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Eva Marie Saint, whose intelligence, warmth, and understated performances made her one of the most admired actresses of her generation, has died at 102.

Her representative, Jeff Sanderson, confirmed that she died of natural causes on October 6 at her Los Angeles home, surrounded by family and loved ones. Her death closes another chapter in the history of Hollywood’s golden age.

Saint’s place in that history rests particularly on two performances, delivered just five years apart, that revealed the breadth of her talent.

In Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” in 1954, her first feature film, she played Edie Doyle, the grieving sister whose relationship with Marlon Brando’s dockworker Terry Malloy helps push him toward confronting corruption. Saint won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role.

Watching the film today, the strength of her performance lies in its emotional honesty. Edie’s vulnerability never makes her seem weak. Her insistence on knowing the truth gives the story a moral force that matches Brando’s more turbulent presence.

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‘North by Northwest’

Then came Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” in 1959. As Eve Kendall, opposite Cary Grant, Saint exchanged Edie’s tentative openness for composure, mystery, and romantic confidence. It became her other signature film role.

Her scenes with Grant remain a pleasure because she meets his charm with an assurance of her own. Beneath Eve’s polished manner, Saint lets the audience sense conflicting loyalties and real danger. The glamour serves the character.

Born July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey, Saint grew up in Delmar, New York. She became interested in acting at Bowling Green State University and graduated in 1946. Radio and early television work preceded her arrival in movies.

Stardom did not persuade her to surrender control of her life. After “On the Waterfront,” she declined studio contracts and opportunities that would have kept her away from her young family. Her husband, director Jeffrey Hayden, encouraged her to reconsider the script for “North by Northwest,” helping bring about one of her greatest successes.

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Later career

Her later work introduced her to new audiences. She appeared in “Moonlighting,” played Tom Hanks’ mother in “Nothing in Common,” and portrayed Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in “Superman Returns.” She also won an Emmy in 1990 for “People Like Us.”

Saint and Hayden married in 1951 and remained together until his death in 2016. She is survived by their children, Darrell and Laurette, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Her finest performances invite close attention: a pause, a searching look, a voice steadying itself under pressure. Those small choices gave her characters an inner life. They also explain why, decades later, Eva Marie Saint still feels so immediate on the screen.