‘On the Waterfront’ Star Eva Marie Saint’s Cause of Death Revealed

Martin Holmes October 21, 2026, 8:06 am

What To Know

Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint died at age 102 from cardiopulmonary arrest.
Saint was renowned for her roles in films such as On the Waterfront and North by Northwest.
She won both an Academy Award and an Emmy during her seven-decade career.

Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint died on Tuesday, October 6, at her Los Angeles home at 102 years old, and her cause of death has now been officially revealed.

According to People, citing Saint’s death certificate, the On the Waterfront star died seconds after the onset of cardiopulmonary arrest, also known as a cardiac arrest. Contributing conditions included senile dementia, hypertension, hyperthyroidism, and embolism.

Saint was best known for playing Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront opposite Marlon Brando. Her performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to act across seven decades, starring in the likes of A Hatful of Rain, North by Northwest, Exodus, The Sandpiper, and many more.

On television, Saint appeared in Taxi, a two-person drama with Martin Sheen that earned her an Emmy nomination, and the 1990’s People Like Us, for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special. She also played Virginia Hayes, the mother of Cybill Shepherd‘s character, in six episodes of Moonlighting.

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Her acting work slowed in the 2000s, with her last role as the voice of Katara in the Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra from 2012 to 2014.

Saint, who has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for film and television work, spoke about her longevity in a 2013 interview with Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “The longer you live, the smarter you get, because you’ve been around, you’ve seen things,” she said.

She added, “You’ve gone through different emotional experiences in your own life, and hopefully, you understand things better. And that makes you a better actress.”

Saint was married to producer and director Jeffrey Hayden from 1951 until his death in 2016. The pair had two children, Laurette and Darrell, and four grandchildren, Eli, Tyler, Molly, and Stella.