EVA MARIE SAINT
Name: Eva Marie Saint.
Born: 4 July 1924 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Other name: Eve Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.
She has starred on Broadway, in films and on television beginning in the 1950s.
Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey but attended Bethlehem Central High School
in Delmar, NY, graduating in 1942. Eva Marie 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. There is a theatre on Bowling Green's
campus named for her. She was an active member in the theater honorary
fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi.
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. 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 Chayevsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955
television musical version of the Thornton Wilder classic play Our Town with co-stars
Paul Newman (in his only musical role) 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."
Saint's first feature motion picture role was in On the Waterfront (1954),
directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando — a smart, sympathetic, and
emotionally-charged role for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Her performance as Edie Doyle (whose brother Joey's death sets the film's drama
in motion), which she won 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 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:
“ [Elia] Kazan put me in a room with Marlon Brando. He said, 'Brando is the
boyfriend of your sister. You're a Catholic girl and 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. ”
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.
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. Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the
director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the '30s, '40s, and '50s,
including The 39 Steps, Young and Innocent, and Foreign Correspondent. 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 garnered 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."
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
1962 drama All Fall Down. 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,
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 presented in Cinerama and directed by
Frankenheimer. Although she was announced as the leading lady opposite Steve
McQueen in Jewison's ultra-stylish romantic caper film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968),
the meteoric rise of newcomer Faye Dunaway, who was cast instead, cost Saint a
glamorous and sexy role.
In 1970, she received some of her best reviews for Loving, 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-TV
movies, played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the hit television series
Moonlighting, won an Emmy nomination for the 1977 miniseries How The West Was
Won, plus a 1978 Emmy nomination for Taxi and an Emmy in 1990 for the mini-series
People Like Us.
Saint was cast as the mother of Frasier Crane's radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a
1999 episode of the TV comedy series Frasier.
In 2000, she co-starred with Kim Basinger in the motion picture I Dreamed of
Africa, with Jessica Lange for director Wim Wenders in Don't Come Knocking (2005)
written by Sam Shepard, and in the heart-tugging family film Because of Winn-Dixie.
In 2006, Saint appeared as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in
Superman Returns.
She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624
Hollywood Blvd., and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Blvd.
Name: Eva Marie Saint.
Born: 4 July 1924 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Other name: Eve Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.
She has starred on Broadway, in films and on television beginning in the 1950s.
Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey but attended Bethlehem Central High School
in Delmar, NY, graduating in 1942. Eva Marie 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. There is a theatre on Bowling Green's
campus named for her. She was an active member in the theater honorary
fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi.
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. 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 Chayevsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955
television musical version of the Thornton Wilder classic play Our Town with co-stars
Paul Newman (in his only musical role) 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."
Saint's first feature motion picture role was in On the Waterfront (1954),
directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando — a smart, sympathetic, and
emotionally-charged role for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Her performance as Edie Doyle (whose brother Joey's death sets the film's drama
in motion), which she won 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 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:
“ [Elia] Kazan put me in a room with Marlon Brando. He said, 'Brando is the
boyfriend of your sister. You're a Catholic girl and 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. ”
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.
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. Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the
director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the '30s, '40s, and '50s,
including The 39 Steps, Young and Innocent, and Foreign Correspondent. 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 garnered 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."
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
1962 drama All Fall Down. 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,
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 presented in Cinerama and directed by
Frankenheimer. Although she was announced as the leading lady opposite Steve
McQueen in Jewison's ultra-stylish romantic caper film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968),
the meteoric rise of newcomer Faye Dunaway, who was cast instead, cost Saint a
glamorous and sexy role.
In 1970, she received some of her best reviews for Loving, 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-TV
movies, played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the hit television series
Moonlighting, won an Emmy nomination for the 1977 miniseries How The West Was
Won, plus a 1978 Emmy nomination for Taxi and an Emmy in 1990 for the mini-series
People Like Us.
Saint was cast as the mother of Frasier Crane's radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a
1999 episode of the TV comedy series Frasier.
In 2000, she co-starred with Kim Basinger in the motion picture I Dreamed of
Africa, with Jessica Lange for director Wim Wenders in Don't Come Knocking (2005)
written by Sam Shepard, and in the heart-tugging family film Because of Winn-Dixie.
In 2006, Saint appeared as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in
Superman Returns.
She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624
Hollywood Blvd., and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Blvd.