Eva Marie Saint, who has died aged 102, made a lasting impression in two outstanding American films: as Edie Doyle, the wholesome, sensitive, Catholic girl who befriends the docker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954); and as Eve Kendall, the intriguing beauty helping and hindering the pursued advertising executive (Cary Grant) in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest (1959).
In the latter, Saint, the coolest and wittiest of the “Hitchcock blondes”, was lit so beautifully that her fair skin looked like porcelain. In the scene when they first meet in the dining car of a Chicago-bound train, Saint and Grant deliver the double-edged banter with supreme style. Assessing him, she says, “Good taste in clothes. Good taste in food.” He continues, “Good taste in women – I like your flavour.”
