Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint, born in 1924, American motion-picture and television actor, best known for her subtle, intelligent performances in major films of the 1950s. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Saint was educated at Bowling Green State University and at the renowned Actors Studio in New York City. She began her acting career in radio and television and on the stage. In 1953 she received the Drama Critics Award for her role in Trip to Bountiful, a play by American writer Horton Foote.

Saint made a stunning motion-picture debut in On the Waterfront (1954), a powerful drama about corruption in a longshoremen's labor union, by American director Elia Kazan. Saint's graceful, soft-spoken performance opposite American actor Marlon Brando won her an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She delivered another critically acclaimed performance in A Hatful of Rain (1957), a drama about drug addiction, before playing alongside American actor Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959), a suspense film by British-born American director Alfred Hitchcock. Notable performances in her many subsequent films include roles in Exodus (1960), The Sandpiper (1965), and Grand Prix (1966). In her later career, Saint was nearly always cast in supporting roles that failed to exploit her talent fully. Although she has continued working, it is mostly in movies made for television. Saint was a regular performer on the television program “Moonlighting” (1987-1989), and she won an Emmy Award as outstanding supporting actress in 1990 for her performance in the television miniseries People Like Us.