John Hodiak

John Hodiak (1914–1955) was an American actor who appeared in films, theatre, and on the radio. He had his breakthrough in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). From then on, he often played leading roles during the war period. After the war, he mostly played supporting roles. From 1953 on, he also had success on Broadway.


Vintage autograph card.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 119D, 1953. John Hodiak in Across the Wide Missouri (William A. Wellman, 1951). Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 164. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Castaway in a lifeboat with Tallulah Bankhead

John Hodiak was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1914. He was the eldest of four children of Walter Hodiak and Anna Pogorzelec, of Ukrainian and Polish descent. John grew up in Hamtrack, a predominantly Polish suburb of Detroit. Expressing interest in music and drama at an early age, he was encouraged by his father, who had appeared in amateur shows. His idol was Douglas Fairbanks. John began acting at age 11 in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It was his wish to become an actor.

John Hodiak first tried radio, but was rejected because of his Slavic accent. After speech exercises, he was eventually offered a job at a radio station in Chicago, where he created the role of the cartoon character Li'l Abner in a radio show. There, he was discovered by MGM talent agent Marvin Schenck and came to Hollywood in 1942. The film company wanted to change his name, but Hodiak refused, saying: "I like my name. It sounds like I look."

His first bit role was in A Stranger in Town (Roy Rowland, 1943). After several small roles, his inability to enlist in the military during WWII due to his high blood pressure ultimately led to a starring career. When many major stars were off serving their country, Hodiak was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock. The director loaned him to 20th Century Fox for the role of the castaway John Kovac in Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, 1944) opposite Tallulah Bankhead.

Following his successful performance in the film, MGM cast him in the third lead in the war film Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, 1944), supporting Robert Taylor and Susan Peters. He was Ann Sothern's love interest in the romantic comedy Maisie Goes to Reno (Harry Beaumont, 1944) and had a role in Marriage Is a Private Affair (Robert Z. Leonard, 1944), starring Lana Turner. 20th Century Fox again borrowed Hodiak to play the title role in Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (Lloyd Bacon, 1944), opposite Anne Baxter.

More major roles followed, such as in A Bell for Adano (Henry King, 1945) with Gene Tierney and the Film Noir Somewhere in the Night (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946). Both films showed off his quiet but rugged charm, according to Gary Brumburgh at IMDb. Hodiak had a role as Judy Garland's love interest in the musical The Harvey Girls (George Sidney, 1946). Hodiak acted with Lucille Ball in the Film Noir Two Smart People (Jules Dassin, 1946), which lost money. 'With MGM's male roster of talent back home now from the war, John was unceremoniously relegated to second leads that supported the top-tier actors', writes Gary Brumburgh.


Belgian collector card by Kwatta. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian collector card by Kwatta. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. John Hodiak in A Lady Without Passport (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950).

Box-office poison

In 1946, John Hodiak married his former co-star Anne Baxter. In 1951, they had a daughter, Katrina Hodiak, who later became an actress. Their varied backgrounds (he was middle class, and she more high society - her grandfather being the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright) and their busy film careers created significant problems. They divorced in 1953.

In 1947, Hodiak played the lead in Desert Fury (Lewis Allen, 1947), with Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster. Film critics later noted the homosexual overtones in this Film Noir, particularly in the relationship between the gangster Eddie Bendix (Hodiak) and his devoted, possessive sidekick (Wendell Corey). The actor then supported Lana Turner and Clark Gable in Homecoming (Mervyn Le Roy, 1948) and supported Gable again in Command Decision (Sam Wood, 1948). The two Gable films were hits, but Hodiak was voted 'box office poison' by exhibitors at the end of 1948.

However, the War film Battleground (William A. Wellman, 1949), in which he was second billed after Van Johnson, was a huge critical and commercial success. It was MGM's largest-grossing film in five years. Also popular was the thriller Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949), where Hodiak supported James Stewart and Spencer Tracy. Next, he was a love rival for Robert Taylor in the popular Western Ambush (Sam Wood, 1950). MGM gave him another lead role, co-starring with Hedy Lamarr in A Lady Without Passport (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950), but it lost money. He was third billed after Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in The Miniver Story (H.C. Potter, 1950), the flop sequel to Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942). Hodiak supported Spencer Tracy in the Film Noir The People Against O'Hara (John Sturges, 1951) and Clark Gable in the Western Across the Wide Missouri (William A. Wellman, 1952). His MGM contract expired in 1951, and he began to freelance.

