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Show Monday, September 8, 1986 Va Marie Saint to star as Pat ton's wife in macfe-for-Tmovie onKSl-TSunday Y By JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer the next. Richard Kiley also stars as her husband and ANGELES (AP) -Eva Marie Saint says that letters and pictures provided by an old warrior's daughter LOS helped her enormously in preparing for her role as Beatrice Patton in "The Last Days of Patton." Miss Saint plays the wife of Gen. George S. Patton Jr., who flew to his side in Germany when he was injured in an automobile accident. Patton was injured the day before he was to return to the United States, and died in December 1945. "The Last Days of Patton" will be shown Sunday at 7 channel 5. p.m. on KSL-TRuth Ellen Patton Totten, the general's daughter, "sent me many, many photos of her mother when her mother was younger," Miss Saint said. "She sent me pictures of the scene in Boston when Patton briefly returned home. I was able to see the things she wore. Those photos were priceless. It's wonderful when people are so giving in that way. She didn't know me but she" helped me so much." The movie, which tells of the last 40 days of Patton's life, wraps up the story told in the theatrical movie "Patton" in 1970. George C. Scott, who won an Oscar for his portrayal, reprises his role as Patton. The general's wife did not appear in the first movie. "Mrs. Patton was a very practical lady," Miss Saint said. "She was certainly supportive of him and missed him very much. She kept busy with her gardening and social life. "We did 'Patton' in the south of England in an abandoned hospital. All my scenes were there George plays an older, grayer, heavier Patton. He wanted to show that side of him." Miss Saint, who stars with Jackie Gleason and Tom Hanks in the current hit movie "Nothing in Common," has started work on a six-ho- ur miniseries called "A Year in the Life." The series follows the lives and relationships of members of a suburban middle-clas- s NBC family, from one Christmas to V -- Thomas Carter, who was on "The White Shadow," is directing. "We've got a scene where I get Richard to put me on the handlebars of his bicycle," she said. "It made me think of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' when Paul Newman puts Katharine Ross on the handlebars and they play 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.' Now if we could only have that music and a wind machine." Miss Saint first gained fame in the 1954 movie "On the Waterfront," which brought her an Academy Award as best supporting actress. She was on the cover of Life magazine. She would have been on the cover of Time, too, except that she and husband Jeffrey Hayden decided they would rather set to sea in their new boat. "We were going to Block Island (R.I.). We were so young and naive out in the ocean," she said. "Time had asked me to do a cover but I said, 'No, we were going to Block Island.' "Coming back I got very nervous and asked Jeffrey to turn around. We flew back and had an old sea captain bring the boat home." Two days later, she learned she was pregnant. Her son, Darrell Hayden, is now a graphic designer in San Francisco. Her younger child, Laurette Hayden Beller, is a programming i i. ... V f executive at NBC. Miss Saint has also starred in such films as "Rain tree County," "Exodus," "Hatful of Rain" and "North By Northwest." Her leading men have included Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Montgomery Clift, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman, Cary Grant, James Garner, Warren Beatty, Richard Burton and Yves Montand. In recent years Miss Saint has done mostly television, including the miniseries "How the West Was Won," "A Christmas To Remember," "When Hell Was in Session," "Love Leads the Way" and "Fatal Vision." . Eva Marie Saint says Gen. George Patton's daughter helped her prepare for role as his wife. "Nothing in Common" is her first theatrical film in several years. "I did a lot of plays for a while, but they take you away from town. Then I found tele vision was more interesting than some of the scripts I was .children. I've done that in real getting. The movies have life. I did a series in the 1950s, 'One Man's Family.' What I changed and are geared toward younger audiences. really love is starting some "I get series offers, but I thing new. I don't want to be don't know. I don't want one tied down that much in a where I'm at home with the studio.". ... |