Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress who starred in classic films including On the Waterfront and North by Northwest, has died at 102.
Saint died on Tuesday of natural causes, her spokesperson revealed, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter.
She made her feature film debut in the 1954 classic On the Waterfront, starring alongside Marlon Brando. Saint was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her debut performance, for which she was paid $7,500, and received a nomination for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Directed by Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront starred Brando as Terry Malloy, a former boxer who became a longshoreman after losing a match at the insistence of a local mob boss. After witnessing the mobster's goons murder a fellow dock worker to stop him testifying in a corruption investigation, Terry struggles with whether to speak up or remain silent to protect his job. Saint played Edie, the sister of the murdered dock worker, who tries to persuade Terry to testify before the commission.
Leading roles and Hollywood co-stars
Saint's immediate Hollywood success led to major leading roles and significantly higher pay. She proved her talent for comedy in That Certain Feeling (1956) alongside Bob Hope, before taking a dramatic turn in the 1957 Civil War drama Raintree County with lifelong friends Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.
She also pushed screen censorship limits under the Production Code in the 1957 addiction drama A Hatful of Rain, earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actress.
At the end of the 1950s, Alfred Hitchcock chose Saint to star as his glamorous blonde lead alongside Cary Grant in the comic spy thriller North by Northwest. The film marked an ambitious return to Hitchcock's thrillers about an innocent man caught up in espionage. Grant played an advertising executive mistaken for a spy by international criminals, while Saint played a nuanced role as the apparent arm candy of the villain, played by James Mason, who is later revealed as a double agent working for a U.S. intelligence agency to assist Grant's character.
The breezy movie became a major success with critics and audiences alike and remains one of the most celebrated films made by Saint, Grant, and Hitchcock. Saint recalled the lighthearted atmosphere on set, contrasting it with her previous dramatic roles: "My favourite memory is when Cary Grant walked on set and said, 'Eva Marie, this is going to be fun. No tears!' What he meant was that in previous movies, I had to cry a lot. I just said, 'Fine, sounds good to me!'"
While other actresses reported strained relationships with Hitchcock - including Tippi Hedren, who accused the director of sexual assault during the production of The Birds and Marnie - Saint described him as "such a wonderful director" and a "courteous" man. She affectionately called Hitchcock her "sugar daddy" after he bought an elegant black dress with red roses that caught her eye, which was ultimately featured in the film.
Family life and later screen roles
Saint had married director Jeffrey Hayden in October 1951, and as the 1960s began, she reduced her film schedule to focus on her husband and their two children. She made only two films across a five-year period: Exodus in 1960 and All Fall Down in 1962.
Exodus, directed by Otto Preminger and based on the 1958 novel by Leon Uris, recounted the founding of Israel with an ensemble cast that included Paul Newman and Ralph Richardson. In All Fall Down, Saint starred alongside a young Warren Beatty before he achieved superstardom in Bonnie and Clyde later in the decade. Across her career, Saint also worked with legendary leading men Gregory Peck and James Garner.
Early life and acting career
Saint was born on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey, to John Merle Saint, a worker for the BF Goodrich tire company, and Eva Marie Rice, a former teacher who became a homemaker. Growing up during the Great Depression alongside her younger sister Adelaide, Saint enjoyed family picnics, playing baseball in the park with her father, and ice skating in winter.
Reflecting on her childhood, Saint recalled her parents fondly: "He was a dear father and he worked so hard, six out of seven days a week. And my mother cooked, and gardened, and made all our clothes. It was the Depression, and it must have been hard for them. But I never felt in want of anything."
Saint originally intended to become a teacher like her mother and majored in education at Bowling Green State University. Her career direction shifted after she was dared to audition for a play at the campus theater, a transformative experience that led her to move to New York to study at the Actors Studio, where her future co-star Brando was also a student.
In her early career, Saint modeled to increase her visibility and appeared in commercial advertisements for products including Keds shoes and linoleum. However, she remained committed to acting, explaining that modeling made her "very, very self-conscious."
Marriage, awards, and centenary
Saint met her future husband in 1949 while standing in the subway passage under Rockefeller Center in New York City. Hayden was struck by her name printed in small gold lettering on the bottom of her modeling portfolio. "I was carrying a modeling book with my name, Eva Marie Saint, in gold in little letters at the bottom. And the name intrigued him," Saint recalled in a 2014 interview with NPR. When Hayden invited her for coffee, she declined because she did not drink coffee, but she later accepted his invitation for lunch.
The couple remained married for 65 years until Hayden died in 2016. They shared two children, Darrell and Laurette, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Saint continued acting into the 2010s, building a career that included a Primetime Emmy Award win, a Golden Globe nomination, and two BAFTA nominations in addition to her Oscar. Shortly before turning 100, she reflected on her simple lifestyle in an interview with People Magazine: "I certainly don't feel 100 years old. I continue to take walks out in the fresh air, like watching baseball - especially the Los Angeles Dodgers - and enjoy time with my family and friends. A good life."
