Award-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, known for her roles in renowned films North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, has died in Los Angeles aged 102.

Saint’s illustrious career, which was decorated by several Academy Award and Emmy wins, spanned over eight decades which cemented the US-born actress into the golden age of American film and television.

Her career began on television in 1946 on NBC’s Campus Hoopla, and she was nominated for her first Emmy for The Philco Television Playhouse in 1954 and for an adaptation of Our Town in 1955.

Saint’s talents were not limited to the screen, with multiple Broadway appearances including The Trip to Bountiful in 1953.

However, it was her seminal roles in film which earned Saint her first Academy Award for her role in On the Waterfront, in which she starred alongside Marlon Brando.

Saint’s ‘femme fatale’ role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 spy thriller North by Northwest, alongside Cary Grant was a hit at the box-office, and the film ranked 40th in the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.

The legendary actress’ co-stars also included Warren Beatty in All Fall Down in 1962, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in The Sandpiper in 1965.

Across the following decades, Saint returned to television which saw multiple Emmy nominations, including for How The West Was Won and Taxi!!! - she won her first Emmy for miniseries People Like Us in 1990.

The legendary actress continued her career well into her later years, including as Martha Kent, Clark Kent’s adoptive mother, in Superman Returns in 2006.

Saint was married to director and producer Jeffrey Hayden for 65 years before his death in 1951. The pair shared two children.

Saint died “of natural causes” at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday evening local time, according to a family spokesperson.