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”He said ‘Brando is the boyfriend of your sister. You’re not used to being with a young man. Don’t let him in the door under any circumstances.’ I don’t know what he told Marlon; you’ll have to ask him—good luck! [Brando] came in and started teasing me. He put me off balance. And I remained off balance for the whole shoot.”
Her performance in On the Waterfront immediately established her as a serious talent.
She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role in 1955, becoming one of the breakout stars of her generation.
But Saint had already been working for years before Hollywood came calling.
Came from a Quaker family
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924 to a Quaker family, she initially planned to become a teacher. Instead, she found her way into acting, first working in radio and television.
Her first paycheck was reportedly just $10 for working as an off-camera applauder on The Borden Show.
She modeled, appeared in radio serials and took whatever work she could find while trying to establish herself.
Then came television.Book Play Tickets
In the early 1950s, Saint appeared in productions including One Man’s Family, Philco Playhouse, Robert Montgomery Presents and Studio One. Her performance in The Trip to Bountiful caught the attention of director Elia Kazan.
Kazan invited her to audition for On the Waterfront by improvising a scene with Marlon Brando.
Saint later admitted that she found the experience difficult — but she got the part.
And the rest became Hollywood history.
She appeared opposite Bob Hope, Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton before landing perhaps her most iconic role of all.
In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock cast her opposite Cary Grant in North by Northwest, turning her into one of the defining screen actresses of the era.
She played Eve Kendall, a glamorous and mysterious woman caught up in an international espionage plot — a role that required her to balance sophistication, danger and humor.
Two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Saint later recalled that part of the reason she believed Hitchcock noticed her was because she wore beige and white gloves to a lunch meeting with him.