Eva Marie Saint Biography

Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress who has starred in films, on Broadway, and on television in a career spanning seven decades. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama film On the Waterfront (1954), and later starred in the thriller film North by Northwest (1959), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Saint received Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations for the drama film A Hatful of Rain (1957) and won an Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990). Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County (1957), Exodus (1960), Grand Prix (1966), Nothing in Common (1986), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), Superman Returns (2006) and Winter's Tale (2013).

Early life and education

Saint was born in the City of Newark to Eva Marie (née Rice) and John Merle Saint. She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, graduating in 1942, and was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 2006. She studied acting at Bowling Green State University while a member of Delta Gamma Sorority, and there is now a theater on Bowling Green's campus named for her. She was an active member in the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi and served as Secretary of the Bowling Green Student Government in 1944.

Career

Early television career

Saint's introduction to television began as an NBC page. She appeared in the very early 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 the 1949 Bonnie Maid Versa-Tile Varieties NBC program as one of the singing Bonnie Maids used in the live commercials. She 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, she continued 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. In 1955, she was nominated for her first Emmy for "Best Actress In A Single Performance" on The Philco Television Playhouse for 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 the Thornton Wilder classic play Our Town with co-stars Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. Her success and acclaim were of such a high level that the young Saint earned the nickname "the Helen Hayes of television."

Film debut

Saint's first feature-film role, at age 30, was in On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando - a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her role as 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 New York Times review, film critic Bosley Crowther 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."

In a 2000 interview in Premiere magazine, Saint recalled making the hugely influential film:

The film was a major success and launched Saint's movie career. She starred with Don Murray in the pioneering drug-addiction drama, A Hatful of Rain (1957), for which she received a nomination for the "Best Foreign Actress" award from the British Academy of Film and Television, and the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County (also 1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Working with Hitchcock

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. 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 gained by Hitchcock's decision to cut Saint's waist-length blonde hair for the first time in her career. Hitchcock explained at the time, "Short hair gives Eva a more exotic look, in keeping with her role of the glamorous woman of my story. I wanted her dressed like a kept woman - smart, simple, subtle and quiet. In other words, anything but the bangles and beads type." The director also worked with Saint to make her voice lower and huskier and even personally chose costumes for her during a shopping trip to Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.

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 New York Times review of August 7, 1959, critic Bosley Crowther 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." 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.' I said, 'I can't promise you that, Hitch, because I love those dramas.'"

Mid-career

Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the top ranks of stardom, she elected to limit film work in order to spend time with her husband since 1951, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. Nevertheless, in the 1960s, Saint continued to distinguish herself in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred again with Paul Newman in the historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel Exodus (1960), 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.

She was seen 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 (1964), 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) presented in Cinerama and directed by Frankenheimer.

Saint received some of her best reviews for her appearance in Loving (1970), co-starring as the wife of George Segal in a critically acclaimed but underseen drama about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and other women. 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 appeared in a number of made-for-television films and played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the television series Moonlighting over a three-year period. She received an Emmy nomination for the 1977 miniseries How The West Was Won, and a 1978 Emmy nomination for Taxi!!!.

"She looks like Eve Marie Saint, in On the Waterfront" was the opening of the chorus to Rattlesnakes, the debut album by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions which was also released as a single, both in 1984.

Later career

Saint returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade as Tom Hanks' mother in the Garry Marshall-directed comedy Nothing in Common (1986). Critics applauded her return to features, but Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects.

After receiving five nominations, Saint won her first Emmy Award for the 1990 miniseries film People Like Us. She appeared in a number of television productions in the 1990s and was cast as the mother of Frasier Crane's radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a 1999 episode of the hit comedy series Frasier.

In 2000, she returned to feature films once again 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, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and a computer-generated performance from her On The Waterfront co-star Marlon Brando.

Saint has appeared in a number of television specials and documentaries, particularly in the past decade, including The Making of North by Northwest, which she narrated and hosted. In 2009, she made a rare public appearance at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony as a Best Supporting Actress presenter. In 2011, Saint participated in two screenings of North by Northwest with Robert Osborne. The films were shown in Seattle and Cleveland. Saint and Osborne participated in meet-and-greet sessions as well as a pre-movie question and answer session. Saint has also appeared in the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra, which is a sequel to the hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender as the voice actor for a now-elderly Katara, a main character from the original series.

In September 2012, Saint was cast as the adult version of Willa in the film adaptation of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel Winter's Tale.

