Eva Marie Saint, a graceful actress best known for her Oscar-winning film debut in On the Waterfront," has died

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Set us as preferred Eva Marie Saint, a graceful actor best known for her Oscar-winning film debut in “On the Waterfront” and for her turn as a sultry spy in another 1950s film classic “North by Northwest,” died Tuesday.She was 102.

Saint died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles.Plucked from the Broadway stage by director Elia Kazan to portray Marlon Brando’s love interest in 1954’s “On the Waterfront,” Saint emerged a star.After Cary Grant dangled her from Mt.

Rushmore in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” she continued to appear opposite some of Hollywood’s biggest heartthrobs — including Paul Newman in “Exodus” (1960), Yves Montand in “Grand Prix” (1966) and Gregory Peck in “The Stalking Moon” (1969).Groomed for stardom in the 1950s as a “luminous blond leading lady,” she found “few vehicles worthy of her talents,” film critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his “Movie Encyclopedia.”But Saint gave another, more personal reason for her career trajectory.“I was having children, I was turning things down and my agent said, ‘Eva Marie, you’ll never be a superstar’ and I said, ‘I don’t want to be a superstar,’” she often recounted.When the movie roles faded — she only made about 20 films in more than 50 years — she found regular work on television beginning in the 1970s.“As I got older, there weren’t that many roles,” she said matter-of-factly in a 1990 Times interview.“I segued into TV and am perfectly happy.”She had a recurring role as Cybill Shepherd’s mother on the 1980s TV series “Moonlighting” and received an Emmy Award for playing a wealthy, self-centered woman who disowns her daughter in the 1990 miniseries “People Like Us.”More recently, she appeared in “Don’t Come Knocking” with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepar...