Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress known for classic films such as North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, has died at the age of 102. She died Tuesday, October 6, of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement by a family spokesperson.
A Career Spanning Seven Decades
Saint's career spanned more than seven decades. She won both an Academy Award and an Emmy Award and starred in one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films. She began her career on the NBC show Campus Hoopla in 1946 and built up theater credits before finding mainstream success in the 1950s.
She earned Emmy nominations for her roles in Middle of the Night and the television musical version of Our Town, which featured Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman.
Film Breakthrough and Hitchcock Masterpiece
Saint made her film debut in 1954's On the Waterfront, opposite Marlon Brando and Karl Malden, earning her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hitchcock then cast her in North by Northwest, which became one of the director's signature masterpieces and ranked No. 40 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.
Other prominent films included Exodus, The Sandpiper with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and A Hatful of Rain.
Later Work and Personal Life
She returned to television in the 1970s and 1980s, reuniting with Karl Malden in Fatal Vision and appearing in a recurring role as Cybill Shepherd's mother on Moonlighting. She also appeared in Because of Winn-Dixie and Superman Returns in 2005 and 2006. Fans last saw her present the award for Best Costume Design at the 2018 Academy Awards.
Saint was heavily pregnant when she accepted her Academy Award in 1955, giving birth to her son, Darrell, just two days later. In a 2010 interview with the Santa Barbara Independent, she recalled: "If you ever see footage of me–when they announce my name–you can see me pause and wait a moment. Jeff [Hayden, her husband] had his thumb on my thigh; I couldn’t get up. So I slowly walked up and said something like, ‘I’m so excited, I might have the baby right here.'"
She was married to Hayden for 65 years until his death in 2016. The couple had a son and a daughter, Laurette. Saint is survived by her two children and four grandchildren.
