Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint
Saint in an early 1950s studio portrait
Born	(1924-07-04) July 4, 1924 (age 99) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater	Bowling Green State University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1945–2021
Spouse	Jeffrey Hayden ​ ​ (m. 1951;died 2016)​
Children	2

Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American retired actress of film, theatre, radio and television. In a career spanning 75 years, she has won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, alongside nominations for a Golden Globe Award and two British Academy Film Awards. Saint is both the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award-winner, and one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, Saint attended Bowling Green State University and began her career as a television and radio actress in the late 1940s. Among her notable early credits, she originated the role of Thelma in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful (1953), originally an NBC telecast before being adapted into the Tony Award-winning play of the same name. For her performance in the stage version, she won an Outer Critics Circle Award. She made her film debut in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), opposite Marlon Brando. The film, which received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Establishing her as an immediate star, it is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.

From then on, Saint appeared in a variety of roles, including That Certain Feeling (1956), opposite Bob Hope; Raintree County (1957), opposite Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor; and Fred Zinnemann's A Hatful of Rain (1957), opposite Don Murray and Anthony Franciosa, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama. One of her most notable roles came playing Eve Kendall opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

Throughout the 1960s, Saint sustained a film presence with appearances in Exodus (1960), alongside Paul Newman; The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1965), alongside Carl Reiner and Alan Arkin; The Sandpiper (1965), which reunited her with Elizabeth Taylor and featured Richard Burton; and John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966), opposite Yves Montand and acting in her second film with James Garner.

Saint gained consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Single Performance for her appearances in the anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse (1954) and Producers' Showcase (1955). Beginning in the 1970s, her film career began to decline, though she garnered praise for her role opposite George Segal in Loving (1970). She gained additional consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for How the West Was Won (1977) and Taxi!!! (1978), and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for the miniseries People Like Us (1990). Saint returned to film with Nothing in Common (1986), opposite Tom Hanks, and continued to act occasionally, notably in Superman Returns (2006), voicing Katara in The Legend of Korra (2012–2014) and Winter's Tale (2014) with Colin Farrell.

Early life

Saint in her cheerleader uniform in high school, 1942

Saint was born on July 4, 1924, ^[1] in Newark, New Jersey, to Quaker parents. ^[2] Her father was John Merle Saint and her mother was Eva Marie (née Rice) Saint. She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, near Albany, graduating in 1942. She was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 2006. She studied acting at Bowling Green State University and joined Delta Gamma Sorority. During this time she played the lead role in a production of Personal Appearance . ^[3] A theater on Bowling Green's campus is named after her. ^[4] She was an active member in the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi, ^[5] and served as record keeper of the student council in 1944. ^[6]

Career

Early television career

Saint's introduction to television began as an NBC page. ^[7] She appeared in the live NBC-TV show Campus Hoopla in 1946–47. Her performances on this program are recorded on rare kinescope, and audio recordings of these telecasts are preserved in the Library of Congress. She also appeared in Bonnie Maid's Versa-Tile Varieties on NBC in 1949 as one of the original singing "Bonnie Maids" used in the live commercials.

Saint appeared in a 1947 Life Magazine special about television, and also in a 1949 feature Life article about her as a struggling actress earning minimum amounts from early TV while trying to make ends meet in New York City. In the late 1940s, Saint continued to make her living by extensive work in radio and television. In 1953, she won the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful (1953), in which she co-starred with such formidable actors as Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet.

In 1955, Saint was nominated for her first Emmy for "Best Actress In A Single Performance" on The Philco Television Playhouse, playing the young mistress of middle-aged E. G. Marshall in Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955 television musical version of Our Town, adapted from the Thornton Wilder play of the same name. Co-stars were Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. Her success and acclaim in TV productions were of such a high level that "one slightly hyperbolic primordial TV critic dubbed her 'the Helen Hayes of television.'" ^[2]

