Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle and Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront" (1954).

Six decades after her breakout movie role, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Saint has continued to appear in films and on television, including the new movie, "Winter's Tale."

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Eva Marie Saint

Born in Newark, N.J., Eva Marie Saint studied teaching at Bowling Green State University, before pursuing an acting career in New York. She attended the Actors Studio and appeared in several live TV productions, while also modeling.

"See, I wasn't a great model. You know why? Because I smiled," Saint told CBS News' Mo Rocca. "The ladies, when they're modeling, they do that walk, and there's nothing in their face. How can they do that? And they do it beautifully. That's why they're successful. I could not do it. That's not good."

"So you had no choice but to become an actress?" Rocca asked.

"Yeah."

Saint and Hayden

Eva Marie Saint and TV producer-director Jeffrey Hayden (pictured in 2012) have been married since 1951.

For Saint, the conflict of work and motherhood was never an issue because "I made decisions. I had an agent once who wanted me to make many more movies. I said, 'I can't, I can only do one a year, if that. I have young children.' And he said. 'Well, I guess you won't be a superstar,' and I said, 'Well, I guess not.'"

"And what happened to that agent?" Rocca asked.

"Fired him."

"On the Waterfront"

After several years of acting in live TV productions and television films (including "Goodyear Playhouse," and the 1953 TV film, "The Trip to Bountiful"), Eva Marie Saint appeared in her first feature film opposite fellow Actors Studio alum Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1954). Both won Academy Awards for their performances, and the film won the Oscar for Best Picture.

"On the Waterfront"

Eva Marie Saint with Karl Malden and Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront," directed by Elia Kazan.

"On the Waterfront"

Saint said that during rehearsal of her walk with Brando, "I dropped the glove and Marlon picked it up and had the presence of mind to pick it up and put it on his hand. And that kept me in that scene.

"It was always a difficult scene - why she would stay and talk to this man? She didn't know anything about the opposite sex, she was a Catholic girl. And then Kazan saw this and said, 'I like that. Keep it in.'

"So when we shot it, I dropped the glove. But that's what happened. And that's why Marlon, in my mind, was one of the finest actors we've ever had.

"At some point in his life, I have a feeling he lost the joy in acting, and that was our loss - not only his loss, our loss. But that was his decision, and it's his life."

"On the Waterfront"

Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle, whose brother is killed by corrupt dockworkers, in "On the waterfront" (1954).

"That Certain Feeling"

Following the heavy drama of "On the Waterfront," Eva Marie Saint played light comedy with Bob Hope in "That Certain Feeling" (1956). Sixteen years later the two starred together in "Cancel My Reservation."

Saint also starred opposite Carl Reiner in Norman Jewison's Oscar-nominated comedy, "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" (1966).

"A Hatful of Rain"

Eva Marie Saint starred as the pregnant wife of a Korean War vet addicted to morphine in the 1957 drama, "A Hatful of Rain," costarring Don Murray and Anthony Franciosa. Saint earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress-Drama, and Francisoa was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor.

"Raintree County"

Eva Marie Saint starred with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in the Civil War drama, "Raintree County" (1957).

"Raintree County"

Eva Marie Saint and Montgomery Clift in "Raintree County" (1957). During filming Clift was in a near-fatal car accident.

"North by Northwest"

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint meet aboard a train in the espionage caper "North by Northwest" (1959).

Saint told Rocca about a phone call she received from her mother after writing that she was to meet with Alfred Hitchcock about working on the film: "She said, 'Now, honey, if you are having lunch with Mr. Hitchcock, I read somewhere' - and it just floored me, because she was not into movie magazines - 'that he likes women in beige, and white gloves.' Well, I sort of live in beige, so I had a beige dress, and I had white gloves, because in New York we all had little white gloves. I still have dozens of them. So I wore them to lunch, the dress, the gloves, and I got the part."

"North by Northwest"

"I had studied years at the Actor's Studio, and you do start from within, and Hitchcock didn't work that way. He's very different from Kazan, totally different. He started from the external things, the hair, the makeup, the clothes, the bag, the jewelry, everything. But then those things helped me create the spy lady."

And, she added, "What woman doesn't want to be a sexy spy lady? Maybe not everyone does. But I thought it would be fun, yep."

Saint said Hitchock gave her three instructions for her role as the "sexy spy lady" Eve Kendall: "Lower your voice, don't use your hands, and look directly into Cary Grant's eyes at all times."

"North by Northwest"

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint find themselves atop Mount Rushmore in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest."

"North by Northwest"

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint barely avoid censorship restrictions in the 1959 Hitchcock classic, "North by Northwest."

