Oscar Winner Eva Marie Saint Dies at 102 in Los Angeles Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar for On the Waterfront and starred in North by Northwest, died of natural causes at her Los Angeles home at age 102. Eva Marie Saint, the graceful blonde who delivered two of the most notable film performances of the 1950s in On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and North by Northwest opposite Cary Grant, has died at the age of 102. Eva Marie Saint Dies at 102 in Los AngelesSaint died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, a statement from her spokesperson said. Family representative Jeff Sanderson also confirmed the death. Her acting work lasted well into her 90s. Saint won an Oscar in her film debut for her portrayal of the virtuous Edie Doyle in director Elia Kazan's gritty 1954 drama On the Waterfront.She then changed direction as the spy Eve Kendall in director Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller North by Northwest. The New Jersey native worked with a procession of big-name directors and stars after honing her craft at the Actors Studio, Lee Strasberg's famed method acting school in New York.Otto Preminger hired her for Exodus in 1960 with Paul Newman, while John Frankenheimer directed her in both All Fall Down in 1962 with Warren Beatty and Grand Prix in 1966 with James Garner. Vincente Minnelli directed Saint in The Sandpiper in 1965 with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, while Norman Jewison cast her in the Cold War satire The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1966, an Oscar best picture nominee.Saint said her mentor was the great silent film actress Lillian Gish, who appeared with her in a 1953 production of the play The Trip to Bountiful that brought her to Kazan's attention. He picked Saint for On the Waterfront over Elizabeth Montgomery. The uncompromising film depicts the struggles of dockworkers on New York's rough waterfront.Brando played former boxer Terry Malloy, who runs afoul of a corrupt union but defies the odds to become a hero with the help of Saint's innocent but strong-willed Catholic girl Edie, who sees more good in him than he sees in himself. Saint was 30 at the time but was playing a schoolgirl. On the Waterfront won eight Academy Awards, including best picture, with Kazan named best director, Brando best actor and Saint best supporting actress.Saint was pregnant when she accepted her Oscar in March 1955. She gingerly walked to the stage, kissed the golden statuette and excitedly told the audience, I may have the baby right here! Two days after the ceremony, she gave birth to her first child, Darrell Hayden. Her son Darrell was born two days later, and a daughter, Laurette, was born in 1958.North by Northwest was a suspenseful espionage thriller, with Saint portraying a seductive spy in a tale of mistaken identity involving Grant's advertising man Roger Thornhill. Famous sequences include a crop-dusting plane pursuing Grant and a frantic chase involving Grant and Saint climbing the colossal U.S. presidential faces carved into Mount Rushmore. Hitchcock guided Grant and Saint through witty, suggestive dialog that skirted the edge of what studios would allow at the time.One of Saint's lines, provocatively telling Grant I never make love on an empty stomach, was changed to the more benign I never discuss love on an empty stomach. North by Northwest, like On the Waterfront often considered one of the greatest films ever made, received three Oscar nominations but won none. Saint was born on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey.Early Life and Acting Career BeginningsThe family moved to Delmar, a small town near Albany, New York, where her father was a Goodrich Rubber Co. manager. Eva's goal was to become a third-grade teacher like her mother, but at Bowling Green State University in Ohio she tried out for a play and won the leading role. After graduation she lived with her parents in Flushing, Long Island, and began hunting for acting jobs in Manhattan.Her early career was spent in live television productions in the formative years of the medium. After a fruitless year, she landed a two-line role as a telephone operator on a radio drama and soon was working steadily on soap operas and nighttime dramas, appearing for two years as Claudia on One Man's Family.A critical turn in Saint's career came when she auditioned before Elia Kazan and was accepted into the Actors Studio, which shaped a generation of method-actor stars. She credited acting coach Lee Strasberg with helping her overcome her shyness. Saint was rejected for the single female role in the play Mister Roberts, but was hired to understudy the actor chosen, Jocelyn Brando, Marlon's sister. In six frustrating months Saint never got to substitute for Brando.She finally made it to Broadway in A Trip to Bountiful, which she had played on television. Kazan invited her to try out for the female lead in On the Waterfront by improvising a scene with Brando. She was told to try to stop a young man from entering her apartment.She told the Los Angeles Times in 2001 that Marlon got in the door and turned on the music, they started dancing, he flicked her skirt, and Kazan saw the sparks fly. Saint had one of the most spectacular debuts in Hollywood history, as the love interest of Marlon Brando's tormented Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and her first trip to the Academy Awards was memorable, too.Pregnant with her first child, Saint accepted her Oscar from Frank Sinatra and smilingly murmured a unique winner's speech: I think I may have the baby right here. The award for the 1954 classic made her an instant star, but she soon astonished Hollywood with a firm independence that would mark her career.Refusing Studio Contracts for IndependenceShe refused offers of studio contracts and declined chances to follow up on her great success, explaining that she was taking time off to become acquainted with her new son. In her first decade in Hollywood, Saint appeared in a mere seven films. She declined such top-level productions as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit with Peck, Summer and Smoke with Laurence Harvey and The Rainmaker with Burt Lancaster.She credited her husband, TV and stage director Jeffrey Hayden, with convincing her to star in Hitchcock's North by Northwest. She married Hayden in 1951, a marriage that lasted until his death in 2016, and they had two children. She told Vanity Fair in 2014 that she vividly remembered him saying, Honey, I think you should find a quiet spot. I'll take care of the children and I want you to really think about this and reread this script.He was so right. And that's what husbands are for. Instead of being put off by her selectivity, studios continued offering her starring roles in such films as Exodus with Newman, Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, and All Fall Down with Warren Beatty.Later Television Roles and Film AppearancesShe turned more to television in the 1970s and enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1980s as the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the hit sitcom Moonlighting and as Tom Hanks' mother in the film comedy Nothing in Common. She won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries People Like Us, and had roles in such 21st century movies as Because of Winn-Dixie, Superman Returns and Winter's Tale, adapted from Mark Helprin's novel of the same name.In Superman Returns, a 2006 film, Brando appeared posthumously using 1970s archive footage. In 2021, she played Marisa Tomei's aunt in the brief audio play The Bus Ride, part of The Pack Podcast. She starred in about 20 movies but turned down many roles to devote time to her family. When Eva Marie Saint emerged in the public consciousness, many believed her theatrical-sounding name must have been invented.She was born with it on July 4, 1924. Saint told The Santa Barbara Independent in 2009 that Lee Strasberg, when he got to know her a little bit, gave her a scene to do where she had to cry in front of her peers. She worried about it, worked on it, tried to use what she was learning at the studio. She finally did the scene, and she cried, and her peers were crying with her.It was just an incredible moment for her. Thomas, a former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary. Reporting by Will Dunham; additional reporting by Lisa Richwine; editing by Bill Trott and Rosalba O'Brien.