Sara Haden was a character actress in Hollywood films of the 1930s through the 1950s.

She was born Sarah Haden on November 17, 1899 (some sources say 1897) in Galveston, Texas

Galveston, Texas

Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

. Haden was the daughter of another character actress, Charlotte Walker

Charlotte Walker (actress)

Charlotte Walker was a Broadway theater actress from Galveston, Texas. She was the mother of character actress Sara Haden-Stage Actress:...

, who was active in silent films and early talkies. An attractive woman, Haden however lacked the beauty of her mother, as she early on had the appeal of a lonely school marm and thus was always cast in character roles. Haden made her film debut in 1934 (one year after her mother's retirement) in the Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

 vehicle Spitfire

Spitfire (1934 film)

Spitfire is a 1934 drama film based on the play Trigger by Lula Vollmer. It was directed by John Cromwell and starred Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy.-Plot summary:...

. Haden later became a MGM contract player in the late 1930s and had smallish roles in many of the studio's films, most notably in the Andy Hardy

Andy Hardy

Andy Hardy was a fictional character played by Mickey Rooney in an MGM film series from 1937 to 1958. Spanning over 20 years, the 16 movies were based on characters in the play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol....

 series starring Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

, cast as the spinsterish Aunt Milly Forrest.

Haden made her last film in 1958 but was active on television up until a 1965 guest spot on Dr. Kildare

Dr. Kildare

Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...

. She was most notable for her stern, humorless characterisations such as a truant officer in Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...

's Captain January (1936), but she also played the much-loved teacher Miss Pipps who is unjustly fired in the Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

 comedy Come Back, Miss Pipps

Come Back, Miss Pipps

Come Back Miss Pipps is a 1941 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 198th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...

(1941).

Haden's other films include Poor Little Rich Girl

Poor Little Rich Girl (1936 film)

The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1936 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman, and Harry Tugend was based on stories by Eleanor Gates and Ralph Spence, and on the 1917 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name...

(1936), The Shop Around the Corner

The Shop Around the Corner

-External links:* Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1, 2010...

(1940), Woman of the Year

Woman of the Year

Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy film. The movie is about an emancipated woman, chosen "Woman of the Year", and her colleague-turned-husband and their efforts to negotiate a path to marital bliss....

(1942), and The Bishop's Wife

The Bishop's Wife

The Bishop's Wife is a 1947 Samuel Goldwyn romantic comedy feature film starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven in a story about an angel who helps a bishop with his problems. It was released by RKO. The film was adapted by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E...

(1947). Her television appearances include episodes of Climax!, Bourbon Street Beat

Bourbon Street Beat

Bourbon Street Beat is a private detective series which aired on the ABC network from 1959-1960 and featured Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which...

, and Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

.

She was married to film actor Richard Abbott from 1921 to 1948. There may have been children.

External links