Film Legend, ‘North by Northwest’ Star Eva Marie Saint Has Died

Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred in “North by Northwest” and “On the Waterfront,” has died at the age of 102.

She died Tuesday at her Los Angeles home, according to Variety.

In an industry where multiple marriages often appear to be the norm, Saint married only once, to director-producer Jeffrey Hayden in 1951.

They remained married until his death in 2016, a 65-year span.

Saint built a career, but not at the expense of her family, according to CBS News.

“I had an agent once who wanted me to make many more movies,” she said in a 2-14 interview.

“I said, ‘I can’t. I can only do one a year, if that. I have children, young children.’ And he said, ‘Well, I guess you won’t be a superstar.’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess not.’”

Asked what happened to the agent, she replied, “Fired him.”

Saint made her first movie in 1954 when she appeared with Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,” for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

“What was a little scary about him, which worked for me in the movie, was his perception of people that was so keen,” she said about working with Brando.

“He could look at somebody or talk with them and hone into what that person was all about. And he would mention it about people around us,” she said.

“So sometimes I would sit there and think, ‘If he knows that about that person, he must know more about me than I know about myself.’ It made me a little self-conscious, but I used that in the movie. He’d been out in the world, and I had been at home protected, so I used that,” she said.

In 1959, she played Eve Kendall in “North by Northwest” opposite Cary Grant.

Saint said director Alfred Hitchcock had a simple formula for the role:

“Three things: Lower your voice. Don’t use your hands. And look directly into Cary Grant’s eyes at all times,” she said.

She found Hitchcock easy to work with.

“I found that he was such a wonderful director, gentleman, funny, courteous, but there are other actresses who don’t feel the same way. I don’t even want to hear stories about him,” she said.

As noted by the U.K. Guardian, Saint once said, “I never wanted to be in a sitcom because I never wanted to have an imaginary family. I had everything I needed from my real one.”

Saint is survived by two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, according to CBS.

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