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.
132 movies · 8 shows
Girl with an Itch
1958·5.3
Screaming Mimi
1958·5.0
The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956·7.1
Prince of Players
1955·5.5
Big Jim McLain
1952·5.0
Utah Wagon Train
1951·6.7
The Missourians
1950·8.0
Again Pioneers
1950·5.7
A Life of Her Own
1950·5.3
Gunslingers
1950·6.5
House by the River
1950·6.8
Range Justice
1949·7.0
Homicide
1949·5.7
Frontier Revenge
1948·6.7
The Dude Goes West
1948·5.9
The Return of the Whistler
1948·6.0
Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
1948·8.0
Joe Palooka in the Knockout
1947·8.0
Possessed
1947·6.9
Love and Learn
1947·6.7
Ramrod
1947·6.5
Trail Street
1947·6.5
That Brennan Girl
1946·5.5
Wild West
1946·9.0
My Dog Shep
1946·6.3
Gentleman Joe Palooka
1946·0.0
Angel on My Shoulder
1946·6.5
Joe Palooka, Champ
1946·8.0
So Goes My Love
1946·7.3
Idea Girl
1946·8.0
Dakota
1945·5.2
Riders of the Dawn
1945·10.0
Song of Old Wyoming
1945·5.7
Marshal of Laredo
1945·8.0
Apology for Murder
1945·4.9
Wildfire
1945·4.0
The Master Key
1945·8.0
Identity Unknown
1945·5.4
Ghost Guns
1944·6.1
Girl Rush
1944·6.0
San Diego I Love You
1944·6.8
Casanova Brown
1944·6.4
Trail to Gunsight
1944·10.0
Summer Storm
1944·5.7
Range Law
1944·9.0
This Is the Life
1944·6.0
The Navy Way
1944·6.3
So This Is Washington
1943·5.3
Family Troubles
1943·6.8
Hangmen Also Die!
1943·6.9
Assignment in Brittany
1943·7.1
Riders of the West
1942·6.5
Law and Order
1942·7.5
The Pride of the Yankees
1942·7.4
Lady in a Jam
1942·5.6
The Mad Monster
1942·3.4
This Gun for Hire
1942·7.0
Heart of the Rio Grande
1942·9.0
Wild Bill Hickok Rides
1942·5.5
Private Snuffy Smith
1942·4.3
The Power of God
1942·0.0
The Corsican Brothers
1941·7.0
Reg'lar Fellers
1941·4.2
Murder by Invitation
1941·6.0
A Woman's Face
1941·6.8
City of Missing Girls
1941·4.7
The Man Who Lost Himself
1941·5.4
In Old Colorado
1941·6.4
Chad Hanna
1940·7.3
Lone Star Raiders
1940·10.0
Son of the Navy
1940·6.2
Forgotten Girls
1940·5.6
I Stole a Million
1939·8.0
Should a Girl Marry?
1939·5.7
The Zero Hour
1939·5.3
Let Freedom Ring
1939·6.8
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939·6.7
Off the Record
1939·6.4
Little Orphan Annie
1938·8.0
Little Tough Guys in Society
1938·7.3
Rich Man, Poor Girl
1938·6.1
Woman Against Woman
1938·7.0
Romance of the Limberlost
1938·6.5
Women in Prison
1938·8.0
Exiled to Shanghai
1937·5.5
Youth on Parole
1937·3.9
Anna Karenina
1935·6.6
Mad Love
1935·7.0
Stranded
1935·6.0
The Hoosier Schoolmaster
1935·4.3
A Dog of Flanders
1935·7.5
When Strangers Meet
1934·10.0
The Defense Rests
1934·7.1
Tomorrow's Children
1934·5.0
He Was Her Man
1934·6.5
David Harum
1934·7.5
As the Earth Turns
1934·5.6
Man of Two Worlds
1934·6.5
The Sin of Nora Moran
1933·5.5
The Power and the Glory
1933·5.9
Ann Vickers
1933·5.8
Doctor Bull
1933·6.7
The Important Witness
1933·7.5
Pilgrimage
1933·7.1
Face in the Sky
1933·5.8
Rasputin and the Empress
1932·5.5
Tess of the Storm Country
1932·7.0
Women Won't Tell
1932·7.0
Wild Girl
1932·6.2
Kongo
1932·6.4
Grand Hotel
1932·7.0
Blondie of the Follies
1932·6.3
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
1932·10.0
Red-Headed Woman
1932·6.6
The Midnight Lady
1932·6.5
Young America
1932·5.5
Cross-Examination
1932·5.1
Mata Hari
1931·6.2
The Yellow Ticket
1931·5.1
Sob Sister
1931·7.0
Bad Girl
1931·6.0
The Great Meadow
1931·6.0
Today
1930·3.3
Billy the Kid
1930·4.7
Hide-Out
1930·10.0
Trifles
1930·5.0
The Sophomore
1929·5.3
Wonder of Women
1929·4.0
Companionate Marriage
1928·3.3
The Bugle Call
1927·10.0
The Woman Who Did Not Care
1927·8.0
Obey the Law
1926·10.0