In 1952, Hodiak went to New York City. There, he made his Broadway debut as the sheriff in the stage play 'The Chase' (1953). The play itself received poor reviews, but Hodiak received rave reviews and the Donaldson Award for his role. Later, he was cast as Lieutenant Maryk in 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial', written by Herman Wouk. The play, starring Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan, ran for two years, and Hodiak's portrayal brought him acclaim. He was extremely disappointed when former fellow MGM player Van Johnson was cast as the lieutenant in the acclaimed film version starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg.

After his divorce from Anne Baxter, John built a home for his parents and younger brother in the Tarzana neighbourhood of Los Angeles and eventually lived there with them. His later years grew difficult and were plagued by self-doubt, a diminishing career and an equally diminishing social life. In 1955, John Hodiak had a heart attack while shaving in the bathroom of his parents' home. He died instantly. The only 41-year-old Hodiak was interred at Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles. At the time, he was working on the film On the Threshold of Space (Robert D. Webb, 1956), starring Guy Madison. The film provides a historical depiction of U.S. Air Force tests conducted in the lead-up to the space race. 20th Century Fox decided that they had enough footage of John Hodiak to complete the film and released it six months after he died. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6101 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.


British Postcard by Real Photograph.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 891. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. John Hodiak as Spike Romway in The Miniver Story (H.C. Potter, 1950).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

Films Selectos (Part 3)

Spain in the era before the dictatorship of General Franco is an interesting goldmine for film memorabilia. We can't get enough of the beautiful leaflets from the early 1930s, published as an appendix by the weekly Films Selectos. We love the detailed photographs and the subtle colouring of this series. Here's a new selection of the Suplemento Artistico leaflets by Films Selectos.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Mary Pickford in The Taming of the Shrew (Sam Taylor, 1929).

Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a legendary silent film actress and was known as 'America’s sweetheart.' She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Paramount.

American singer and actress Lillian Roth was a Broadway star and Hollywood actress. Among the films she made with Paramount were The Love Parade (1929) with Maurice Chevalier, The Vagabond King (1930), Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930), and the Marx Brothers second film, Animal Crackers (1930). She rebelled against the pressure of her domineering stage mother and reacted to the death of her fiancé by becoming an alcoholic. Her life story was told in the popular biopic I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955) starring Susan Hayward.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Metro (MGM).

Joan Marsh (1913-2000) was a brassy, blue-eyed platinum blonde of the 1930s in the Jean Harlow tradition. As a child, she appeared between 1915 and 1921 in silent films starring Mary Pickford, on which her father worked as a cameraman. Later, during the sound era, she resumed her acting career and performed in a variety of films during the 1930s and 1940s.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Warner Bros.

Lovely British actress Lilian Bond (1908-1991) made over 50 films in Hollywood from the late 1920s through the 1940s. One of her first roles was in James Whale’s classic Horror comedy The Old Dark House (1932), but in later years she mostly appeared in B-movies, both in leading parts and in bit roles.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Fox Pictures.

Irene Ware (1910-1993) was a blonde beauty queen in 1930s Hollywood. She first joined the ensemble of Earl Carroll's Sketchbook on Broadway and had just the right blend of talent, charisma and sex appeal. She managed to replace Lillian Roth for a top-billed spot in the 1930 edition of 'Vanities' and soon signed a two-year contract with Fox. In only her second Hollywood film, she had the female lead in Chandu the Magician (1932), opposite Edmund Lowe and Bela Lugosi (as the evil Roxor). The New York Times critic praised Irene as "a charming juvenile". However, Fox only gave her ornamental second leads in bad pictures. When her contract expired in 1934, she fared no better with Universal. She paired with Lugosi once again in The Raven (1935). Until 1940, she appeared in B-movies with Poverty Row studios like Monogram. Then she quit and faded into obscurity.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Universal.

