Eva Marie Saint's journey from childhood in New York to stardom in Hollywood included a four-year stop in Ohio along the way.
Bowling Green State University, where the Oscar-winning actor changed her major from education to theater and earned her bachelor's degree in 1946, as among those paying tribute to Saint, who died Oct. 6 at age 102.
USA TODAY called Saint "one of the last figures of a bygone Hollywood era." She starred opposite the likes of Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Warren Beatty and won an Academy Award in 1955 as Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in "On the Waterfront."
"Hollywood, and Bowling Green, Ohio, are dimmer tonight," BGSU President Rodney Rogers said in a university post on Instagram.
"Even
with international acclaim, she remained kind, humble and grounded, never forgetting the people, places and priorities that shaped who she was and what she valued most," Rogers said. "We are grateful for Eva Marie’s wisdom and unwavering support of Bowling Green State University throughout her distinguished career."
Bowling Green awarded Saint its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and an honorary doctorate of performing arts degree in 1982. The Eva Marie Saint Theatre on campus hosts student productions, and an Eva Marie Saint Scholarship is awarded to first-year theater students.
“My beginnings were here,” Saint said in 2018 when she returned to Bowling Green to receive her last award from the university. “I don’t think I would have been an actress if it weren’t for Bowling Green. That’s why I love coming back. I feel so thankful that Bowling Green gave me the basis of what ultimately I was supposed to do.”
During that visit, she recalled starting out as an education major – her mother was a teacher – but receiving encouragement to try out for a campus play by the head of the university's drama department. With her parents' blessing, she changed her focus to theater during her junior year.
In addition to "On the Waterfront," Saint starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and in TV dramas such as "How the West Was Won." She won an Emmy Award in 1990 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries for her role in "People Like Us."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Bowling Green State mourns alumna, Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint
