Eva Marie Saint, one of the last survivors of Hollywood’s golden age, has passed away at the age of 102. Known for her landmark roles in classic films of the 1950s, she died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, as confirmed by a family spokesman on Tuesday.

Early Life and Career

Born in 1924 in New Jersey to a Quaker family, Saint began her career as a radio and TV performer. Her early struggles in the entertainment industry were chronicled in a 1949 feature in Life magazine, which predicted that her name might someday become a household word.

By the early 1950s, she began to gain recognition, appearing in both the original telecast and the premiere Broadway production of Horton Foote's play The Trip to Bountiful in 1953. It was during this time that Elia Kazan, the director of On the Waterfront, spotted her and invited her to audition alongside Marlon Brando. Saint recalled the experience as challenging but ultimately led to her role as Edie Doyle, for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1955.

Iconic Roles

Following her Oscar win, Saint secured a variety of leading roles. She starred opposite Bob Hope in That Certain Feeling, portrayed a woman married to a secret drug addict in Fred Zinnemann's A Hatful of Rain, and co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the period western Raintree County.