American actress Gloria Stuart (1910-2010) played lead roles for director James Whale in The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933). More than sixty years later, Stuart won a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar nomination for her performance as Old Rose in Titanic (1997).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Paramount.

American actress Frances Dee (1909-2004) got her big break when she was offered a leading role opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Playboy of Paris (1930) by Ludwig Berger. She also starred in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy (1931) and Jacques Tourneur's psychological Horror film I Walked With a Zombie (1943).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Paramount.

Sylvia Sidney (1910-1999) was an American stage, screen, and film actress whose career spanned over 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s, such as An American Tragedy (1931), City Streets (1931), Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (1936), and Fritz Lang's Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937). She later gained attention for her role as Juno, a caseworker in the afterlife, in Tim Burton's film Beetlejuice (1988), and she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: R.K.O. Constance Bennett in Born to Love (Paul Stein, 1931).

Independent, outspoken Constance Bennett (1904-1965) was a Hollywood star of the 1920s and 1930s. Her classy blonde looks, husky voice, and unerring fashion sense gave her a distinctive style. In the early 1930s, she was for a time Hollywood's most popular and best-paid star and is known for e.g. What Price Hollywood? (George Cukor, 1932). She was the older sister of actress Joan Bennett.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: P.D.C.

American film actress Mary Astor (1906–1987) was famous for her part as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. She won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Great Lie (1941). Astor had a long-running career that began in the silent era in 1921 and spanned over 100 films.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Dorville as Sancho Panza in Don Quichotte / Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933).

Dorville (1883–1940) was known for Circulez! (1931), Don Quichotte (1933), and Le dompteur (1938).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Julio Peña as Luis I in Rosa de Francia / Rose of France (José López Rubio, Gordon Wiles, 1935).

Spanish actor Julio Peña (1912-1972) appeared in more than one hundred films from 1930 to 1972. At 60, he died at Cortijo Blanco in Marbella, where he was resting after appearing in the film Horror Express (1972).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

American actress Sally Eilers (1908-1978) was a popular Hollywood star in the early 1930s. She was tagged 'the most beautiful girl in movies'.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Paramount.

Austrian-born actress and writer Elissa Landi (1904–1948) was (falsely) rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. During the 1920s, she appeared in British, French, and German films before travelling to the United States. In Hollywood, she became a popular star of the 1930s.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: First National / Warner Bros.

American stage and film actress Kay Francis (1905-1968) was a tall, attractive, grey-eyed brunette with undeniable style and poise, known for films such as Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932). For a while, in the 1930s, she ranked as one of America's most popular actresses, tagged the 'Queen of Warner Brothers'.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

American actress Bessie Love (1898-1986) was introduced to the cinema by D.W. Griffith. He also gave the actress her screen name. She played innocent young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent films and early talkies. Her acting career spanned eight decades, and her role in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Universal.

Lupe Velez (1908-1944) was one of the first Mexican actresses to succeed in Hollywood. Her nicknames were 'The Mexican Spitfire' and 'Hot Pepper'. She was the leading lady in such silent films as The Gaucho (1927), Lady of the Pavements (1928), and Wolf Song (1929). During the 1930s, her well-known explosive screen persona was exploited in a series of successful films like Hot Pepper (1933), Strictly Dynamite (1934), and Hollywood Party (1934). In the 1940s, Velez's popularity peaked after appearing in the Mexican Spitfire films, a series created to capitalise on Velez's well-documented fiery personality. She had several highly publicised romances and a stormy marriage. In 1944, Velez died of an intentional overdose of the barbiturate drug Seconal. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it have been the subject of speculation and controversy.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Lovely British actress Lilian Bond (1908-1991) made over 50 films in Hollywood from the late 1920s through the 1940s. One of her first roles was in James Whale’s classic Horror comedy The Old Dark House (1932), but in later years she mostly appeared in B-movies, both in leading parts and in bit roles.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) in the Films Selectos series. Photo: Paramount.

Between 1921 and 1934, American actress Lilyan Tashman (1896–1934) appeared in some 69 films. Renowned for her personal style, Tashman was one of Hollywood's leading 'clothes horses' during the early 1930s.


Spanish collector card (flyer) by Films Selectos. Photo: R.K.O.

