Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning actress who starred alongside Rock Hudson on “McMillan & Wife” and Jane Curtin on the CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie,” died Monday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was 80 years old.
His death was confirmed to People by a representative.
In a statement shared with the magazine, Saint James’s family described her as someone “generous with her time and energy, which she valued more than money, and instinctively drawn to those who needed to be lifted up. She taught her children to pause, to be kind, and to look out for others.”
“She has never met a stranger,” the statement continued. “Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment, from a fellow board member to the shoe store clerk, who usually left knowing her entire life story.”
“Her defining act: a few weeks after losing her youngest son, Teddy, in the plane crash on November 28, 2004, she delivered her eulogy in the form of a note to each of her other children and to her husband, giving them words to heal,” the statement concluded. “Even in the deepest grief of her life, she put everyone first. A few days after the accident, she sat down with Tim Russert to thank the people who had contacted him and tell them that the family was OK.”
Saint James became a television star in the late 1960s with NBC’s “The Name of the Game,” an anthology drama in which she played research assistant Peggy Maxwell. The role earned her three Emmy nominations, including a win for supporting actress in a drama series in 1969.
She then starred alongside Hudson in “McMillan & Wife,” as Sally McMillan, the wife of a San Francisco police commissioner, from 1971 to 1976. Her performance earned her three additional Emmy nominations.
In 1984, Saint James returned to the television series in “Kate & Allie”, alongside Curtin as two divorced mothers who decide to raise their children together in a Manhattan apartment. The sitcom ran for six seasons on CBS, earning Saint James two more Emmy nominations.
His films include “Outlaw Blues” (1977), the vampire comedy “Love at First Bite” (1979) and “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” (1980).
Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles on August 14, 1946, Saint James grew up in Rockford, Illinois before pursuing modeling and acting. She largely retired from Hollywood after the conclusion of “Kate & Allie” in 1989, although she made occasional television appearances, including on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Suits.”
Outside of her acting career, she was a long-time advocate for the Special Olympics. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008.
She is survived by her husband, former NBC executive Dick Ebersol, four children and seven grandchildren.
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