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

Personal life

Saint has been married to producer/director Jeffrey Hayden since October 28, 1951. They have two children, Darrell (born April 1, 1955) and Laurette (born July 19, 1958), and three grandchildren.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1947	A Christmas Carol		Television debut
1948"1955	Philco Television Playhouse	Betty	Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Single Performance
1949	Lights Out (radio show)		episode "Promise"
1949	Suspense (U.S. TV series)	Francie	episode "The Comic Strip Murder" credited as "Eve Marie Saint"
1949"1950	Actors Studio (TV series)		Season 1, episode "The Little Wife" Season 2, episode "The Little Wife" Season 2, episode "Telas, the King"
1949"1953	Studio One in Hollywood	David's Cafe Guest, Edna Baker	episode "June Moon" episode "The Man Who Had Influence" episode "End of the Honeymoon"
1950"1952	One Man's Family	Claudia Barbour Roberts #2
1950"1951	Versatile Varieties	Bonny Maid
1953	The Trip to Bountiful (play)	Thelma
1953	The Web (TV series)		episode "The Last Chance" episode "A Fair Exchange"
1953"1954	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Frances Barclay	episode "Wish on the Moon" episode"Write Me Out Forever"
1954	On the Waterfront	Edie Doyle	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (2nd place) Nominated-BAFTA Film Award for Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
1954	General Electric Theater	Maudle Applegate	episode "The Rider on the Pale Horse"
1955	Producers' Showcase	Emily Webb Miss Blake	Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Single Performance episode "Our Town" episode "Yellow Jack"
1956	That Certain Feeling (film)	Dunreath Henry
1957	A Hatful of Rain	Celia Pope	Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance (3rd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (2nd place) Nominated-BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1957	Raintree County (film)	Nell Gaither
1959	North by Northwest	Eve Kendall
1960	Exodus (1960 film)	Kitty Fremont
1962	All Fall Down (film)	Echo O'Brien
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Diane Wescott	episode "Her School for Bachelors"
1964	A Carol for Another Christmas	The Wave
1965	36 Hours	Anna Hedler
1965	The Sandpiper	Claire Hewitt
1966	The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming	Elspeth Whittaker
1966	Grand Prix	Louise Frederickson
1968	The Stalking Moon	Sarah Carver
1970	Loving (film)	Selma Wilson	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (3rd place)
1972	Cancel My Reservation	Sheila Bartlett
1976	The Macahans	Kate Macahan
1977	How the West Was Won	Katherine "Kate" Macahan	Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1978	Taxi!!!	Passenger	Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1979	When Hell Was in Session	Jane Denton
1980	The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980 film)	Sarah Morrissey
1981	The Best Little Girl in the World	Joanne Powell
1981	Splendor in the Grass (1981 film)	Mrs. Loomis
1983	Malibu (film)	Mary Wharton
1983"1984	The Love Boat	Priscilla	episode "Isaac's Aegean Affair/The Captain and the Kid/Poor Rich Man/The Dean and the Flunkee"
1984	Fatal Vision	Mildred Kassab
1986	A Year in the Life	Ruth Gardner
1986	Nothing in Common	Lorraine Basner
1986	The Last Days of Patton	Mrs. Beatrice Ayer Patton
1986"1988	Moonlighting (TV series)	Virginia Hayes	episode "Every Daughter's Father is a Virgin" episode "Come Back Little Shiksa" episode "Take a Left at the Altar" episode "Tale in Two Cities" episode "Father Knows Last" episode "Fetal Attraction"
1988	I'll Be Home for Christmas (1988 film)	Martha Bundy
1990	Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair	Marilyn Klinghoffer
1990	People Like Us (TV film)	Lil Van Degan Altemus	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1995	My Antonia	Emmaline Burden
1996	After Jimmy	Liz
1996	Titanic (1996 TV miniseries)	Hazel Foley
1997	Time to Say Goodbye?	Ruth Klooster
1999	Frasier	Joanna Doyle	episode "Our Parents, Ourselves"
2000	I Dreamed of Africa	Franca
2005	Because of Winn-Dixie (film)	Miss Franny
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Howard's Mother
2006	Superman Returns	Martha Kent
2012-2013	The Legend of Korra	Katara	episode "Welcome to Republic City" episode "Endgame" episode "Rebel Spirit"
2014	Winter's Tale	Willa (adult)

Awards and nominations

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

See also

• List of American actresses
• List of Bowling Green State University alumni