American actress Lita Chevret (1908–2001) began her career at the genesis of sound films. She appeared in over 60 films between 1929 and 1940, although in most of those she had small or non-billed parts.


Spanish collector card (flyer) by Films Selectos. Photo: Fox.

Marguerite Churchill (1910-2000) was an American film actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952. She is best known today as John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930).


Spanish collector card (leaflet) by Films Selectos. Photo: Paramount.

French actress and singer Meg Lemonnier (1905-1988) was most active in the French cinema of the 1930s. In the early years of the sound film, she played more or less saucy ingénues in romantic comedies and operettas, often accompanied by Henri Garat.


Spanish collector card (leaflet) by Films Selectos. Photo: Cifesa. Scene from Morena clara / Dark and Bright (Florian Rey, 1936) with Imperio Argentina and Miguel Ligero.

Imperio Argentina (1906-2003) was a Spanish singer, dancer and actress born in San Telmo, the tango district of Buenos Aires, during an artistic tournee of her parents in Argentina. In 1926, she adopted the artistic name of Imperio Argentina, singing in the main theatres of Spain. Film director Floriàn Rey discovered her at the Romea theatre in Madrid and enabled her to play in the silent film La Hermana San Sulpicio (1927). Eventually she also married Rey in 1930 and became one of the major film stars of European cinema.

Check out our earlier posts on Films Selectos:
9 April 2025: Films Selectos (Part 1)
20 August 2026: Films Selectos (Part 2)

Eva Marie Saint (1924-2026)

On 6 October, American actress Eva Marie Saint (1924–2026) died in Los Angeles. She is best known for starring in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). With a career spanning over 70 years, she received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for A Hatful of Rain (1957) and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990). Saint was 102.


French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 877. Photo: Paramount Pictures.


French poster postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 35. Poster: Snark / Columbia Films S.A.B. Belgian poster for On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) with Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint. The Wallonian title was Sur les quais, and the Flemish title was Op de kaaien.


American poster postcard by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Poster: MGM, 1966. American re-release poster for Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). Caption: Only Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock ever gave you so much suspense in so many directions. So we brought it back!

Femme fatale Eve Kendall

Eva Marie Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924. Her parents were Quakers: Eva Marie née Rice and John Merle Saint. She had one older sister, Adelaide Louise Saint. Eva Marie attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, near Albany, graduating in 1942. According to her yearbook, Eva Marie's nickname was 'Bubbles', and her ambition was to be a teacher. She was also a cheerleader and senior class secretary. Saint studied acting at Bowling Green State University.

She started on television as an NBC page and appeared in the very early live NBC TV show Campus Hoopla in 1946–1947. Her acting career began with the TV movie A Christmas Carol (James Caddigan, 1947), starring John Carradine as the miser Ebenezer Scrooge. She also appeared in the Bonnie Maid's Versa-Tile Varieties on NBC in 1949 as one of the original singing 'Bonnie Maids' used in the live commercials. She appeared in a 1947 Life Magazine special about television, and also in a 1949 feature Life article about her as a struggling actress earning minimum amounts from early TV while trying to make ends meet in New York City. In the late 1940s, Saint continued to make her living by extensive work in radio and television. In 1953, she won the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the Horton Foote play, 'The Trip to Bountiful' (1953), in which she co-starred with Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet. She appeared on both television and stage. In 1955, Saint was nominated for her first Emmy for Best Actress In A Single Performance on The Philco Television Playhouse, for playing the young mistress of middle-aged E. G. Marshall in Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955 television musical version of Our Town, adapted from the Thornton Wilder play of the same name. She co-starred with Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. A TV critic dubbed her 'the Helen Hayes of television.'

Saint made her cinema debut at 30. She co-starred in On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954), opposite Marlon Brando. She played Edie Doyle, whose brother's death sets the film's drama in motion. Although Edie Doyle is essentially a lead, producer Sam Spiegel listed her as a Supporting Actress in hopes of getting her an Academy Award nomination. The ploy worked, and she won the Oscar. Her performance also earned her a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nomination for 'Most Promising Newcomer.' In his review for The New York Times, film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint — a newcomer to movies from TV and Broadway — Mr. Kazan has come up with a pretty and blond artisan who does not have to depend on these attributes. Her parochial school training is no bar to love with the proper stranger. Amid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance." The film was a major success and launched Saint's movie career. She received $7,500 for the role.