On the Waterfront

Saint and Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront , 1954

Saint made her feature film debut in On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando and directed by Elia Kazan—a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in the role of Edie Doyle (whose brother's death sets the film's drama in motion), which she won over such leading contenders as Claire Trevor, Nina Foch, Katy Jurado and Jan Sterling, also earned her a British Academy of Film and Television Award nomination for "Most Promising Newcomer". In his review for The New York Times , film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint—a newcomer to movies from TV and Broadway—Mr. Kazan has come up with a pretty and blond artisan who does not have to depend on these attributes. Her parochial school training is no bar to love with the proper stranger. Amid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance." ^[8] The film was a major success and launched Saint's film career. She received $7,500 for the role. ^[9]

In a 2000 interview in Premiere magazine, Saint recalled making the film, which has been highly influential, saying, "[Elia] Kazan put me in a room with Marlon Brando. He said 'Brando is the boyfriend of your sister. You're not used to being with a young man. Don't let him in the door under any circumstances.' I don't know what he told Marlon; you'll have to ask him—good luck! [Brando] came in and started teasing me. He put me off balance. And I remained off balance for the whole shoot." She repeated the anecdote in a 2010 interview. ^[10]

Saint appeared alongside Bob Hope in That Certain Feeling (1956) for which she received $50,000. ^[9] She was then offered $100,000 to star in the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County (1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. ^[9] After that, she starred with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain , the pioneering drug-addiction drama, which although made later than Raintree Country was released earlier in 1957. She received a nomination for the "Best Foreign Actress" award from the British Academy of Film and Television for her performance. ^[11]

North by Northwest

Cary Grant and Saint in North by Northwest , 1959

Director Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing Saint over dozens of other candidates for the femme fatale role in what was to become a suspense classic North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and James Mason. Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including The 39 Steps , Young and Innocent , and Saboteur . North by Northwest became a box-office hit and an influence on spy films for decades. ^[12] The film ranks number forty on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. ^[13]

Hitchcock worked with Saint to make her voice lower and huskier, and personally chose costumes for her during a shopping trip to Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. ^[14]

The change in Saint's screen persona, coupled with her adroit performance as a seductive woman of mystery who keeps Cary Grant (and the audience) off balance, was widely heralded. In his review of August 7, 1959, The New York Times critic Abe H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint as [Cary Grant's] romantic vis-a-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer." ^[15]

In 2000, recalling her experience making the picture with Cary Grant and Hitchcock, Saint said, "[Grant] would say, 'See, Eva Marie, you don't have to cry in a movie to have a good time. Just kick up your heels and have fun.' Hitchcock said, 'I don't want you to do a sink-to-sink movie again, ever. You've done these black-and-white movies like On the Waterfront . It's drab in that tenement house. Women go to the movies, and they've just left the sink at home. They don't want to see you at the sink.' In a 2010 interview she stated: "I said, 'I can't promise you that, Hitch, because I love those dramas.'" ^[10]

Mid-career

Saint with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain (1957)

Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the top ranks of stardom, Saint chose to limit her film work in order to spend time with her husband since 1951, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. In the 1960s, Saint continued to distinguish herself in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred with Paul Newman in Exodus (1960), a historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel adapted from the novel of the same name by Leon Uris. It was directed by Otto Preminger. She also co-starred with Warren Beatty, Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury as a tragic beauty in the drama All Fall Down (1962). Based upon a novel by James Leo Herlihy and a screenplay by William Inge, the film was directed by John Frankenheimer.

Saint appeared with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the melodrama The Sandpiper for Vincente Minnelli, and with James Garner in the World War II thriller 36 Hours (1965), directed by George Seaton. Saint joined an all-star cast in the comedic satire, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming , directed by Norman Jewison, and the international racing drama, Grand Prix (1966) directed by Frankenheimer and presented in Cinerama.

Saint received some of her best reviews for her performance in Loving (1970), co-starring as the wife of George Segal. The film was about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and other women; it was critically acclaimed but did not have wide viewership.

