Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning actress who starred opposite Rock Hudson in “McMillan & Wife” and Jane Curtin in the CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie,” died Monday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was 80.
Her 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 whoever needed lifting up. She taught her children to pause, be kind and look out for other people.”
“She never met a stranger,” the statement continues. “Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment, from a fellow board member to the clerk at the shoe store, who usually walked away knowing her entire life story.”
“Her defining act: weeks after losing her youngest son, Teddy, in the November 28, 2004 plane crash, she delivered his eulogy as a note to each of her other children and her husband, giving them words to heal,” the statement concludes. “Even in the deepest grief of her life, she put everyone else first. Days after the crash she sat with Tim Russert to thank the people who had reached out and to tell them the family was okay.”
Saint James became a television fixture 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 went on to star alongside Hudon in “McMillan & Wife,” playing 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 series television in “Kate & Allie,” starring 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.
Her film credits 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 Aug. 14, 1946, Saint James grew up in Rockford, Ill., before pursuing modeling and acting. She largely retired from Hollywood following the conclusion of “Kate & Allie” in 1989, though she made occasional television appearances, including on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Suits.”
Outside acting, she was a longtime 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.