She played two of the most famous female leads in movie history. Born in New Jersey in 1924, Eva Marie Saint graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1946 and spent the first seven years of her acting career working in the Golden Age of television. She made the leap to the big screen in 1954 with an Oscar-winning performance as Edie Doyle in Elia Kazan's masterpiece Sur les quais (1954). She certainly brought "real acting" to a time when melodrama still ran rampant in the industry. Who can forget her memorable argument scene with Marlon Brando when she says, "I didn't say I don't love you, I said I want you to get out"? Five years later, she starred as Eve Kendell, the sultry spy in Alfred Hitchcock's La mort aux trousses (1959) opposite Cary Grant. The change in her screen persona, coupled with her adroit performance as a seductive woman of mystery who keeps Grant (and the audience) off-balance, was widely heralded. A suspense classic, "North by Northwest" is now considered one of the greatest films ever made. Eva Marie also received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Une poignée de neige (1957) and won an Emmy Award for the miniseries People Like Us (1990). As of late, she has been seen in the family film Winn-Dixie mon meilleur ami (2005) and the action adventure Superman Returns (2006), where she played Martha Kent. Eva Marie Saint is still going strong with her work and takes the fact that she's part of film history in her stride.
