Eva Marie Saint, the actress best known for her Oscar-winning film debut in On the Waterfront and a variety of other films from the classic Hollywood era, has passed away at the age of 102.
Saint celebrated her 102nd birthday on July 4, 2026, making her the earliest surviving and oldest living Academy Award winner until her death on October 6 at her home in Los Angeles.
Eva Marie Saint's career
Saint first was introduced to television as an NBC page, transitioning to early roles in shows like Campus Hoopla in the '40s.
© Getty ImagesBy the 1950s, her success had translated to the stage, earning acclaim for her turn in a stage production of The Trip to Bountiful opposite veteran star Lillian Gish. By the mid 1950s, Saint was one of the most recognizable names on TV and the stage.
She made her feature film debut in 1954 with Elia Kazan's crime drama On the Waterfront, still considered one of the greatest films of all time.
The film was an enormous commercial and critical success, winning a grand total of eight Academy Awards from 12 nominations the following year, including Best Supporting Actress for Saint (plus Best Actor for her co-star Marlon Brando, and Best Picture, among others).
© Getty ImagesFurther notices followed for her films That Certain Feeling (1956), Raintree County, A Hatful of Rain (both 1957), and 1959's North by Northwest, one of Alfred Hitchcock's best remembered films.
Saint starred opposite Cary Grant as Eve Kendall, solidifying the type of femme fatale roles that many Hitchcock classics would come to be associated with. By the end of the '50s, though, Saint's work on screen had slowed down, a decision she consciously made to spend more time with her family.
© Getty ImagesEva Marie Saint's life off-screen
Her last on-screen appearance was in the 2019 film Mariette in Ecstasy, although she finished filming it in 1996. She appeared at the 2018 Academy Awards to present the Oscar for Best Costume Design when she was 93.
"Recently, I saw something that Angela Lansbury said," Saint noted during a previous interview with The Independent. "She said that as you get older and older, it gets harder to find roles. And people tend to write older people as handicapped or neurotic; they just don't write for older people."
© Bettmann"She said she wouldn't do those roles. 'Other actresses will do those roles,' she said, 'and they'll do them very well. But I chose not to do those roles.'"
The star recalled: "When I saw her recently I quoted her verbatim. She said, 'How did you do that?' I replied that I felt the exact same way. I don't mean to sound cranky, but writers are compounding the bad writing out there these days. They don't know about Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill."
© Getty ImagesSaint remembered of her break from the screen: "My agent was great but he wanted me to do too much work when I had two young children. I would turn things down, and he would tell me that I would never be a super-superstar if I didn't work more. So I said, 'I guess I don't want to be a super-superstar.' I want to continue working, but my family always comes first. And that's how I've always felt."
She tied the knot with Jeffrey Hayden in 1951, and they remained married until his death in 2016. Saint is survived by her children Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.
