Eva Marie Saint, star of 'North by Northwest' and 'On the Waterfront,'
dies at 102
[October 07, 2026]
By BOB THOMAS and JAKE COYLE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eva Marie Saint, the pale, willowy actor who won an
Academy Award for her first movie, “On the Waterfront,” and starred
opposite Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by
Northwest,” has died. She was 102.
Saint, whose acting work lasted well into her 90s, died at her home in
Los Angeles on Tuesday, confirmed family representative Jeff Sanderson.
Saint had one of the most spectacular debuts in Hollywood history, as
the love interest of Marlon Brando’s tormented Terry Malloy in “On the
Waterfront,” and her first trip to the Academy Awards was memorable too.
Pregnant with her first child, Saint accepted her Oscar from Frank
Sinatra and smilingly murmured a unique winner's speech: “I think I may
have the baby right here.” (Her son, Darrell, was born two days later.)
The award for the 1954 classic made her an instant star, but she soon
astonished Hollywood with a firm independence that would mark her
career. She refused offers of studio contracts and declined chances to
follow up on her great success, explaining that she was taking time off
to become acquainted with her new son. (A daughter, Laurette, was born
in 1958.)
A curated career
In her first decade in Hollywood, Saint appeared in a mere seven films.
She declined such top-level productions as “The Man in the Gray Flannel
Suit” with Gregory Peck, “Summer and Smoke” with Laurence Harvey and
“The Rainmaker” with Burt Lancaster. She credited her husband, TV and
stage director Jeffrey Hayden, with persuading her to star in
Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” the classic 1959 thriller in which
Saint plays a spy who seduces Grant, but ends up falling for him.
“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.”
Instead of being put off by her selectivity, studios continued offering
her starring roles in such films as “Exodus” (with Newman), “Raintree
County” (Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift) and “All Fall Down,” with
Warren Beatty.
She turned more to television in the 1970s and enjoyed renewed
popularity in the 1980s as the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the hit
sitcom “Moonlighting” and as Tom Hanks’ mother in the film comedy
“Nothing in Common.” She won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries “People
Like Us,” and had roles in such 21st century movies as “Because of
Winn-Dixie,” “Superman Returns” and “Winter’s Tale,” adapted from Mark
Helprin's novel of the same name. In 2021, she played Marisa Tomei's
aunt in the brief audio play “The Bus Ride,” part of “The Pack Podcast.”
Saint was married to Hayden for 65 years, until his death in 2016.
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Actress Eva Marie Saint attends the 20th Annual Art Directors Guild
Excellence In Production Design Awards held at the Beverly Hilton
Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
 That was her real name
When Saint emerged in the public consciousness, many believed her
theatrical-sounding name must have been invented. She was born with
it on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. The family moved to
Delmar, a small town near Albany, New York, where her father was a
Goodrich Rubber Co. manager. Eva's goal was to become a third-grade
teacher like her mother, but at Bowling Green State University in
Ohio she tried out for a play and won the leading role.
After graduation, she lived with her parents and began hunting for
acting jobs in Manhattan. After a fruitless year, she landed a
two-line role as a telephone operator on a radio drama and soon was
working steadily on soap operas and nighttime dramas, appearing 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 favorite with casting people and producers.
She credited Lee Strasberg with helping her overcome shyness
A critical turn in Saint's career came when she auditioned before
Elia Kazan and was accepted into the Actors Studio, which shaped a
generation of method-actor stars. She credited acting coach Lee
Strasberg with helping her overcome her shyness.
“Lee Strasberg, when he got to know me a little bit, gave me a scene
to do where I had to cry in front of my peers,” she told The Santa
Barbara Independent in 2009. “I worried about it, I worked on it, I
tried to use what I was learning at the studio. I finally did the
scene, and I cried, and my peers were crying with me. It was just an
incredible moment for me.”
Saint was rejected for the single female role in the play “Mister
Roberts,” but was hired to understudy the actor chosen, Jocelyn
Brando, Marlon's sister. In six frustrating months Saint never got
to substitute for Brando. She finally made it to Broadway in “A Trip
to Bountiful,” which she had played on television.
Kazan invited her to try out for the female lead in “On the
Waterfront” by improvising a scene with Brando. She was told to try
to stop a young man from entering her apartment. She told the Los
Angeles Times in 2001: “All I know is that Marlon got in the door
and turned on the music. We started dancing. He flicked my skirt.
Kazan saw the sparks fly, and that's how I got the part.”
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