The Oscar-winning actor died at her Los Angeles home of natural causes; she won the award for her first film role.
Actor Eva Marie Saint, known for “On the Waterfront” and “North by Northwest,” has died at 102. She died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her spokesperson said. The Associated Press also reported her death.
Saint won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her feature-film debut, Elia Kazan’s 1954 drama “On the Waterfront.” She played Edie Doyle, who helps Marlon Brando’s character stand up to a corrupt dockworkers’ union. The film won eight Oscars, including best picture.
Five years later, Alfred Hitchcock cast her as Eve Kendall in the spy thriller “North by Northwest,” opposite Cary Grant. Grant’s character is caught in a case of mistaken identity; famous scenes include an agricultural plane chasing him and a sequence near Mount Rushmore.
Born in New Jersey on July 4, 1924, Saint began her career in live television productions. She trained in New York’s Actors Studio and later worked with directors including Otto Preminger, John Frankenheimer, Vincente Minnelli and Norman Jewison. Her film credits included “Exodus,” “All Fall Down” and “The Sandpiper.”
Saint continued acting into her eighties, appearing in “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “Superman Returns” and “Winter’s Tale.” She also returned frequently to television and won an Emmy in 1990 for her performance in the drama “People Like Us.”
She married television director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951; they remained together until his death in 2016 and had two children. Saint was pregnant with her first child when she accepted her Oscar in March 1955. She joked from the stage that she might have the baby there; their son Darrell Hayden was born two days later.