Eva Marie Saint, ‘North by Northwest’ star, dies at 102

Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress who starred opposite Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront” and Cary Grant in “North by Northwest,” died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 102.

Her publicist, Jeff Sanderson, said she died of natural causes, surrounded by family and loved ones.

Ms. Saint won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her 1954 film debut in “On the Waterfront,” directed by Elia Kazan. She played Edie Doyle, the sister of a murdered longshoreman who becomes involved with Brando’s dockworker, Terry Malloy. The film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Ms. Saint, who was pregnant, accepted her award in New York, according to the Academy’s transcript, joking that she might have her baby on the spot. Her son, Darrell, was born two days later.

Before the film, Ms. Saint had established herself in early live television, appearing in anthology series including “Studio One” and “Philco Television Playhouse.” In 1953, she starred in Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful” on television and repeated the role on Broadway, where Kazan noticed her.

Her best-known screen role may be Eve Kendall, the blonde who crosses paths with Mr. Grant’s Roger Thornhill in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller “North by Northwest.” Her later film work included “Raintree County,” “Exodus,” “All Fall Down,” “The Sandpiper,” “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” and “Grand Prix.” She won an Emmy in 1990 for “People Like Us,” played a recurring role on the ABC series “Moonlighting,” and appeared as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in 2006’s “Superman Returns.” Her final big-screen appearance was in 2014’s “Winter’s Tale.”

Ms. Saint kept her film output deliberately small while raising her children. She told CBS in 2014 that she could make only about one movie a year, and that an agent who wanted more from her was fired.

Ms. Saint was born July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in upstate New York. She attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio, originally planning to become a teacher, before turning to acting and studying at the Actors Studio in New York.

She married television director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951. They were together for 65 years until his death in 2016. Survivors include her two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, according to a statement from Mr. Sanderson.