By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Eva Marie Saint, the Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning actress and Bowling Green State University alumna, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, but her legacy lives on at BGSU in memories, friendships, special collections and a theater named in her honor.
The 1946 BGSU alumna, who earned a Distinguished Alumna Award in 1980, an honorary doctorate of performing arts in 1982 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, was known for her longtime acting career beginning with the “Golden Age of Hollywood.” (Read David Dupont’s tribute to her career here.) The university also named
“As a student, Eva Marie demonstrated what was possible at a university like Bowling Green, exploring career paths and discovering a talent for acting while at BGSU,” President Rodney K. Rogers said in a statement mourning the passing “of one of our most recognized and celebrated alumni.”
“She credits Bowling Green with changing her life, said Dr. Charles Coletta, BGSU popular culture teaching professor, whose expertise in superhero Superman first connected him to Saint via email in 2005 as she was preparing for her role as Ma Kent in the 2006 film, “Superman Returns.”
“Her life would have been totally different if she hadn’t listened to Dr. Elden T. Smith (theater professor and head of the drama department in the 1940s), because she would have gone back to New York and been a third-grade teacher,” Coletta said. “That shows you the power one teacher can have on a person.”
BGSU friendships instill precious memories
Saint’s reputation as a generous and kind person, despite her fame, won over Ralph Wolfe, a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of English, when they met in 1982, during one of her many visits to campus. “
“I don’t think she had any enemies. She never put on airs as a star,” Wolfe said. “She was just always a generous human being. And so I had so many pleasant memories of her,” when she visited Bowling Green and Wolfe’s North Baltimore hometown, and when Wolfe was visiting in California.
“I had a happy relationship with Eva Marie, her husband, Jeffrey Hayden, and her children, Laurette and Darrell, Wolfe said. “We always had good conversations.”
“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 stated.
Her connection to Bowling Green State University and her sorority, Delta Gamma, was unwavering “after all these years,” Coletta said.
She was always very forward-looking too. Though she was a frequent participant in Turner Classic Movies (TCM) events, “where they always talk about the past (of classic movie stars) and what they did, she would participate, but she didn’t dwell on it,” Coletta said.
During one of her BGSU visits, when asked about her work with Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,’ she basically said, ‘I’ve said everything I have about him. I know about him. He was very nice to me, but I’m always looking for the next thing to do.’”
Even in the past several years, she was still getting job offers, he said.
“We are grateful for Eva Marie’s wisdom and unwavering support of Bowling Green State University throughout her distinguished career. She remained engaged with her alma mater for decades,” Rogers said. “Today, and in all the years to follow, our students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community will visit the Eva Marie Saint Theatre in the Wolfe Centre for the Arts, named in honor of Eva Marie, a distinguished alumna.
Saint’s collections at BGSU Libraries ensure her legacy
The University Libraries at BGSU is honored to house many items connected to Saint’s time at BGSU and her Hollywood career, said Sara Bushong, Dean of University Libraries and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
An estimated 30 boxes are kept as part of the collection, which includes “amazing things such as playbills, clippings, programs, along with some of the plaques and awards she has received,” Bushong said. Most of the items are connected to her professional career, because she tended to be quiet about her personal life.
“All of these items are wonderful for students, alumni and researchers throughout the country,” to have access to at BGSU, she said.
“They can really dig in and see her influence and how we’ve compiled that in a way to showcase the trajectory of her career and how important it was that she was an alum,” she added.
The BGSU collection complements some of Saint’s items that are kept at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts at the Margaret Herrick Library in California.
“She’s a very important alum of this university. And I think having her memorabilia and all of the artifacts and papers from her collection that we’ve gathered over the years from Ralph Wolfe and Chuck Coletta and others and herself, it just shows BGSU students what they could accomplish,” Bushong said.
“She is a role model of past, present, and future for students to see how they can connect with an alumna that has been so transformational in the field and maintains such a level of professionalism that I think is a wonderful model for the students that desire to go into the performing arts, specifically in theater, movies, film, something like that. It is really an honor for us to have these collections here.”