"Exodus"

Eva Marie Saint played a nurse to Paul Newman's Jewish militant in the 1960 film, "Exodus." Five years earlier the two had acted together on TV in a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town."

Saint told Rocca it was true that director Otto Preminger took her in his arms to show Paul Newman how she should be kissed. "Can you believe that?" she laughed. "There's Mr. Blue Eyes. We know what to do, right? 'No, let me show you!' And he lies down on the grass next to me and takes me in his arms. And I'm looking at Paul, you know. It was very funny, but we made believe that he showed us. Yeah, he showed Paul Newman how to make love to the nurse!"

"I don't mean to be trivial about it," said Rocca, "but you made out with a lot of famous leading men in your career, like Brando and Cary Grant and Paul Newman and Yves Montand."

"On screen, you mean!" Saint said. "Well, why not?"

"All Fall Down"

Warren Beatty played a womanizer and Eva Marie Saint the latest object of his obsession in John Frankenheimer's "All Fall Down" (1962).

"36 Hours"

Eva Marie Saint and James Garner in "36 Hours" (1965), a wartime thriller about a plot to convince a hospitalized U.S. military intelligence officer that World War II is over, so he would spill secrets.

"The Sandpiper"

Eva Marie Saint starred with Richard Burton, as a couple whose marriage is jeopardized by Burton's affair with a free-spirited artist (played by Elizabeth Taylor), in Vincente Minnelli's "The Sandpiper" (1965).

"Grand Prix"

Eva Marie Saint played a journalist who has an affair with a married French race car driver (Yves Montand) in John Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" (1966).

"He was so attractive, so attractive," Saint told Rocca. "And we had the two children over there at the time and they both had a crush, especially my daughter [who] was about eight at the time. And she fell in love. They wrote for years and years and years. It was dear.

"And the last shot of the picture, I was standing here, Yves Montand was sitting here. Suddenly, after the shot, he pulled me down on his lap and he said, 'You are my favorite lady.' And I said, 'Thank you. You should have told me before!'"

"Grand Prix"

Actress Eva Marie Saint attends a retrospective 70mm screening of "Grand Prix" at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on July 23, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"The Stalking Moon"

Gregory Peck reteamed with his "To Kill a Mockingbird" director Robert Mulligan for the 1968 western "The Stalking Moon," about a former Army Scout trying to protect a woman (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-Indian son from the boy's Apache father.

"Loving"

Eva Marie Saint and George Segal starred in the comedy "Loving" (1970), directed by Irvin Kerschner, about a woman and her cheating husband.

"Nothing in Common"

As the mother of Tom Hanks, Eva Marie Saint plays a woman who separates from her husband of 36 years (played by Jackie Gleason) in the 1986 comedy-drama "Nothing in Common."

"Don't Come Knocking"

Eva Marie Saint played the mother of an aging movie star (played by Sam Shepard) in Wim Wenders' road movie, "Don’t Come Knocking" (2005).

"Don't Come Knocking"

Actor Harry Dean Stanton, director Wim Wenders and actress Eva Marie Saint arrive at the "Don't Come Knocking" premiere at the Fine Arts Theatre on March 13, 2006 in Beverly Hills, California.

"Superman Returns"

In the 2006 reboot "Superman Returns," Eva Marie Saint played Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman.

Saint and Beatty

Actress Eva Marie Saint and actor Warren Beatty - costars from "All Fall Down" - are reunited at the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award tribute to Beatty held at the Kodak Theatre on June 12, 2008 in Hollywood, Calif.

Best Supporting Actresses

Actress Penelope Cruz (center) poses in the press room with her Best Supporting Actress award for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," along with presenters (from left) Anjelica Huston, Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn, Eva Marie Saint and Whoopi Goldberg, at the 81st Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on February 22, 2009 in Los Angeles.

"Winter's Tale"

Eva Marie Saint plays the adult version of Willa, a character at the heart of the time-travel/romantic fantasy "Winter's Tale" (2014), directed by Akiva Goldsman.

Saint and Farrell

Eva Marie Saint and Colin Farrell attend the "Winter's Tale" world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on February 11, 2014 in New York City.

Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint attends the "Winter's Tale" world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on February 11, 2014 in New York City.

Saint and Rocca

Eva Marie Saint told Mo Rocca that unlike some celebrities, she won't be writing any tell-all book.

"If you wrote a book, it should be titled, 'How to Make It in Hollywood and Be a Normal Person,'" Rocca said.

"It would never sell," Saint replied. "Because a lot of people, when they associate you with Hollywood, they don't want to think of you as normal. They want to hear, you know, all the stuff in Hollywood!"

For more info:

Margaret Herrick Library, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan