Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar in 1954 for her first film, On the Waterfront, and starred opposite Hollywood great Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest, has died at the age of 102.
Saint, who acted well into her 90s, died at her home in Los Angeles, family representative Jeff Sanderson confirmed Tuesday.
Her acting debut in On the Waterfront alongside Marlon Brando was one of the most successful in Hollywood history, propelling the then-34-year-old actor to stardom and landing her an Academy Award, which was presented to her by Frank Sinatra.
Pregnant with her first child at the time, she famously accepted the award and said: “I think I may have the baby right here.”
Her son was born two days later.
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The award made Saint an overnight sensation, and she went on to forge a career marked by independence and a refusal to acquiesce to large studios.
In her first decade in Hollywood, Saint appeared in seven films and turned down big-budget productions such as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Summer and Smoke and The Rainmaker and credited her husband, TV and stage director Jeffrey Hayden —to whom she was married for 65 years until he died in 2016 — with persuading her to star in Hitchcock’s 1959 classic spy thriller North by Northwest.
“I vividly remember him saying, ‘Honey, I think you should find a quiet spot. I’ll take care of the children and I want you to really think about this and reread this script,’” she told Vanity Fair in 2014. “He was so right. And that’s what husbands are for.”
Saint turned to television in the 1970s and remained popular through the 1980s, playing the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the hit sitcom Moonlighting and as Tom Hanks’ mother in the comedy film Nothing in Common.
She was awarded an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries People Like Us, and had roles in 21st-century films including Superman Returns and Winter’s Tale.
Saint was born on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey, to John Merle Saint, a manager at Goodrich Rubber Co., and Eva Marie Rice, a third-grade teacher.
Her love of acting began at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she was cast as the lead in a stage production. After graduating, she relocated to Manhattan, where she established herself as a soap opera actor, appearing as a regular for two years as Claudia on One Man’s Family.
Network television was booming in the early 1950s, and her looks and dramatic sense made her a favourite among casting directors and producers.
She also starred on Broadway in a production of The Trip to Bountiful in 1953.
— with files from the Associated Press
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