A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of July
Seeking New Horizons
July 4, 1924 was the birthdate of American actress and producer, Eva Marie Saint.
Eva Marie Saint’s introduction to television began working as an NBC page, the internship program where pages rotate through assignments in the media environment. She appeared in the very early live NBC TV show “Campus Hoopla” in 1946. Her performances on this program are recorded on rare kinescope and audio recordings of these telecasts are preserved in the Library of Congress.
Eva Marie Saint won the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the 1953 Horton Foote play, “The Trip is Bountiful”, in which she co-starred with such experienced actors as Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet. She received her first Emmy nomination, a Best Actress award, for playing the young mistress of E. G. Marshall in “Middle of the Night”. She won another nomination for her role in the 1955 television musical “Our Town”, co-starring with Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra.
In the 1954 “On the Waterfront”, Eva Marie Saint made her first feature film appearance in the role of Edie Doyle- a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated by the British Academy of Film in the category of ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ for this role of Edie Doyle. “On the Waterfront” starring Marlon Brando was a major success and launched Saint’s movie career.
Director Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing Eva Marie Saint over dozens of candidates for the femme fatale role in the 1959 suspense classic “North by Northwest” starring Cary Grant and James Mason. The change in Saint’s screen persona, coupled with her adroit performance as a seductive woman of mystery who keeps Cary Grant off balance, was widely heralded. The film became a box office hit and an influence on spy films for decades.
In the 1960s, Eva Marie Saint continued to distinguish herself in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred with Paul Newman in the1060 “Exodus”, directed by Otto Preminger, a historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel adapted from Leon Uris’ novel. She also portrayed a tragic beauty in John Frankenheimer’s 1962 film “All Fall Down”, with Warren Beatty, Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury.
Eva Marie Saint has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for her television work at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she is now 94 years old.