Eva Marie Saint Turns 100: Look Back at 10 of Her Most Iconic Roles

The Oscar-winning actress, born on July 4, 1924, has more than 161 credits across theater, film and television

Eva Marie Saint is hitting triple digits.

The screen star, an Oscar and Emmy winner, turns 100 on July 4, 2024. Over her nearly 70-year career, Saint has starred alongside Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant and Richard Burton and worked with directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan and Fred Zinnemann.

According to her alma mater, Bowling Green State University, the actress has amassed more than 161 credits from the stage to the big and small screens. Among the productions to her name are the Academy Award-winning On the Waterfront, Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, the book-to-film adaptation Because of Winn-Dixie and the animated series The Legend of Korra.

“The longer you live, I think, really the smarter you get,” Saint told film historian Robert Osborne during an interview at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2014. “Because you’ve been around, you’ve been with people, you’ve seen things, you’ve gone through different emotional experiences in your own life. And hopefully, as an actress, that makes you a better actress because you can understand things better.”

From her breakthrough in On the Waterfront to a voice acting gig in her late career, here are 10 of Eva Marie Saint’s most notable roles.

Edie Doyle in 'On the Waterfront'

Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront was Eva Marie Saint’s feature film debut. In the 1954 crime drama, she portrayed Edie Doyle, the sister of a man murdered by a mob boss and the love interest of Marlon Brando’s Terry Malloy.

For her performance, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, which she famously accepted two days before giving birth to her first child with husband Jeffrey Hayden, Darrell.

Celia Pope in 'A Hatful of Rain'

Based on a Broadway play of the same name, A Hatful of Rain saw Eva Marie Saint take on the role of Celia Pope, the wife of Don Murray’s Johnny Pope. At the time, the 1957 film was praised for its honest depiction of the toll drug addiction can take on familial relationships and physical health.

Eve Kendall in 'North by Northwest'

In one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous and acclaimed works, Eva Marie Saint played Agent Eve Kendall, a clever government official who eventually falls in love with Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill. Saint received praise for her performance as the femme fatale in the 1957 spy thriller — particularly for her chemistry with Grant.

Anna Hedler in '36 Hours'

Eva Marie Saint continued her run of successful movies into the ‘60s, starring in the war thriller 36 Hours as German nurse Anna Hedler. In the 1964 film, she assists a Nazi Germany doctor (Rod Taylor) in convincing an American military intelligence officer (James Garner) that the war is over to obtain information about the D-Day invasion.

Claire Hewitt in 'The Sandpiper'

As Claire Hewitt, the wife of Richard Burton’s Dr. Edward Hewitt, Eva Marie Saint appeared alongside the actor and his then-wife Elizabeth Taylor. The 1965 drama told the story of Edward’s affair with the mother of a student at his boarding school (played by Taylor) and was the third of 11 films starring the decade’s it-couple.

Elspeth Whittaker in 'The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming'

Amid the Cold War, Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison released the comedy The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming! featuring Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint, Carl Reiner and more. Saint played a supporting role as Elspeth, the wife of Reiner’s Walt Whittaker, as the family comes into contact with the crew of a stranded Russian submarine.

Lil Van Degan Altemus in 'People Like Us'

Eva Marie Saint's portrayal of snobby socialite Lil Van Degan Altemus in the NBC miniseries People Like Us won her a Primetime Emmy for outstanding supporting actress.

Miss Franny in 'Because of Winn-Dixie'

Adapted from the 2000 children’s novel of the same name, Because of Winn-Dixie placed Eva Marie Saint in the shoes of eccentric librarian Miss Franny Block. The older woman recounts stories from her life to protagonist India Opal Buloni, played by AnnaSophia Robb in her feature film debut.

Martha Kent in 'Superman Returns'

At age 81, Eva Marie Saint played Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Brandon Routh’s Superman. The film became one of 2006’s highest-grossing films, earning over $391.1 million.

Katara in 'The Legend of Korra'

Late in her career, Eva Marie Saint stepped into the recording booth to voice an elderly Katara in the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series The Legend of Korra. The actress appeared in five episodes across the show’s four seasons, which aired from 2012 to 2014.

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