Sara Haden

Sara Haden
Haden in 1940
Born
Catherine Haden

(1898-11-17)November 17, 1898
Center Point, Texas or Galveston, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 15, 1981(1981-09-15) (aged 82)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1920–1964
Spouse
Richard Abbott
​
​
(m. 1921; div. 1948)​
MotherCharlotte Walker

Sara Haden (born Catherine Haden, November 17, 1898[1] – September 15, 1981) was an American actress of the 1930s through the 1950s and in television into the mid-1960s. She may be best remembered for appearing as Aunt Milly Forrest in 14 of the 16 entries in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Andy Hardy film series.

Early life

Some sources say she was born in 1898 in Center Point, Texas,[note 1][2] while others claim she was born in Galveston, Texas.[3][4][5] Her father was John B. Haden, a doctor, and her mother was actress Charlotte Walker. She had a sister. She spent "a considerable portion of her childhood" in Williamstown, Massachusetts. When she was a child, her mother gave her training in acting.[6]

Career

In A Family Affair

Haden first appeared on the stage as a maid in a play that starred her mother and was written by her then-stepfather, Eugene Walter.[5] As early as October 1920, she was appearing with Walter Hampden's acting troupe.[7] She performed in stock theater for several years before she began acting on Broadway.[4] Her Broadway theatre debut came in Trigger (1927)[8] or in Macbeth (1921). Her other Broadway credits included Lawful Larceny (1922), Out of Step (1925), The Wrecker (1928), Girl Trouble (1928), Hot Water (1929), First Mortgage (1929), and The Hill Between Us (1938).[9]

A part in the play Sunup took Haden to London in the 1920s. It ran for 32 weeks, and the cast gave a command performance for King George and Queen Mary.[5] A review in The Theatre World and Illustrated Stage Review said of Haden's performance, "Without any great help from the playwright or from her own personality, this young actress gives us a performance which for depth and purity of feeling has no parallel in my memory since Marie Lohr played Marguerite in Faust some seventeen years ago."[10]

She made her film debut in 1934 (one year after her mother's retirement) in the Katharine Hepburn vehicle Spitfire.[11] Haden later became a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the late 1930s and generally appeared in small roles in many of the studio's films, most notably in the Andy Hardy series starring Mickey Rooney, cast as the spinsterish Aunt Milly Forrest.[12]

Haden made her last film, Andy Hardy Comes Home, in 1958,[3] but was active on television until a 1965 guest spot on Dr. Kildare. She was most notable for her stern, humorless characterisations such as a truant officer in Shirley Temple's Captain January (1936), but she also played the much-loved teacher Miss Pipps, who is unjustly fired in the Our Gang comedy Come Back, Miss Pipps (1941). Other films in which she appeared include Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Woman of the Year (1942), and The Bishop's Wife (1947). Her television appearances include episodes of Climax!, Bourbon Street Beat, and Bonanza. She had a guest appearance on Perry Mason as Florence Harvey in the 1959 episode, "The Case of the Romantic Rogue".

Haden played Dora Darling in My Favorite Martian, season 2 episode 28, "Once Upon a Martian's Mother's Day" in 1965.

Personal life

Haden was married to film actor Richard Abbott (born Seamon Vandenberg) from 1921 until their divorce in 1948. She died on September 15, 1981, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California,[11] at age 82.[3]

Selected filmography

Notes

  1. ↑ Axel Nissen's Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood gives her birthplace as Center Point, Texas.

References

  1. ↑ "Sixth Generation". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  2. ↑ Nissen, Axel (August 2016). Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland. pp. 76–82. ISBN 9781476626062. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Sara Haden, Actress Played Crabby Roles in Long Film Career". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 22, 1981. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Texas Reunion on Hardy Set". The San Antonio Light. May 9, 1939. p. 6. Retrieved May 4, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 Stephenson, Bess (February 4, 1936). "Texas Girl Making Good as Villainess of Hollywood; Mother Warned Her Not to Wed Actor So She Did!". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 4. Retrieved May 4, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Sara Haden Became Character Actress While Student In College". Portland Press Herald. August 29, 1939. p. 14. Retrieved May 4, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Shubert-Garrick". The Washington Times. District of Columbia, Washington. October 21, 1920. p. 12. Retrieved July 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. ↑ "Inherits Her Talent". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York, Brooklyn. October 17, 1928. p. 34. Retrieved July 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ↑ "Sara Haden". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Vaudeville, Strand, W.C.2". The Theatre World and Illustrated Stage Review. June 1925. p. 72. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  11. 1 2 "Isle-born Sara Haden, 'crabby' actress, dies". The Galveston Daily News. Texas, Galveston. United Press International. September 22, 1981. p. 20. Retrieved January 16, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  12. ↑ Rowan, Terry (September 16, 2016). Character-Based Film Series Part 1. Lulu.com. p. 9. ISBN 9781365421051. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
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