Eva Marie Saint

Infobox actor
name = Eva Marie Saint


imagesize =
caption = Eva Marie Saint at the Emmy Awards, 1990
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1924|7|4
birthplace = Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
othername = Eve Marie Saint
yearsactive = 1948 - Present
spouse = Jeffrey Hayden 1951-present
academyawards = Best Supporting Actress
1954 "On the Waterfront"
emmyawards = Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or Movie
1990 "People Like Us"
awards = Hollywood Walk of Fame
6624 Hollywood Boulevard
6730 Hollywood Boulevard

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.

Biography

Early life

Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Eva Marie (née Rice) and John Merle Saint. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/0/Eva-Marie-Saint.html Eva Marie Saint Biography (1924-) ] ] She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, 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 theater on Bowling Green's campus named for her. She was an active member in the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi.

Early television career

In the late '40s, Saint 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."

Film debut

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." [New York Times, July 30, 1954]

In a 2000 interview in "Premiere" magazine, Saint recalled making the hugely influential film:

Eva Marie Saint in "On the Waterfront"

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.

Hitchcock blonde

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.'"

Mid-career

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", and a 1978 Emmy Award nomination for "Taxi" and an Emmy in 1990 for the mini-series "People Like Us".

Later career

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 family film "Because of Winn-Dixie". In 2006, Saint appeared as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in "Superman Returns", alongside a computer-generated performance from her late "On The Waterfront" co-star Marlon Brando.

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and television at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard.

In popular culture

She is mentioned in the Lloyd Cole and the Commotions track 'Rattlesnakes' (from the album of the same name): "She looks like Eva Marie Saint/In On The Waterfront".

Notable films she rejected

* "Quo Vadis" (1951) (Ligia) - At the beginning of her career she turned down a role of Ligia.
* "Friendly Persuasion" (1956) (Elizy Birdwell) - Considered for the part of Elizy Birdwell
* "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956) (Norma)
* "The Eddy Duchin Story" (1956) (Marjorie Oelrichs)
* "Cimarron" (1960) (Sabra Cravat) - Considered for the part of Sabra Cravat.
* "Psycho" (1960) (Marion Crane) - Considered for the part of Marion Crane.
* "Will Penny" (1968) (Catherine Allen) - Considered to play the part of Catherine Allen.
* "Torn Curtain" (1966) - Alfred Hitchcock wanted to cast his "North by Northwest" star as the female lead of his 50th film.
* "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957) (Eve) - Turned down the true-life role of a young woman beset by multiple personality disorder.
* "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) (Vicky) - Director Norman Jewison replaced his original choice, Saint, when Faye Dunaway became an overnight sensation on screen.
* "Marnie" (1964) (Marnie) - One of the film's screenwriters suggested to director Alfred Hitchcock that he consider the beautiful Oscar-winner — his star of "North by Northwest" — to play the role in the project from which Grace Kelly had pulled out.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*imdb name|0001693|Eva Marie Saint
* [http://home.nyc.rr.com/alweisel/premiereevamariesaint.htm Idol Chatter: Eva Marie Saint]
* [http://www.movingpicturesmagazine.com/Default.aspx?DN=d554172e-b17e-41ed-a79d-e7a9cd129f89 On Life Between Brando’s Babe and Superman’s Mom ("Moving Pictures Magazine" interview)]

Persondata
NAME= Saint, Eva Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= July 4, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH= Newark, New Jersey, USA
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=