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Eva Marie Saint, Oscar-winning star of On the Waterfront, dies at 102

Actress Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar for On the Waterfront and starred in North by Northwest, died on 6 October 2026 at her Los Angeles home aged 102.

17 outlets · 11L · 5C · 1R First reported Account updated
Image: Variety
Image: Deadline
Image: Daily Mail
Image: /Film
Image: The Hollywood Reporter
Image: Screen Rant
Image: The Guardian
Image: CBS News

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The story, neutrally told

Left · 2Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress known for On the Waterfront and North by Northwest, died on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at her home in Los Angeles, aged 102. Mixed · 2Deadline and the Guardian report that she died of natural causes; the Guardian attributes this to a family spokesman. Mixed · 2She won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1955 for playing Edie Doyle opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront, and until her death was the oldest living Academy Award winner.

Mixed · 2In 1959 she played secret agent Eve Kendall opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, a role Deadline said broke with Hitchcock's habit of casting "icy blondes" as victims. Left · 3Her other film work included A Hatful of Rain, Raintree County, Exodus, All Fall Down, The Sandpiper, Grand Prix and Nothing in Common, and in 2006 she played Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mother, in Superman Returns. Left · 2Much of her later work was on television; she won a supporting actress Emmy in 1990 for the NBC miniseries People Like Us, and had a recurring role on Moonlighting.

Mixed · 2Outlets differ on her final film: Variety and the Guardian give her last screen appearance as Winter's Tale (2014), while Deadline lists Mariette in Ecstasy (2019) as her final film. Mixed · 2Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924 and attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio; Deadline gives her birth date as 4 July 1924. Mixed · 2She married director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951; he died in 2016. She is survived by two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Centre · 1At the 2018 Oscars, aged 93, she presented the costume design award and joked: "I'm older than the Academy."

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left11 outlets

Framing
Full career obituaries framing her as a Golden Age icon and one of its last survivors.
Emphasis
Career milestones, Oscar and Emmy wins, her Kazan and Hitchcock roles; the Guardian adds a family spokesman's statement on cause of death.
Charged language
“Graceful Star of the Silver Screen”“one of the last bridges to Hollywood’s Golden Age”
For example
“She was the numinous but scorned wife in 1965’s Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton adultery tale” — Variety
“one of the last survivors of Hollywood’s golden age of the 1940s and 50s” — The Guardian

Centre5 outlets

Framing
Tribute-style obituaries stressing her talent and screen presence, with one outlet leading on Superman Returns.
Emphasis
Deadline gives detailed analysis of her roles and her 2018 Oscars remarks; /Film relays Variety's report and adds a condolence; Screen Rant's headline highlights Superman Returns.
Leaves out or plays down
/Film does not mention cause of death.
Charged language
“Hollywood Legend”“robbed of an Oscar nomination”
For example
“Saint was never mere arm candy for the male superstars with whom she shared a screen.” — Deadline
“A legend of Classic Hollywood has sadly passed away.” — /Film

Right1 outlet

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.