{"id":873295,"date":"2026-10-06T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/873295\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:18:09","slug":"eva-marie-saint-dead-north-by-northwest-on-the-waterfront-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/873295\/","title":{"rendered":"Eva Marie Saint Dead: ‘North by Northwest,’ ‘On the Waterfront’ Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint<\/a>, who starred in such memorable classic films as \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d and \u201cNorth by Northwest<\/a>,\u201d died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 102.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe delicate, fine-boned actress, one of the first breakout talents from early television, won her Academy Award as best supporting actress for \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d in 1955, making her the oldest living Oscar winner. She played Edie Doyle in the Marlon Brando starring film, with the New York Times writing in its review, \u201cAmid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Saint raised her family from the late 1950s on, she returned to acting intermittently, and many of her later appearances were onstage and on television, most notably in the ABC series \u201cMoonlighting\u201d and later as Clark Kent\u2019s adoptive mother in the 2006 movie \u201cSuperman Returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of her most memorable roles was as the cool but seductive blonde spy in Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s 1959 spy thriller \u201cNorth by Northwest.\u201d \u201cNot only does she provide the requisite icy sex appeal as Eve Kendall, a shadowy secret agent, but she also proves to be much more than a standard damsel in distress,\u201d Variety wrote<\/a> in an appreciation on her 97th birthday.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSaint\u2019s character is fully capable of pulling the wool over the eyes of sinister villains and usually remains two or three steps ahead of Grant\u2019s hapless Madison Avenue executive Roger Thornhill,\u201d the appreciation continues.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint made her TV debut on \u201cCamp Hoop La,\u201d then became a regular on \u201cOne Man\u2019s Family.\u201d She broadened her dramatic range in such anthology series as \u201cPhilco Playhouse,\u201d \u201cRobert Montgomery Presents\u201d and \u201cStudio One.\u201d Highlights during the period included Paddy Chayevsky\u2019s \u201cMiddle of the Night\u201d (1954) and a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder\u2019s \u201cOur Town\u201d (1955) co-starring Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra (both shows brought her Emmy nominations); Sidney Howard\u2019s \u201cYellow Jack\u201d; and the drama \u201cClaudia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint appeared opposite Lillian Gish in 1953 Horton Foote teleplay \u201cThe Trip to Bountiful,\u201d which became the first TV drama to move to Broadway (for 39 performances). Her \u201ctouching and beautifully sensitive performance,\u201d as one New York critic described it, won the approbation of Elia Kazan, who cast her opposite Marlon Brando in \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d in a role coveted by many more experienced actresses.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 1954 Budd Schulberg drama was nominated for 12 Oscars and won eight including best picture, actor, director and, for Saint, supporting actress. <\/p>\n

\n\tRather than tie herself to a studio contract, however, she returned to the theater in stock productions of \u201cThe Rainmaker\u201d and \u201cDesire Under the Elms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1956 she took on the glamorous female lead in \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d opposite Bob Hope, followed by the 1957 film version of \u201cA Hatful of Rain\u201d and \u201cRaintree County.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter \u201cNorth by Northwest,\u201d she appeared in \u201cExodus\u201d and \u201cAll Fall Down.\u201d The latter, directed by John Frankenheimer and co-starring Warren Beatty, saw her give one of her best dramatic performances.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was the numinous but scorned wife in 1965\u2019s Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton adultery tale \u201cThe Sandpiper\u201d and then appeared in a better vehicle, Norman Jewison\u2019s comedy \u201cThe Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming,\u201d in 1966. Her performance in \u201cLoving,\u201d co-starring with George Segal, was highly regarded and rated with her best work. Other roles include \u201c36 Hours\u201d and \u201cGrand Prix.\u201d Except for another Hope comedy, \u201cCancel My Reservation,\u201d she spent most of the next two decades on TV and onstage.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Broadway she acted in \u201cThe Lincoln Mask\u201d in 1972 and then, opposite Henry Fonda, in \u201cThe First Monday in October\u201d in 1979. In 1983 she appeared in a Chicago production of \u201cDuet for One.\u201d Her television credits include \u201cSchool for Bachelors,\u201d \u201cA Carol for Another Christmas,\u201d \u201c\u2018The First Woman President,\u201d \u201cMrs. Epenshade,\u201d \u201cTaxi\u201d and miniseries \u201cHow the West Was Won.\u201d The latter two roles also brought Emmy nominations.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint received good critical notices for \u201cA Christmas to Remember\u201d with Jason Robards, \u201cWhen Hell Was in Session,\u201d \u201cThe Curse of King Tut\u2019s Tomb,\u201d \u201cThe Best Little Girl in the World,\u201d \u201cMalibu,\u201d \u201cMy Antonia\u201d and \u201cJane Doe,\u201d among other roles.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress had a recurring role on the ABC series \u201cMoonlighting,\u201d starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, as Shepherd\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1986 she returned to the bigscreen with a role in the Tom Hanks-Jackie Gleason vehicle \u201cNothing in Common.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint appeared in many TV movies throughout the 1990s, including roles in \u201cI\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas,\u201d \u201cKiss of a Killer,\u201d \u201cAfter Jimmy\u201d and \u201cOpen House,\u201d along with a cameo as Roz\u2019s mother in \u201cFrasier.\u201d After four previous Emmy nominations, Saint finally took the statuette with a supporting actress Emmy win in 1990 for her role in the NBC miniseries \u201cPeople Like Us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint returned to film again in the 2000s, appearing in pics such as \u201cI Dreamed of Africa\u201d (2000), \u201cBecause of Winn-Dixie\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Come Knocking\u201d (2005) and 2006\u2019s \u201cSuperman Returns,\u201d in which she played Martha Kent. In 2014 she made her final bigscreen appearance, in the Akiva Goldsman written and directed \u201cWinter\u2019s Tale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint was born in Newark, N.J.; the family later moved to Delmar, N.Y., near Albany. With plans to become a teacher, Saint attended Ohio\u2019s Bowling Green State U., where she became interested in acting. After receiving her B.A., she turned full time to seeking acting work, first in radio. She received her first paycheck, $10, as an off-camera applauder on \u201cThe Borden Show.\u201d To make ends meet, she did some modeling and then landed roles in radio serials such as \u201cRosemary\u201d and \u201cYoung Doctor Malone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1947 she was cast in \u201cMister Roberts\u201d only to be reduced to an understudy when director Joshua Logan didn\u2019t think she had enough experience. Jocelyn Brando played the roles. A year later she began studying at the Actors Studio.<\/p>\n

\n\tA testament to her ability to straddle both the film and television world, Saint has two separate stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for TV. Saint took time to pay homage to \u201cNorth by Northwest\u201d by hosting TCM documentary \u201cThe Making of North by Northwest\u201d in 2000.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also appeared in the 2003 documentary \u201cBroadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There\u201d and the 2011 docu \u201cBroadway: Beyond the Golden Age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint appeared at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 to present the Oscar for supporting actress, some 55 years after her \u201cWaterfront\u201d win.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was a longtime supporter of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Epilepsy Foundation of Los Angeles. An early proponent of making cars cell-phone-free, she created and distributed her own bumper sticker: \u201cGet Off The Phone Or Get Off The Road.\u201d She also served on the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer husband, TV director Jeffrey Hayden, died in 2016.<\/p>\n

\n\tSurvivors include her two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren, Eli, Tyler, Molly, and Stella and two great grandchildren, Arlo and Finley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred in such memorable classic films as \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d and \u201cNorth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,349082,367870],"class_list":["post-873295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-eva-marie-saint","tag-north-by-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}