Eva Marie Saint, ‘North by Northwest’ Star, Dies at 102
Variety
By Richard Natale
October 6, 2026
Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred in
such memorable classic films as “On the Waterfront” and “North by Northwest,”
died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 102.
The delicate, fine-boned actress, one of the first
breakout talents from early television, won her Academy Award as best
supporting actress for “On the Waterfront” in 1955, making her the oldest
living Oscar winner. She played Edie Doyle in the Marlon Brando starring film,
with the New York Times writing in its review, “Amid scenes of carnage, she
gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance.”
As Saint raised her family from the late 1950s on, she
returned to acting intermittently, and many of her later appearances were
onstage and on television, most notably in the ABC series “Moonlighting” and
later as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in the 2006 movie “Superman Returns.”
One of her most memorable roles was as the cool but
seductive blonde spy in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 spy thriller “North by
Northwest.” “Not only does she provide the requisite icy sex appeal as Eve
Kendall, a shadowy secret agent, but she also proves to be much more than a
standard damsel in distress,” Variety wrote in an appreciation on her 97th
birthday.
“Saint’s character is fully capable of pulling the wool
over the eyes of sinister villains and usually remains two or three steps ahead
of Grant’s hapless Madison Avenue executive Roger Thornhill,” the appreciation
continues.
Saint made her TV debut on “Camp Hoop La,” then became a
regular on “One Man’s Family.” She broadened her dramatic range in such
anthology series as “Philco Playhouse,” “Robert Montgomery Presents” and
“Studio One.” Highlights during the period included Paddy Chayevsky’s “Middle
of the Night” (1954) and a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”
(1955) co-starring Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra (both shows brought her Emmy
nominations); Sidney Howard’s “Yellow Jack”; and the drama “Claudia.”
Saint appeared opposite Lillian Gish in 1953 Horton Foote
teleplay “The Trip to Bountiful,” which became the first TV drama to move to
Broadway (for 39 performances). Her “touching and beautifully sensitive
performance,” as one New York critic described it, won the approbation of Elia
Kazan, who cast her opposite Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront” in a role
coveted by many more experienced actresses.
The 1954 Budd Schulberg drama was nominated for 12 Oscars
and won eight including best picture, actor, director and, for Saint,
supporting actress.
Rather than tie herself to a studio contract, however,
she returned to the theater in stock productions of “The Rainmaker” and “Desire
Under the Elms.”
In 1956 she took on the glamorous female lead in “That
Certain Feeling” opposite Bob Hope, followed by the 1957 film version of “A
Hatful of Rain” and “Raintree County.”
After “North by Northwest,” she appeared in “Exodus” and
“All Fall Down.” The latter, directed by John Frankenheimer and co-starring
Warren Beatty, saw her give one of her best dramatic performances.
She was the numinous but scorned wife in 1965’s Elizabeth
Taylor-Richard Burton adultery tale “The Sandpiper” and then appeared in a
better vehicle, Norman Jewison’s comedy “The Russians Are Coming the Russians
Are Coming,” in 1966. Her performance in “Loving,” co-starring with George
Segal, was highly regarded and rated with her best work. Other roles include
“36 Hours” and “Grand Prix.” Except for another Hope comedy, “Cancel My
Reservation,” she spent most of the next two decades on TV and onstage.
On Broadway she acted in “The Lincoln Mask” in 1972 and
then, opposite Henry Fonda, in “The First Monday in October” in 1979. In 1983
she appeared in a Chicago production of “Duet for One.” Her television credits
include “School for Bachelors,” “A Carol for Another Christmas,” “‘The First
Woman President,” “Mrs. Epenshade,” “Taxi” and miniseries “How the West Was
Won.” The latter two roles also brought Emmy nominations.
Saint received good critical notices for “A Christmas to
Remember” with Jason Robards, “When Hell Was in Session,” “The Curse of King
Tut’s Tomb,” “The Best Little Girl in the World,” “Malibu,” “My Antonia” and
“Jane Doe,” among other roles.
The actress had a recurring role on the ABC series
“Moonlighting,” starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, as Shepherd’s
mother.
In 1986 she returned to the bigscreen with a role in the
Tom Hanks-Jackie Gleason vehicle “Nothing in Common.”
Saint appeared in many TV movies throughout the 1990s,
including roles in “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Kiss of a Killer,” “After
Jimmy” and “Open House,” along with a cameo as Roz’s mother in “Frasier.” After
four previous Emmy nominations, Saint finally took the statuette with a
supporting actress Emmy win in 1990 for her role in the NBC miniseries “People
Like Us.”
Saint returned to film again in the 2000s, appearing in
pics such as “I Dreamed of Africa” (2000), “Because of Winn-Dixie” and “Don’t
Come Knocking” (2005) and 2006’s “Superman Returns,” in which she played Martha
Kent. In 2014 she made her final bigscreen appearance, in the Akiva Goldsman
written and directed “Winter’s Tale.”
Saint was born in Newark, N.J.; the family later moved to
Delmar, N.Y., near Albany. With plans to become a teacher, Saint attended
Ohio’s Bowling Green State U., where she became interested in acting. After
receiving her B.A., she turned full time to seeking acting work, first in
radio. She received her first paycheck, $10, as an off-camera applauder on “The
Borden Show.” To make ends meet, she did some modeling and then landed roles in
radio serials such as “Rosemary” and “Young Doctor Malone.”
In 1947 she was cast in “Mister Roberts” only to be
reduced to an understudy when director Joshua Logan didn’t think she had enough
experience. Jocelyn Brando played the roles. A year later she began studying at
the Actors Studio.
A testament to her ability to straddle both the film and
television world, Saint has two separate stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
one for motion pictures and one for TV. Saint took time to pay homage to “North
by Northwest” by hosting TCM documentary “The Making of North by Northwest” in
2000.
She also appeared in the 2003 documentary “Broadway: The
Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There” and the 2011 docu “Broadway: Beyond
the Golden Age.”
Saint appeared at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 to
present the Oscar for supporting actress, some 55 years after her “Waterfront”
win.
She was a longtime supporter of the Motion Picture and
Television Fund and the Epilepsy Foundation of Los Angeles. An early proponent
of making cars cell-phone-free, she created and distributed her own bumper
sticker: “Get Off The Phone Or Get Off The Road.” She also served on the
Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts & Sciences.
Her husband, TV director Jeffrey Hayden, died in 2016.
Survivors include her two children, Darrell and Laurette,
four grandchildren, Eli, Tyler, Molly, and Stella and two great grandchildren,
Arlo and Finley.
SAINT, Eva Marie
Born: 7/4/1924, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Died: 10/6/2026, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Eva Marie Saint’s westerns – actress:
Raintree County – 1957 (Nell Gaither)
Stalking Moon – 1968 (Sarah Carver)
How the West Was Won (TV) – 1976-1977 (Kate Machan)