For over the next decade, Eva Marie Saint was in high demand. She next appeared alongside Bob Hope in That Certain Feeling (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1956) for which she received $50,000. She was then offered $100,000 to star in the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. After that, she starred with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain (Fred Zinnemann, 1957), the pioneering drug-addiction drama. Although it was released earlier in 1957 than Raintree Country, it was made later. She received a BAFTA nomination for 'Best Foreign Actress' for her performance.

Her most famous director was Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch surprised many by choosing Saint over dozens of other candidates for the femme fatale Eve Kendall in his classic Spy thriller North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and James Mason. Pedro Borges at IMDb: "Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the director's early 'wrong man' spy adventures of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including The 39 Steps (1935), Young and Innocent (1937), and Saboteur (1942)." North by Northwest became a box-office hit. In his review in The New York Times, critic Abe H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint as [Cary Grant's] romantic vis-a-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges as both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer." Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the top ranks of stardom, Eva Marie Saint chose to limit her film work to spend time with her husband, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3813. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British poster postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 2126. Poster: MGM. Poster of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). Caption: The Master of Suspense weaves his greatest tale!

The mother of Tom Hanks

In the 1960s, Eva Marie Saint continued to act in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred with Paul Newman in Exodus (Otto Preminger, 1960), a historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel adapted from the novel of the same name by Leon Uris. She also co-starred with Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, and Angela Lansbury as a tragic beauty in the drama All Fall Down (John Frankendheimer, 1962), based upon a novel by James Leo Herlihy and a screenplay by William Inge. She appeared with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the melodrama The Sandpiper (Vincente Minnelli, 1965) and with James Garner in the World War II thriller 36 Hours (George Seaton, 1965).

Saint joined an all-star cast in the comedic satire The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (Norman Jewison, 1966), and the international racing drama Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966), presented in Cinerama. Saint received some of her best reviews for co-starring as the wife of George Segal in Loving (Irvin Kershner, 1970), about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and other women. It was critically acclaimed but did not do well at the box office.

Because mostly second-rate film roles came her way in the 1970s, Eva Marie Saint returned to television and the stage in the 1980s. She appeared in several made-for-television films. She played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the television series Moonlighting (1986-1988), which lasted three years. She received Emmy nominations for the TV series How the West Was Won (Vincent McEveety, Bernard McEveety, 1976-1977), and for the TV movie Taxi!!! (Joseph Hardy, 1978). Saint was reunited with On the Waterfront co-star Karl Malden in the TV Mini-Series Fatal Vision (David Greene, 1984), this time as the wife of his character, as he investigated the murder of their daughter and granddaughters.

Saint returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade in Nothing in Common (Garry Marshall, 1986), in which she played the mother of Tom Hanks's character. Critics applauded her return to features, but Saint soon returned to the small screen. After receiving five nominations, she won her first Emmy Award for the TV movie People Like Us (William Hale, 1990). She appeared in several television productions in the 1990s and was cast as the mother of radio producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) in a 1999 episode of the comedy series Frasier. Saint returned to feature films in I Dreamed of Africa (Hugh Hudson, 2000) with Kim Basinger. In 2005, she co-starred with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard in Don't Come Knocking (Wim Wenders, 2005), and appeared in the family film Because of Winn-Dixie (Wayne Wang, 2005). Saint appeared as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006) alongside Brandon Routh.

In 2009, she made a rare public appearance at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony as a Best Supporting Actress presenter. Saint lent her voice to the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra, a sequel to the hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing the now-elderly Katara, a main character from the original series. She played the adult version of Willa in the film adaptation of the novel Winter's Tale (Mark Helprin, 2014). Saint appeared at the 2018 Academy Awards and played in the drama Mariette in Ecstasy (John Bailey, 2019), set in a turn-of-the-century religious community about a nun who has recently taken her vows. It was her last film. She had two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard. Eva Marie Saint married producer and director Jeffrey Hayden in 1951. They had met on a subway in New York. The couple remained together till Hayden's death in 2016. Saint died on 6 October 2026 at her home in Los Angeles. They had two children, a son, Darrell Hayden (1955), and a daughter, actress Laurette Hayden (1958), and had four grandchildren.


