Missourians

The Great Meadow

Private Snuffy Smith

Gunslingers

Obey the Law

Hide-Out

Ghost Guns

Marshal of Laredo

Reg'lar Fellers

Idea Girl

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

Today

Trail to Gunsight












