Eva Marie Saint, born July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey, turned 102 this year — sharing her birthday with the United States itself, which marked its 250th anniversary the same day.
She is the oldest living Academy Award winner and one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Saint graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1946 and got her start in television and radio before breaking into film.
Her defining career moment came in 1954, when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Edie Doyle opposite Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront.” She went on to star in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” and later added an Emmy to her collection for her work in the miniseries “People Like Us.” Her final on-screen appearance came in the 2019 release “Mariette in Ecstasy,” though filming for it actually wrapped back in 1996. She also appeared at the 2018 Academy Awards, at age 93, to present the Oscar for Best Costume Design.
In her personal life, Saint was married to director, writer and producer Jeffrey Hayden from 1951 until his death in 2016 at age 90. The couple had two children, Darrell and Laurette, along with three grandchildren. She has spoken fondly of Hayden over the years, once recalling how he helped her up on stage the night she won her Oscar — just two days before she gave birth to their son.
Saint has been candid about stepping back from acting later in life, saying Hollywood too often writes older women as “handicapped or neurotic” rather than giving them roles with real depth — a frustration she said she shared with the late Angela Lansbury.
Asked about her longevity, Saint credits something refreshingly simple: daily walks in the fresh air, watching baseball (she’s a Los Angeles Dodgers fan), and spending time with family and friends. As she put it, she doesn’t “feel” her age at all — she just keeps going with the flow.
