Eva Marie Saint, the celebrated actress who earned an Academy Award for her breakthrough role in the 1954 classic “On the Waterfront” and later starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” died on Tuesday at the age of 102.
Saint was raised in Albany and Delmar, New York. Before achieving cinematic fame, she trained at the Actors Studio in New York, performed on Broadway, and appeared in live television broadcasts during the late 1940s. Despite her stage and TV experience, she did not enter the film industry until she was nearly 30, following a screen test suggested by director Elia Kazan alongside a then-unknown Marlon Brando.
In a 2000 interview with WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” Saint recalled the chemistry that developed during their audition. “I don’t know what happened, but … [Brando] came in the living room. We were dancing, we were laughing, I was crying. He was taking my skirt and … whipping it around, and the sparks flew. And Kazan saw that. And suddenly I was in “On the Waterfront,”” she said.
In “On the Waterfront,” Saint portrayed Edie, a Catholic schoolgirl caught in the web of union corruption in Hoboken, New Jersey. After her longshoreman brother is murdered, Edie seeks justice, a performance that secured Saint the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Five years later, she reteamined with Hollywood royalty, playing the enigmatic Eve Kendall opposite Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller “North by Northwest.” The role showcased her versatility, shifting from the chaste heroine Edie to a classic femme fatale, though off-screen Saint remained dedicated to her family. She had married director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951 and subsequently reduced her film workload to focus on raising her children.
Saint returned to television in the 1970s, eventually winning an Emmy Award in 1990 for her performance in the miniseries “People Like Us.” Her career spanned more than seven decades, leaving a lasting legacy in both film and television history.
102 is remarkable, but did she have any notable roles after the seventies or was it just TV Guest spots by then?
Go Albany! So proud our hometown produced such a tremendous talent. Rest in peace, Eva Marie Saint.
Did she really start films at nearly 30? That sounds late for the golden age actresses. Amazing she lasted this long.
What an incredible longevity. From Kazan and Brando to Hitchcock, she defined an era of Hollywood glamour.