Because of the mostly second-rate film roles that came her way in the 1970s, Saint returned to television and the stage in the 1980s. She received an Emmy nomination for the 1977 miniseries How The West Was Won and a 1978 Emmy nomination for Taxi!!! . She was reunited with On the Waterfront co-star Karl Malden in the television film Fatal Vision , this time as the wife of his character, as he investigated the murder of his daughter and granddaughters. She played the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the television series Moonlighting , a role that spanned episodes over three years.

Later career

Saint returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade in Nothing in Common (1986), in which she played the mother of Tom Hanks's character; it was directed by Garry Marshall. Critics applauded her return to features.

Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects. After receiving five nominations, she won her first Emmy Award for the 1990 miniseries People Like Us. She appeared in a number of television productions in the 1990s and was cast as the mother of radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a 1999 episode of the comedy series Frasier .

In 2000, Saint returned to feature films in I Dreamed of Africa with Kim Basinger. In 2005, she co-starred with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard in Don't Come Knocking . Also in 2005, she appeared in the family film Because of Winn-Dixie , co-starring AnnaSophia Robb, Jeff Daniels, and Cicely Tyson.

In 2006, Saint appeared in Superman Returns as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, alongside Brandon Routh and a computer-generated performance from her On the Waterfront co-star Marlon Brando.

Saint was presented one of the Golden Boot Awards in 2007 for her contributions to western cinema.

Saint has lent her voice to the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra , a sequel to the hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing the now-elderly Katara, a main character from the original series.

In September 2012, she was cast as the adult version of Willa in the film adaptation of the novel Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. ^[16] The film was released on Valentine's Day 2014.

At the age of 93, Saint appeared at the 2018 Academy Award ceremony to present the award for Costume Design. She received a standing ovation upon entering the stage. ^[17]

In 2021, Saint appeared alongside Marisa Tomei in the podcast play series "The Pack Podcast" as part of the segment "The Bus Ride". ^[18]

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard. ^[19]

Personal life

Saint and her husband, Jeffrey Hayden, at the 1990 Emmy Awards

Saint married producer and director Jeffrey Hayden on October 28, 1951. They had two children together: son Darrell Hayden and daughter Laurette Hayden. ^[20] Their first child, Darrell, was born two days after she won an Academy Award for On the Waterfront. She began her acceptance speech with "I may have the baby right here!" ^[21] Saint and Hayden also have four grandchildren and were married for 65 years, until Hayden's death on December 24, 2016, at the age of 90. ^[22]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Co-star(s)	Notes
1954	On the Waterfront	Edie Doyle	Marlon Brando
1956	That Certain Feeling	Dunreath Henry	Bob Hope
1957	A Hatful of Rain	Celia Pope	Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa
	Raintree County	Nell Gaither	Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor
1959	North by Northwest	Eve Kendall	Cary Grant, James Mason
1960	Exodus	Kitty Fremont	Paul Newman
1962	All Fall Down	Echo O'Brien	Warren Beatty, Karl Malden
1965	36 Hours	Anna Hedler	James Garner
	The Sandpiper	Claire Hewitt	Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton
1966	The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming	Elspeth Whittaker	Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin
	Grand Prix	Louise Frederickson	James Garner, Yves Montand
1968	The Stalking Moon	Sarah Carver	Gregory Peck
1970	Loving	Selma Wilson	George Segal
1972	Cancel My Reservation	Sheila Bartlett	Bob Hope
1986	Nothing in Common	Lorraine Basner	Tom Hanks, Jackie Gleason
1996	Mariette in Ecstasy	Mother Saint-Raphael	Geraldine O'Rawe	First shown 2019
2000	I Dreamed of Africa	Franca	Vincent Perez, Kim Basinger
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Howard's mother	Sam Shepard
	Because of Winn-Dixie	Miss Franny	Jeff Daniels
2006	Superman Returns	Martha Kent	Brandon Routh
2014	Winter's Tale	Adult Willa	Colin Farrell

