Old Hollywood icon Eva Marie Saint continues her legacy as the earliest surviving and oldest living Academy Award winner.
The actress is one of the last remaining stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, celebrating her 102nd birthday on July 4, 2026, one of the few celebrities marking their birthday the same day as our country (like Post Malone and Malia Obama).
The star, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 1954’s On the Waterfront, may not have made a public appearance since 2021, but she still remains healthy and happy in her 100s. Just what is her secret?
The secret to Eva Marie Saint’s health at 102
One word: walking! On her milestone 100th birthday in 2024, Eva told People: “I certainly don’t feel 100 years old,” explaining that the secret to her longevity is simply remaining active and happy.
“I continue to take walks out in the fresh air, like watching baseball — especially the Los Angeles Dodgers, and enjoy time with my family and friends. A good life.”
She similarly told Fox News a decade prior that even at 90, her secret was simply taking hour-long daily walks, then with husband Jeffrey Hayden (who passed away in 2016 at the age of 90). “You reach a certain age and you’re so proud that you’re walking and breathing and loving and working and all of that at 90,” she noted.
© Getty ImagesActing in her later years
Understandably, as time has gone by, Eva has taken a break from acting. Her last on-screen appearance was in the 2019 film Mariette in Ecstasy, although she finished filming it in 1996. She appeared at the 2018 Academy Awards to present the Oscar for Best Costume Design when she was 93.
“Recently, I saw something that Angela Lansbury said,” Eva noted during an interview with The Independent. “She said that as you get older and older, it gets harder to find roles. And people tend to write older people as handicapped or neurotic; they just don’t write for older people.”
“She said she wouldn’t do those roles. ‘Other actresses will do those roles,’ she said, ‘and they’ll do them very well. But I chose not to do those roles.'”
© Getty ImagesThe North by Northwest star recalled: “When I saw her recently I quoted her verbatim. She said, ‘How did you do that?’ I replied that I felt the exact same way. I don’t mean to sound cranky, but writers are compounding the bad writing out there these days. They don’t know about Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill.”
Stepping away from the screen
She did take a conscious break from acting in the ’50s and ’60s, soon after winning her Oscar, to focus on her life with her husband and two kids. “My agent was great but he wanted me to do too much work when I had two young children,” Eva remembered during her conversation with The Independent.
© Getty Images“I would turn things down, and he would tell me that I would never be a super-superstar if I didn’t work more. So I said, ‘I guess I don’t want to be a super-superstar.’ I want to continue working, but my family always comes first. And that’s how I’ve always felt.”
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