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Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-and Emmy-winning actress who became one of the defining stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, has died. She was 102.
Saint died Tuesday of natural causes at her Los Angeles home surrounded by family and loved ones, her representative confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The actress made an extraordinary film debut opposite Marlon Brando in the 1954 classic “On the Waterfront,” winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in her performance as Edie Doyle.
Directed by Elia Kazan, the landmark drama launched Saint onto the big screen after she had already established herself in television and on the New York stage. Her first movie role placed her opposite Brando at the apex of his fame.
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American actress Eva Marie Saint paints from a sketchbook in a garden in the United States, circa 1955. (Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Five years later, Saint then firmly cemented her place in Hollywood’s Golden Era history while starring opposite the legendary Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” playing mysterious “Hitchcock Blonde” Eve Kendall in the cult-classic 1959 thriller.
The role offered a striking contrast to the vulnerable, angelic young woman she portrayed in “On the Waterfront.” As Hitchcock’s elegant and enigmatic leading lady, Saint became part of one of the British director’s most enduring films, sharing the screen with Grant in a movie remembered for its sweeping romance, suspense and iconic Mount Rushmore climax.
Saint’s two best-known films alone paired her with Brando, Kazan, Grant and Hitchcock, but represent only the start of a career that would stretch more than 70 years.
Over an incredible career spanning more than seven decades, Saint worked alongside some of Hollywood’s most celebrated leading men, including Montgomery Clift, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, Warren Beatty, James Garner, George C. Scott, Burt Lancaster and Tom Hanks.
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Cary Grant holds Eva Marie Saint in a scene from the film “North by Northwest,” 1959. Grant wears a pale gray Oxford shirt by Brooks Brothers. (FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)
Her list of co-stars reads like a roll call of midcentury Hollywood. She appeared with Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in “Raintree County,” Newman in “Exodus,” Beatty in “All Fall Down,” Burton in “The Sandpiper” and Garner in the racing epic “Grand Prix.”
Other notable films featuring the actress included “A Hatful of Rain,” “Raintree County,” “Exodus,” “The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming,” “Grand Prix,” “Nothing in Common” and, later in her career, “Superman Returns.”
Saint was also a regular fixture of television and the stage. She earned five Emmy nominations, winning in 1990 for the miniseries “People Like Us,” and appeared on Broadway in “The Trip to Bountiful” before director Elia Kazan cast her in “On the Waterfront.”
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Eva Marie Saint at the 90th Academy Awards, which broadcast live on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. (Disney General Entertainment Con)
Her career had actually begun during the golden age of live television. Saint earned early Emmy nominations for Paddy Chayefsky’s “Middle of the Night” and a live television musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” in which she played Emily alongside Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman.
On Broadway, her performance in the Christian-themed “The Trip to Bountiful” earned her critical acclaim and caught Kazan’s attention. Saint’s moves from radio and live television to Broadway and then an Oscar-winning movie debut uniquely placed her at the crossroads of several defining eras of 20th century American entertainment.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in Albany and Delmar, New York, Saint attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio with plans to become a teacher before acting ultimately changed the course of her life.
She tried out for a university play at the suggestion of a drama professor, won the leading role and abandoned her original plan to become a schoolteacher. After graduation, she moved to New York City, studying at the American Theatre Wing and with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
Bowling Green later awarded Saint an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree and renamed its main campus theater the Eva Marie Saint Theatre. She returned to the Academy Awards as a presenter in 2009 and again in 2018, receiving a standing ovation from the stars gathered when she walked onto the stage at age 93.
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1954: Actor Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint pose for a portrait on the set of the movie ‘On the Waterfront’ which came out in 1954. (20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)
Saint was married to director Jeffrey Hayden for 65 years until his death in 2016. She is survived by their two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren, Eli, Tyler, Molly and Stella, and two great-grandchildren, Arlo and Finley.
From the docks of “On the Waterfront” to the intrigue and glamour of “North by Northwest,” Saint became an undisputed face of Hollywood history while building a body of work that endured long after that era had passed.
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Saint’s death closes a remarkable chapter in the Golden Era of Hollywood history, leaving behind performances alongside some of the biggest and brightest stars and filmmakers of the 20th century.