French poster postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 421. French poster for Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). The French title was La mort aux trousses.


French poster postcard by Éditions Zreik, Paris, in the Collection Télérama, la mémoire du cinéma, no. 17. Poster: Document 'The Last Movies'. French poster for Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). The French title was La mort aux trousses.


Dutch poster postcard by Film Freak Productions, no. FF924. Poster: Radio Days, 1985. Poster for Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). Caption: Only Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock ever gave you so much suspense in so many directions. So we brought it back!

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Liselotte Pulver

Swiss actress Liselotte Pulver (1929) was one of the most beloved stars of the German popular cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s. Despite a wide variety of roles, she is best remembered as the merry tomboy in sparkling comedies like Das Wirtshaus im Spessart / The Spessart Inn (1958). Today is Liselotte Pulver's 97th birthday.


German postcard by ISV, no. E 16. Photo: Witt-Film / Constantin / Bokelberg.


West German collector card in the Unsere Bambi-Lieblinge series by Penny, Frankfurt, no. 42. Liselotte Pulver and Gunnar Möller in Ich denke oft an Piroschka / I Often Think of Piroschka (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955).


German postcard by UFA, no. CK-237. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Joe Niczky / Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-138. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann.


Big West German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. FP 5. Photo: Klaus Collignon.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 15. Photo: Ringpress.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 42. Photo: Klaus Collignon.


West German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-227. Photo: Klaus Collignon.


West German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-166. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Universal-Film Inc.

The German equivalent of Audrey Hepburn

Liselotte (nicknamed Lilo) Pulver was born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1929. She was the youngest daughter of civil engineer Fritz Eugen Pulver and his wife Germaine. Her older sister was journalist Corinne Pulver. From 1945 on, Liselotte attended commercial school. After graduating in 1948, she worked as a mannequin and took acting classes at the Berner Konservatorium (Bern conservatory).

She made her stage debut at the Stadttheater Bern (Bern Theatre), and from 1949 to 1951 she appeared at the renowned Schauspielhaus Zurich. Austrian film director Leopold Lindtberg cast the actress in his Swiss-American comedy Swiss Tour / Four Days Leave (Leopold Lindtberg, 1950) starring Cornel Wilde. After this debut, she inaugurated a long career in European films.

She first starred alongside Hans Albers in the mountain drama Föhn / White Hell (Rolf Hansen, 1950). Then she worked for the first time with director Kurt Hoffmann on the crime comedy Klettermaxe (1952). They would make 10 films together. Her first box office hits were the Swiss film Uli der Knecht / Uli the Servant (Franz Schnyder, 1954) and its sequel Uli der Pächter / Uli the Tenant (Franz Schnyder, 1955).

Her breakthrough role was a Puszta schoolgirl in Ich denke oft an Piroschka / I Often Think of Piroschka (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955). This Heimatfilm was not situated in Germany but in the Hungarian provinces, known as 'the Puszta'. By focusing on the cultural differences between a German student on holiday and his Hungarian hosts as well as the student's unfamiliarity with rural life, Hoffmann created a sparkling comedy. Stephanie D'heil at Steffi-line writes that it made Pulver 'the German equivalent of Audrey Hepburn'.

Another big hit was the fairy tale Das Wirtshaus im Spessart / The Spessart Inn (Kurt Hoffmann, 1958), in which she played a lovely countess who dresses up as a man to join a gang of robbers. The huge success of this film made her the prototype tomboy of German cinema of the 1950s, with her hearty and joyful laughter as her trademark. Das Wirtshaus im Spessart inspired two sequels in 1960 and 1967, both directed by Hoffmann and starring Pulver.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 648. Photo: Europa Filmverleih. Publicity still for Klettermaxe / Corry Bell (Kurt Hoffmann, 1952) with Albert Lieven.


Belgian card. Photo: Meteor / Schorchtfilm.


