Eva Marie Saint, Renowned Actress, Passes Away at 102

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eva Marie Saint, the slender, luminous actress who captured an Academy Award for her debut film, “On the Waterfront,” and starred alongside Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful “North by Northwest,” has passed away at the age of 102. Her family representative, Jeff Sanderson, confirmed that she died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Saint’s Hollywood debut was nothing short of remarkable, playing the love interest of Marlon Brando’s troubled character, Terry Malloy. Her first Academy Awards experience was equally memorable. Pregnant with her first child, she accepted her Oscar from Frank Sinatra and humorously noted during her speech, “I think I may have the baby right here,” just two days before the birth of her son, Darrell.

Winning an Oscar for the celebrated 1954 film propelled her to stardom, but she soon established a reputation for her fierce independence, making choices that would define her career. She turned down numerous studio contracts and movie offers post-success, citing the need to bond with her newborn. Her daughter, Laurette, followed in 1958.

A Curated Career

Throughout her first decade in the film industry, Saint acted in only seven movies, forgoing high-profile roles like “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” and “Summer and Smoke.” Her husband, TV director Jeffrey Hayden, encouraged her to accept the role in Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” where she played a spy who, while initially seducing Grant, finds herself genuinely falling for him. “I remember him saying, ‘Honey, I think you should find a quiet spot and reread this script,’” she recalled in a 2014 Vanity Fair interview. “He was absolutely right.”

Rather than dissuade her, studios continued to send her scripts for notable films such as “Exodus,” “Raintree County,” and “All Fall Down.” In the 1970s, she shifted her focus more to television, enjoying a resurgence in the 1980s with roles as Cybill Shepherd’s mother in the sitcom “Moonlighting” and as Tom Hanks’ mother in “Nothing in Common.” She also won an Emmy for the miniseries “People Like Us” in 1990 and appeared in films like “Because of Winn-Dixie” and “Superman Returns.” Most recently, she had a role in 2021’s audio play “The Bus Ride.”

Saint was married to Hayden for 65 years until his death in 2016.

That Was Her Real Name

Some may have thought her distinctive name was a stage creation, but Eva Marie Saint was born with it on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. She later moved to Delmar, New York, where her father worked as a manager at Goodrich Rubber Co. Initially, she aimed to become a third-grade teacher like her mother, but a college theater audition changed that path dramatically.

After graduating from Bowling Green State University, she began pursuing acting jobs in Manhattan. It took a year of searching before she secured even a minor radio role, but she quickly gained traction working on soap operas and nighttime dramas. She particularly shone in the role of Claudia on “One Man’s Family.” Her striking looks and talent made her a sought-after actress during television’s boom in the early 1950s.

Saint attributed much of her growth in acting to Lee Strasberg, who helped her confront her shyness. One pivotal audition led her to the Actors Studio, a defining moment for many method actors of her era. “I was so nervous about a scene where I had to cry in front of others,” she shared with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2009. “But when I did it, everyone felt it with me. It was a powerful experience.”

Although she was initially turned down for a role in “Mister Roberts,” she eventually got her break on Broadway after waiting six months. Then, she auditioned for “On the Waterfront” with Kazan, who instructed her to improvise a scene with Brando. “All I know is that Marlon got in the door and turned on the music. We started dancing, and Kazan saw the chemistry,” she recounted in a 2001 interview. That performance ultimately landed her the role that would shape her career.