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946	Campus Hoopla	Commercial spokeswoman	TV series
1947	A Christmas Carol	N/A	Television film
1949	Suspense	Francie	Episode: "The Comic Strip Murder"
1949	Studio One	Edna Baker	Episode: "June Moon"
1950–1952	One Man's Family	Claudia Barbour Roberts	TV series
1950	Prudential Family Playhouse	Edith Cortwright, Mabel	2 episodes
1953	The Trip to Bountiful	Thelma	Television film
1953	Plymouth Playhouse	Cousin Lizz	Episode: "Jamie"
1953	Martin Kane, Private Eye	Sheila Dixon	Episode: "Trip to Bermuda"
1953	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Frances Barclay	Episode: "Wish on the Moon"
1954	Pond's Theater	Tina	Episode: "The Old Maid"
1954	The Philco Television Playhouse	Dorie Wilson, Betty	2 episodes
1954	GE True Theater	Maudle Applegate	Episode: "The Rider on the Pale Horse"
1955	Producers' Showcase	Miss Blake, Emily Webb	2 episodes
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Diane Wescott	Episode: "Her School for Bachelors"
1964	A Carol for Another Christmas	WAVE Lt. Gibson	Television film
1976	The Macahans	Kate Macahan	Television film
1977	How the West Was Won	Kate Macahan	4 episodes
1978	Taxi!!!	The Passenger	Television film
1978	A Christmas to Remember	Emma Larson	Television film
1979	When Hell Was in Session	Jane Denton	Television film
1980	The Curse of King Tut's Tomb	Sarah Morrissey	Television film
1981	The Best Little Girl in the World	Joanne Powell	Television film
1981	Splendor in the Grass	Mrs. Loomis	Television film
1983	Malibu	Mary Wharton	Television film
1983	Jane Doe	Dr. Addie Coleman	Television film
1983	The Love Boat	Aunt Helena Georgelos	2 episodes
1984	Fatal Vision	Mildred Kassab	Television miniseries
1984	Love Leads the Way: A True Story	Mrs. Eustes	Television film
1986	The Last Days of Patton	Beatrice Ayer Patton	Television film
1986	A Year in the Life	Ruth Gardner	Television miniseries
1987	Breaking Home Ties	Emma	Television film
1986–1988	Moonlighting	Virginia Hayes	6 episodes
1988	I'll Be Home for Christmas	Martha Bundy	Television film
1990	Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair	Marilyn Klinghoffer	Television film
1990	People Like Us	Lil Van Degan Altemus	Television film
1991	Danielle Steel's 'Palomino'	Caroline Lord	Television film
1993	Kiss of a Killer	Mrs. Wilson	Television film
1995	My Antonia	Emmaline Burden	Television film
1996	After Jimmy	Liz	Television film
1996	Titanic	Hazel Foley	Television miniseries
1997	Time to Say Goodbye?	Ruth Klooster	Television film
1999	Frasier	Joanna Doyle	Episode: "Our Parents, Ourselves"
2000	Papa's Angels	Dori "Grammy" Jenkins	Television film
2003	Open House	Veronica Reynolds	Television film
2012–2014	The Legend of Korra	Katara	Voice, 6 episodes

Stage credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	The Trip to Bountiful	Thelma	Outer Circle Critics Award, Theatre World Award
1955	The Rainmaker	Lizzie Curry
1971	Winesburg, Ohio	Mrs Willard
1972	The Lincoln Mask	Mary Todd
1973	Summer and Smoke	Alma Winemiller
1974	Desire Under the Elms	Abbie Putnam
1976-77	The Fatal Weakness	Mrs. Espenshade
1977	Candida	Candida Morell
1978-79	First Monday in October	Judge Ruth Loomis
1982-83	Duet for One	Stephanie Abrahams
1986	The Country Girl	Georgie Elgin
1994	Death of a Salesman	Linda Loman
2001	Love Letters	Melissa Gardner
2005	Touch The Names