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin W, no. A 1053. Photo: L. Strelow.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden (Westf.), no. F 14. Photo: Constantin / Bokelberg. Publicity still for Heute heiratet mein Mann / My Husband's Getting Married Today (Kurt Hoffmann, 1956).


French postcard by Edition du Globe, Paris, no. 712. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg NV, Rotterdam, no. 4527. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / Ufa.


West German collector card by Lux.


With husband Helmut Schmid. German postcard by Eduard Huber Verlag, Grünwald.


Swiss postcard by Linda Color, Genève. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

International fame

Quickly, Liselotte Pulver rose to international fame. She starred in the French crime film Les aventures d’Arsène Lupin / The Adventures of Arsène Lupin (Jacques Becker, 1957), as well as in the American Erich Maria Remarque adaptation A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958). Alongside French idol Gérard Philipe, she starred in Le joueur / The Gambler (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958), an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel. She was considered for leading roles in the Hollywood epics Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961), but she had already signed for other projects in Germany. She later said that this had been the biggest disappointment in her career.

In Germany, she starred in Die Zürcher Verlobung / The Affairs of Julie (Helmut Käutner, 1957), Das Glas Wasser / A Glass of Water (Helmut Käutner, 1960), and the Thomas Mann adaptations Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull / Confessions of Felix Krull (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957) and Buddenbrooks (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959).

She proved her talent for slapstick in the comedy One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961). As busty, blonde Fraulein Ingeborg, the gum-chewing secretary of philandering Coca-Cola executive James Cagney, she was hilarious. For her role as a Russian woman in the Bob Hope comedy A Global Affair (Jack Arnold, 1963), she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actress. Artistically, her performance as a lesbian abbess in La Religieuse / The Nun (Jacques Rivette, 1966) became the highlight of her career.

More and more, she focused on television, and she appeared in several TV series. From 1977 to 1983, she co-hosted Sesamstrasse, the German version of Sesame Street. In 1980, she won the Filmband in Gold for her long-time achievements in German cinema. Her last film was the hit comedy Das Superweib / The Superwife (Sönke Wortmann, 1996) in which she played the mother of Joachim Król. On TV, she was last seen in a remake of her film Die Zürcher Verlobung / The Affairs of Julie (Stephan Meyer, 2007) with Christoph Waltz.

In 1960, she had met Swiss actor Helmut Schmid on the set of Gustav Adolfs Page (Rolf Hansen, 1960), and they married the following year. The couple had two children, son Marc-Tell (1962) and daughter Melisande (1967). In 1990, she published her memories '… wenn man trotzdem lacht' (If one laughs nevertheless). It was followed by 'Was vergeht, ist nicht verloren. Drehbuch meines Lebens' (What passes is not lost. The script of my life) in 2019, in which she opened her private archive. There were some tragedies in her private life. Her daughter Melisande committed suicide in 1989, and her husband, Helmut Schmid, died in 1992 of a heart attack. Liselotte Pulver lives in an apartment at the Burgerheim, a retirement home near Bern.


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2374. Photo: Witt / Constantin / Ringpress / Vogelmann. Publicity card for Das Wirtshaus im Spessart/The Spessart Inn (1958) with Carlos Thompson.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2699. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: publicity still for Le joueur / The Gambler (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958) with Gérard Philipe.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 1389. Photo: Witt / Constantin / Grimm. Publicity still for Das Spukschloss im Spessart / The Haunted Castle (Kurt Hoffmann, 1960).


West German postcard by E. Huber, Grünwald. Liselotte Pulver in Gustav Adolfs Page (Rolf Hansen, 1960).


East German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1547, 1961. Photo: publicity still for Das Spukschloss im Spessart / The Haunted Castle (Kurt Hoffmann, 1960) with Georg Thomalla and Curt Bois.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2151, 1964. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2662, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden...? / Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1966) with Heinz Rühmann.


German postcard by ISV, no. E 37. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden...? / Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1966).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 368. Photo: publicity still for Herrliche Zeiten im Spessart / Glorious Times in the Spessart (Kurt Hoffmann, 1967) with Harald Leipnitz.

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Filmportal, Wikipedia and IMDb.