Eva Marie Saint, the elegant blond star of classic films like Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront" and Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest," died Tuesday at age 102.
She died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, "surrounded by family and loved ones," her representative Jeff Sanderson confirmed to USA Today in a statement.
As a young ingenue, Saint held her own opposite legendary heartthrobs, including Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Warren Beatty. But, as her star was on the rise, Saint made the surprising decision to step back from the spotlight to focus on raising her family, limiting herself to a film a year.
Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in 1959's "North by Northwest"
Saint was one of the last figures of a bygone era, with a career spanning seven decades that paired her with many of Hollywood's biggest names. After Olivia de Havilland's death in July 2020, Saint held the title of the oldest living Oscar-winning actor.
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Her many credits include the films “Because of Winn-Dixie” (2005) and “Superman Returns” (2006), as well as roles in TV's “How the West Was Won,” “People Like Us” and “Moonlighting.”
The actress, who won both an Oscar and an Emmy, didn't always strive for stardom. Born to Quaker parents in Newark, New Jersey, on July 4, 1924, Saint originally had her sights set on becoming a teacher.
That plan changed when she won the leading role in a play while studying at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Upon graduating, Saint moved from the Midwest to Manhattan, where she was determined to make a name for herself.
“I had such a desire to make it and make it on my own and make my own money,” she told the Ventura County Star, part of the USA Today Network, in a 2018 interview. “It was a time when you could get on a sheet of paper all the different people who were casting, all the agents and so forth. I just walked the streets. I’d get up early, I’d be out by 9 and I’d rat-tat-tat on the doors because I had all the addresses, and I would go see people, I would make appointments.”
That strategy paid off, and Saint worked steadily in TV in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Eva Marie Saint had her first film role opposite Marlon Brando in 1954's "On the Waterfront" and won the Oscar for best supporting actress.
Making it on the big screen
In 1954, she catapulted into Hollywood icon status when she starred opposite Brando in "On the Waterfront." It was her first film role.
She further cemented her glamorous onscreen image with her turn as the sly and seductive Eve Kendall in Hitchcock's 1959 thriller "North by Northwest." Saint described to Vanity Fair in 2014 how the director fixated on her appearance to transform her into a femme fatale.
“We never talked about emotion," she said. "He told me not to use my hands, I have a habit of doing that, and to lower my voice. And always, in my scenes with Cary Grant, look directly into his eyes, which was not difficult."
But as her star grew larger, Saint stayed true to herself — even if it meant going against Hitchcock's wishes. In 2010, the actress recalled the acclaimed director's career advice for her in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent: Ditch the plain roles and take on more glamorous parts.
"'Women want to get out of the house and see a movie with a heroine that looks the way they’d like to look. They don’t have the clothes, the hairdo, the jewelry; they fantasize and have a wonderful time,'" Saint said. "I told him I couldn’t promise anything, because I take parts that I like, not by how I’ll look."
Her instincts were validated at the 1955 Academy Awards ceremony, where Saint accepted the award for best supporting actress in "On the Waterfront" while nine months pregnant.
She was determined to claim her trophy in person. "I may have the baby right here!" she quipped in her acceptance speech. It was a close guess: Her first child, Darrell Hayden, arrived two days later.
Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress best known for "North by Northwest" and "On the Waterfront” has died.
Though her onscreen love interests were many, only one man captured Saint's heart in real life: film and television director Jeffrey Hayden. They met in the subway corridors under Rockefeller Center in 1949 and were married for 65 years until his death in 2016.
After "North by Northwest," Saint chose to pull back on acting to focus on her family. She recalled to CBS News in 2014 that her agent wasn't thrilled with the decision.
"I had an agent once who wanted me to do many more movies," she said. "And I said I can't. I can only do one a year, if that. I have children, little children. And he said, well, I guess you won`t be a superstar. And I said, well, I guess not."
But for Saint, family was always a chief priority, and fame didn't cause her to lose sight of that. In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, she recalled thinking as a young woman, "Much as I love this business, I don't want to grow old alone." She and her husband had two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“I have such pride in my husband’s work,” she told the USA Today Network in 2018. “I’m proud of my work, too, but most of all my marriage and family."
