Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint (July 4, 1924 – October 6, 2026) was an American actress. In a career spanning nine decades, she received an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for two BAFTAs and a Golden Globe. At the time of her death, Saint was the earliest surviving and oldest living Academy Award winner and one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Saint graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1946 and began her career as a television and radio actress in the late 1940s. She played the role of Thelma in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful (1953) for which she earned Theatre World Award. She made her film debut in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), opposite Marlon Brando. The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress along with a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.

She continued her film career with roles in Raintree County and A Hatful of Rain (both 1957); for the latter she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a second BAFTA Award. She then starred as Eve Kendall in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) a landmark thriller that became one of the defining films of both Hitchcock's career and the suspense genre.

In the 1960s, Saint appeared in Exodus (1960), 36 Hours (1964), The Sandpiper (1965), The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, and Grand Prix (both 1966). From the 1970s onward, she worked primarily on television and stage, later winning a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990). Her last theatrical film appearance was in Winter's Tale (2014). For her contributions to motion pictures and television, Saint received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Eva Marie Saint was born on July 4, 1924, to John Merle Saint and Eva Marie (née Rice) Saint. Her birthplace is reported variously as Newark or East Orange, New Jersey. However, civil records confirm it as Newark. Her parents were Quakers. She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, graduating in 1942. Saint studied acting at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she joined the Delta Gamma sorority.

During this time, Saint played the lead role in a production of Personal Appearance. She was an active member of the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi, and served as record keeper of the student council in 1944. Saint graduated from Bowling Green in 1946. A theater on its campus is named after her.

Personal life and death

Saint married producer and director Jeffrey Hayden on October 28, 1951. They had a son and daughter. Their son was born two days after she won an Academy Award for On the Waterfront. She began her acceptance speech by saying, "I may have the baby right here!" Saint and Hayden had four grandchildren and were married for 65 years until Hayden's death in 2016.

On July 4, 2024, Saint turned 100. She spent her 100th birthday celebrating with four generations of family members in Los Angeles.

Saint died at her home in Los Angeles on October 6, 2026, from natural causes at age 102.