Although the part of Edie Doyle properly is a lead, producer Sam Spiegel listed Eva Marie Saint as a Supporting Actress in the hopes of getting her a nomination. The ploy worked, and she won the Oscar.
As for the charming little town of Bedford Falls (the home town of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed), in "It's a Wonderful Life", alas, it was a temporary town set built for the movie in the San Fernando Valley. The area was part of RKO's movie ranch at the time. The "Bedford Falls" set was torn down soon after the filming ended in 1946, and the area was sold to developers in the early 1950's and built in with nondescript track homes. The land is in the city of Encino, just west of the San Diego (405) Freeway, on Burbank Blvd, between Louise Avenue and the Balboa Sports Center park. But all you'll find there now are modern residential homes.
Got the part of Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (1954) over Elizabeth Montgomery. Director Elia Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life," says that the choice of an actress to play the part was narrowed down to Elizabeth Montgomery and Saint, but there were also some qualms about Saint playing a teen at age 30. Although Montgomery was fine in her screen test, there was an air of finishing school about her. Kazan thought this genteel quality would not be becoming for Edie, who was raised on the waterfront in Hoboken, NJ. He gave the part to Saint, and she went on to win cinematic immortality, and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the part.
Has 3 grandchildren.
Has campaigned to ban the usage of cell phones by motorists.
In 1987, the Eva Marie Saint Theater was dedicated on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Saint is a 1946 graduate of BGSU.
Lives in Santa Monica, California.
Member of Delta Gamma sorority.
Mother of Laurette Hayden
She and her performance in On the Waterfront are mentioned in the song 'Rattlesnakes' by the band Lloyd Cole & The Commotions.
She studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.
Son Darrell was born two days after she won the Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954).
There is a key scene in that film where Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed are dancing the Charleston at the "Bedford Falls High School" prom, when suddenly the gym floor slides open, plunging the dancers into a swimming pool. (Later, when walking home, wearing a bathrobe, Donna gets stuck in the bushes without any clothes on.) That dance scene was filmed using an actual covered swimming pool in the gym at Beverly Hills High School (241 Moreno Drive) near Century City. The gym is located on the south side of the campus, near the high school's track.
You'll remember from the classic film, that George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) defies the man who owns most of Bedford Falls (the dastardly 'Mr. Potter') and uses his father's savings & loan to help build affordable housing for working families. The bright new neighborhood is called Bailey Park, in honor of George's late father. In the movie, we see Mr. Martini's family move into the first model home, with much celebrating. Later, during George's world-changing angelic encounter, Bailey Park ceases to exist, because he wasn't there to build it. (The neighborhood returns when Clarence restores his past.) Well, that model home was just that - a real model home - but it was far away from the rest of "Bedford Falls" (see above). Frank Capra, in an interview year later, couldn't even remember where he filmed the scene, only that it was out in the middle of nowhere at the time. Well, today it's actually in the city of La Caņada Flintridge, CA (the home of Descanso Gardens), just northwest of