Eva Marie Saint, Oscar winner for Hollywood classics, dies at 102
Throughout her seven-decade career, the ever-elegant Saint captured the attention of influential filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan, building a legendary career in both film and television, which also earned her an Emmy Award.
Image of Eva Marie
Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress who starred in Hollywood classics such as “On the Waterfront” and “North by Northwest,” died Tuesday, according to her publicist. She was 102.
Throughout her seven-decade career, the ever-elegant Saint captured the attention of influential filmmakers, such as Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan, building a legendary career in both film and television, which also earned her an Emmy Award.
Her representative, Jeff Sanderson, said that Saint died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and loved ones.
Saint's performance in “On the Waterfront” marked her film debut and earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Kazan's crime drama, with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, and features a stellar cast that includes Marlon Brando, who also won an Oscar for his role.
The 1954 film catapulted Saint, who played the ethereal counterpoint to the hot-tempered, macho boxer portrayed by Brando, to fame in Hollywood.
She later starred alongside Cary Grant in Hitchcock's masterpiece, “North by Northwest.”
Saint was considered a surprising choice to play a Hitchcockian blonde, the double agent and femme fatale who seduces Grant.
But she pulled it off, although she never worked with the English director again, he was known for putting his leading ladies through hell and for micromanaging his actors down to the last detail.
Timeless performance
Two years later, she played Warren Beatty's love interest in “All Fall Down” by John Frankenheimer.
With Hollywood at her feet, Saint "could have been a contender" for stardom, to paraphrase the most famous line from “On the Waterfront,” but instead she chose to take a step back to raise her family with director Jeffrey Hayden.
In fact, her eldest son, Darrell, was born just two days after she won her Oscar.
Saint's brilliant portrayal of Edie, whose brother is lured to his death by Brando's character, has come to be regarded by critics as the standout performance in a film that was once revered for its male roles.
Saint's approach could not have been more different from Brando's intense method acting, as he muttered incessantly.
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