Awards and nominations

Year	Group	Award	Film or series	Result
1955	Academy Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	On the Waterfront	Won
	BAFTA Award	Most Promising Newcomer to Film		Nominated
	Emmy Award	Best Actress in a Single Performance	The Philco Television Playhouse (Episode: "Middle of the Night")	Nominated
1956		Best Actress - Single Performance	Producers' Showcase (Episode: "Our Town")	Nominated
1958	BAFTA Award	Best Foreign Actress	A Hatful of Rain	Nominated
	Golden Globe Award	Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama		Nominated
	Laurel Awards	Top Female Dramatic Performance		3rd Place
1977	Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series	How the West Was Won	Nominated
1978		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special	Taxi!!!	Nominated
1990		Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special	People Like Us	Won
1999	Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival	Lifetime Achievement Award	-	Won
2000	Savannah Film and Video Festival		-	Won
2004	San Luis Obispo International Film Festival	King Vidor Memorial Award	-	Won
2007	Golden Boot Awards	-	-	Won
2012	2nd Annual Behind the Voice Actors Voice Acting Awards [23]	Best Female Vocal Performance in a Television Series in a Guest Role	The Legend of Korra (Episodes: "Welcome to Republic City"; "Endgame")	Won
2018	Bowling Green State University [4]	Lifetime Achievement Award	-	Won

See also

• Lists of American actors
• List of Bowling Green State University alumni

References

1. "Hollywood Star Walk". LA Times . Retrieved April 22, 2022.
2. Shindler, Merrill (May 13, 1990). "Eva Marie Saint Finds TV Full of Contradictions". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
3. "The Key 1944". BGSU Key Yearbooks. January 1, 1944. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
4. "Eva Marie Saint receives Lifetime Achievement Award from alma mater". Bowling Green State University. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
5. "Bee Gee News May 30, 1945". BG News (Student Newspaper). May 30, 1945. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
6. "The Key 1944". BGSU Key Yearbooks. January 1, 1944. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
7. Buckley, Cara (October 14, 2008). "For NBC Pages, 'Please Follow Me' Is a Fervent Wish". The New York Times . p. A23. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
8. Weiler, A. H. (July 29, 1954). "Review: On the Waterfront". The New York Times .
9. "Salary Going Up". Variety . January 11, 1956. p. 4. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
10. Jan 01, Tyler Hayden Fri; 2010 | 6:00am (January 1, 2010). "Talking with Eva Marie Saint, Part II". The Santa Barbara Independent . Retrieved December 29, 2019.
11. "1958 Film Foreign Actress | BAFTA Awards". Bafta. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
12. Willmetts, Simon (2016). In Secrecy's Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979. Edinburgh University Press. p. 192. ISBN   9780748693009.
13. "AFI's 100 YEARS...100 MOVIES". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
14. Ackroyd, Peter (2015). Alfred Hitchcock (1st ed.). New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. p. 194. ISBN   978-0-385-53741-4.
15. Weiler, Abe H. (August 7, 1959). "Hitchcock Takes Suspenseful Cook's Tour; ' North by Northwest' Opens at Music Hall". The New York Times . Retrieved December 28, 2019.
16. Fleming, Mike (September 21, 2012). "Akiva Goldsman's 'Winter's Tale' Sets Matt Bomer, Lucy Griffiths, Eva Marie Saint". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved January 28, 2013.
17. Haring, Bruce (March 4, 2018). "Eva Marie Saint Makes Triumphant Oscars Return 64 Years After Victory". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
18. Lang, Brent (July 28, 2021). "Eva Marie Saint and Marisa Tomei on Podcasting, New York Memories, and Rom-Coms". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved July 28, 2021.
19. "Eva Marie Saint". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
20. "Eva Marie Saint biography". TV Guide.
21. Tyler Hayden (January 1, 2010). "Talking with Eva Marie Saint, Part II". Santa Barbara Independent.
22. Barnes, Mike (January 3, 2017). "Jeffrey Hayden, TV Director and Husband of Eva Marie Saint, Dies at 90". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
23. "2nd Annual BTVA Voice Acting Awards 2012". BTVA. Retrieved July 28, 2013.

External links

• Eva Marie Saint at IMDb
• Eva Marie Saint at the Internet Broadway Database
• Idol Chatter: Eva Marie Saint
• On Life Between Brando's Babe and Superman's Mom (Moving Pictures Magazine interview)