Eva Marie Saint (1924-2026)

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TechnicolorAcid · #1 Post by **TechnicolorAcid** » Tue Oct 06, 2026 9:12 pm

Eva Marie Saint

thirtyframesasecond · Tue Oct 06, 2026 10:20 pm

I just assumed EMS would outlive us all.

JSC · #3 Post by **JSC** » Wed Oct 07, 2026 10:44 am

Still, 102 was a darn good run. RIP.

Beloved Aunt · #4 Post by **Beloved Aunt** » Thu Oct 08, 2026 1:07 am

It's amazing how incredibly selective her filmography was. Like 20 films over 70 years. I'm sure she turned down scores of roles. Probably the most carefully and selectively created image in film history, honestly. It's also funny to see her in behind-the-scenes photographs in her heyday--she always looks very confident, like the life of the party, funnily, considering her image on film.

Beloved Aunt · #5 Post by **Beloved Aunt** » Thu Oct 08, 2026 1:09 am

& I wonder why Hitchcock didn't do another film with her--she was a wonderful replacement for Grace Kelly, just as beautiful and a much better actress than Kelly, or Tippi Hedren, to boot.

hearthesilence · #6 Post by **hearthesilence** » Thu Oct 08, 2026 2:44 am

From The New York Times:

Aljean Harmetz wrote:Stardom beckoned, but Ms. Saint decided to raise a family and to make only one movie a year while her two children were growing up. She later recalled turning down a three-picture deal that her agent promised would make her “a superstar.” What she preferred, she reflected in 1996 to the Hollywood interviewers David Fantle and ‎Tom Johnson, was “to be a working actress with a home life that worked.”

“I have a life, and it is not lived on the set,” she said. “I felt that way when I was raising my kids, and I feel that way now. I don’t want make-believe children. When Donna Reed, the perfect American mother to millions of TV viewers in the 1950s, ended her show, her children were teenagers. She said to me, ‘Now I’m going to get to know my kids.’ I thought that was so very sad.”

#7 Post by **Matt** » Thu Oct 08, 2026 2:58 am

From this interview, it seems like she was prioritizing her family (two young children) at the time. And she was already very choosy with parts. I imagine winning an Oscar for her debut film gave her some freedom in choosing her roles, and she doesn't appear to have ever been a studio contract player faced into roles she didn't want to play.

It also seems, from that interview, that Hitchcock had a strong opinion of the type of roles she should be taking, and she disagreed with him. I don't think she wanted to be the next Grace Kelly, and he probably didn't like that.

The Fanciful Norwegian · Thu Oct 08, 2026 3:19 am

Matt wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2026 2:58 am It also seems, from that interview, that Hitchcock had a strong opinion of the type of roles she should be taking, and she disagreed with him. I don't think she wanted to be the next Grace Kelly, and he probably didn't like that.

Hitchcock apparently complained to Hedda Hopper that he "took a lot of trouble" towards "making her sleek and sophisticated," only for her to go from North by Northwest to "a picture called Exodus and looking dissipated." I doubt he looked any more favorably on her role in All Fall Down.

Criterion Nitrile · Thu Oct 08, 2026 5:45 am

Eva Marie Saint 1924 - 2026

The Robert Osborne TCMFF interview with Eva Marie Saint is one of my favorites. A few months before her 90th birthday, she seemed so sharp, and happy, and full of life. An inspiration to us all.

Eva Marie Saint Interviewed by Robert Osborne Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival (2014)

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