Film actress, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. She studied at the University of Ohio, and had done a little work on radio, television, and Broadway before Elia Kazan cast her in On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Other films include North by Northwest (1959), Exodus (1960), A Talent For Loving (1970), The Last Days of Patton (1986), and I Dreamed of Africa (1998).
| Eva Marie Saint | |
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Saint in North by Northwest, 1959 |
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| Birth name | Eva Marie Saint |
| Born |
July 4, 1924 (age 82) Newark, New Jersey |
Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.
Biography
Early life
Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey but attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, NY, graduating in 1942.
Early Television Career
In the late '40s, she began doing extensive work in radio and television before winning 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.
Film Debut
Saint's first feature motion picture role was in On the Waterfront (1954) directed by Elia Kazan with Marlon Brando, in a smart, sympathetic, and emotionally-charged role for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in the role, which she won the role over such leading contenders as Grace Kelly, Janice Rule, and Elizabeth Montgomery, also earned her a British Academy of Film and Television Award for "Most Promising Newcomer." In film critic Bosley Crowther's New York Times review of the film on July 30, 1954, he 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.
In a 2000 interview in Premiere magazine, she recalled of making the watershed, hugely influential film, "[Elia] Kazan put me in a room with Marion Brando. The watershed success of the film launched Saint into many of the best known films of her early screen career. They include starring with Don Murray in the powerful and pioneering drug addiction drama, A Hatful of Rain (1957) for which she won the "Best Foreign Actress" from the British Academy of Film and Television,, and the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift,
"Hitchcock Blonde"
Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing the stately and serious 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. The film ranks number forty on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.
At the time of the film's production, much publicity was garnered by Hitchcock's decision to cut Saint's waist-length blonde hair for the very first time in her career.
Mid-career
Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the very top ranks of stardom, she elected to limit her film work in order to spend time with her husband since 1951, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. Although she was announced as the leading lady opposite Steve McQueen in director Norman Jewison's ultra-stylish romantic caper film of 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair, the meteoric rise of newcomer Faye Dunaway, who was cast instead, cost Saint a rare glamorous and sexy role.
In 1970, she received some of the best reviews of her film career for Loving, in which she co-starred as the wife of George Segal in a critically-acclaimed but underseen film drama about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and the other women in his life. 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.
Later Career
In 2000, she co-starred with Kim Basinger in the motion picture I Dreamed of Africa and, in 2005, appeared with Jessica Lange for director Wim Wenders in Don't Come Knocking written by Sam Shepard and in the heart-tugging family film Because of Winn-Dixie.
Filmography
On the Waterfront (1954) That Certain Feeling (1956) Operation Raintree (1957) (short subject) A Hatful of Rain (1957) Raintree County (1957) North by Northwest (1959) Exodus (1960) All Fall Down (1962) 36 Hours (1965) The Sandpiper (1965) Grand Prix: Challenge of the Champions (1966) (short subject) The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) Grand Prix (1966) The Stalking Moon (1969) Loving (1970) Cancel My Reservation (1972) Nothing in Common (1986) Mariette in Ecstasy (1996) Time to Say Goodbye? (1997) I Dreamed of Africa (2000) Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary) Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern (2005) (documentary) Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) Don't Come Knocking (2005) Superman Returns (2006)|
Preceded by: Donna Reed for From Here to Eternity |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1954 for On the Waterfront |
Succeeded by: Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden |
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