Eva Marie Saint, Oscar-Winning ‘On the Waterfront’ and ‘North by Northwest’ Star, Dead at 102

Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning star of classic films like “On the Waterfront” and “North by Northwest,” has died at the age of 102. Her passing was confirmed to IndieWire by her representatives. Saint was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars in the mid-20th century, working with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan and sharing the screen with a range of leading men that included Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, and Warren Beatty. She hit the ground running — “On the Waterfront” was her very first film role, and she immediately held her own in scenes with Brando and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She proved to be just as magnetic when Hitchcock cast her opposite Grant in “North by Northwest” five years later, effortlessly flirting with one of Hollywood’s handsomest men while her eyes always teased her deeper strategic calculations. She contributed to some of the most memorable scenes in Hitchcock’s entire filmography, and images of her dangling off of Mount Rushmore are the stuff of Hollywood immortality. Born in 1924, Saint grew up in upstate New York before moving to Ohio to attend Bowling Green University. She initially planned to become a schoolteacher, but caught the acting bug in college and pursued a career in New York instead. She steadily worked in theater and television before breaking into film with “On the Waterfront,” and she moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to focus on film full time. While she remained best known for “On the Waterfront” and “North by Northwest,” Saint continued to act for the next 60 years. Other notable film roles included “Grand Prix,” “Exodus,” and “The Sandpiper,” and she made memorable TV appearances on shows like “Moonlighting” and “Frasier.” Saint remained a regular on-screen presence in the 21st century, appearing in films like “Superman Returns” and “Winter’s Tale.” As recently as 2022 she was still lending her voice to audio dramas. Saint was married to her husband Jeffrey Hayden for 65 years before he died in 2016. She is survived by her two children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.