Eva Marie Saint, 102, Dies After Oscar-Winning Film Debut Opposite Marlon Brando in 'On The Waterfront'

Eva Marie Saint, whose film debut opposite Marlon Brando earned her an Oscar, died on Tuesday at her Los Angeles home aged 102, her representative told Fox News Digital. She died of natural causes, surrounded by family and loved ones.

Her first cinema role, as Edie Doyle in Elia Kazan's 1954 On the Waterfront, brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Five years later, she starred opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Eva Marie Saint's Breakthrough With Brando

Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Albany and Delmar, New York. Acting was not the career she initially intended to pursue. At Bowling Green State University in Ohio, she planned to become a teacher before acting took her in a different direction.

She attended the Actors Studio in New York and performed in live television in the late 1940s. Her work also extended to Broadway, where she appeared in The Trip to Bountiful before Kazan cast her in her first film.

Saint was almost 30 before she appeared in a film. Kazan suggested that she take part in a screen test with Brando for On the Waterfront. The scene they performed required her character to try to keep him out of her house.

She recalled that audition in a 2000 interview with WHYY's Fresh Air.

'I don't know what happened, but ... [Brando] came in the living room. We were dancing, we were laughing, I was crying. He was taking my skirt and ... whipping it around, and the sparks flew. And Kazan saw that. And suddenly I was in On the Waterfront.'

The part placed Saint at the centre of a story about union corruption in Hoboken, New Jersey. Edie, a Catholic schoolgirl, pursues justice after her brother, a longshoreman, is murdered.

Career Pivot in Hitchcock Classic and Decades of Major Screen Roles

Hitchcock's 1959 North by Northwest offered a different kind of character. Saint played Eve Kendall, the mysterious woman opposite Cary Grant. The femme fatale was a departure from Edie, the chaste heroine whose search for justice was central to her role in Kazan's drama.

During a career spanning more than seven decades, Saint worked alongside a succession of Hollywood's most celebrated leading men. Her screen partners included Montgomery Clift, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Richard Burton. She also worked with Warren Beatty, James Garner, George C. Scott, Burt Lancaster and Tom Hanks.

Her films ranged from A Hatful of Rain and Raintree County to Exodus, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming and Grand Prix. Later credits included Nothing in Common and Superman Returns.

Balancing Decades in Hollywood With Marriage, Children, and TV Success

Off screen, Saint's decisions about work were shaped by her marriage and children. She married director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951 and later limited the roles she accepted to devote more time to their family.

Television provided another strand of a career that also encompassed the stage. Saint returned to television in the 1970s, and her work in the medium brought her five Emmy Award nominations over the years. She won in 1990 for the miniseries People Like Us.

Her marriage to Hayden lasted 65 years until his death in 2016. Fox News Digital reported that she is survived by their two children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.