Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning actress whose lively comedic timing and screen presence anchored primetime television hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s, has died at age 80. According to a representative speaking to People and reported by Deadline, Saint James died on Monday, October 26, 2026, following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Known to millions of viewers for her starring turns opposite Rock Hudson in the mystery series McMillan & Wife and alongside Jane Curtin in the groundbreaking sitcom Kate & Allie, Saint James helped reshape how modern women were portrayed on American network television. While she stepped back from full-time acting at the height of her television success in 1989, her performances across three decades of network programming earned her multiple Emmy nominations, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a lasting place in broadcasting history.

A Family Tribute to Positivity and Resilience

In a public statement released on Tuesday, October 27, Saint James' family remembered the actress for her warmth, approachability, and dedication to the people around her. They described her as someone who was "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."

According to the statement shared by Just Jared, her relatives noted that she "never met a stranger," adding that "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."

The family also highlighted her strength during a period of intense personal tragedy. On November 28, 2004, her youngest child, 14-year-old son Teddy Ebersol, died in a plane crash. In their tribute, her family recalled her response to the loss as 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. 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."

"She brought that same fire and positivity to everything that followed, and never lost it," the family statement concluded.

Early Career and 'McMillan & Wife' Success

Born Susan Jane Miller on August 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, she was raised in Rockford, Illinois, where she began working as a teenage model. According to Page Six, she changed her surname to Saint James and relocated to Hollywood at age 20 to pursue a professional acting career. Signing a weekly contract with Universal, she quickly transitioned from early guest appearances on shows like Ironside, It Takes a Thief, and Alias Smith and Jones to larger roles, including the 1966 television movie Fame Is the Name of the Game and the 1968 theatrical comedy sequel Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.

When the 1966 television movie was adapted into the stylish 90-minute NBC drama series The Name of the Game in 1968, Saint James was cast as a series regular. Portraying enterprising editorial assistant Peggy Maxwell, she worked alongside rotating leads Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack for three seasons through 1971. The breakout role earned her three Emmy nominations and one Primetime Emmy Award win in 1969.

Just six months after The Name of the Game concluded, Saint James returned to NBC in another 90-minute rotating wheel series that became part of the network's popular NBC Mystery Movie lineup alongside Columbo and McCloud. Cast opposite screen veteran Rock Hudson in McMillan & Wife, she played Sally McMillan, the spirited younger wife of San Francisco Police Commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan. The light crime drama became a major hit following its 1971 debut.

Saint James remained with McMillan & Wife for five seasons before departing in 1976 due to a contract dispute. Following her exit, producers wrote her character out of the show via a fatal plane crash, dropped the "& Wife" from the program's title for its sixth season, and the series ended on April 24, 1977. Reports differ slightly on her awards tally for the role: according to People, she received three Emmy nominations for playing Sally McMillan, while Deadline reports she earned four Emmy nominations by the end of her run, in addition to three consecutive Golden Globe nominations.

Looking back on her tenure with Hudson in a 2015 interview with Yahoo, Saint James recalled the abrupt end to her character with humor. "We did a pilot one year and then worked together almost five and a half years, except that they went on a year without me," she said. "My character died. It was very sad, but [Hudson's] character didn't waste any time having any other girlfriends either!"

'Kate & Allie' and Stepping Away From Hollywood

Following her exit from McMillan & Wife, Saint James shifted her focus to feature films during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, she went on the run alongside Peter Fonda in Outlaw Blues (1977), starred opposite George Hamilton as the target of Count Dracula in the horror-comedy hit Love at First Bite (1979), teamed up with Jessica Lange and Jane Curtin as suburbanites executing a heist in How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980), and played George Segal's wife in the comedy Carbon Copy (1981).

Her connection with Curtin led to her second major television landmark. In 1984, the pair reunited for the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie. The series centered on two divorced childhood friends—Saint James as the free-spirited Kate McArdle and Curtin as the more traditional Allie Lowell—who decide to share a Greenwich Village brownstone and raise their three children together. Running for six seasons until 1989, the sitcom was praised for its realistic depiction of independent mothers and earned three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, while bringing Saint James two additional individual Emmy nominations, according to Yahoo Entertainment.

When Kate & Allie was canceled in 1989, Saint James made the deliberate decision to largely retire from acting to focus on her family life. After brief earlier marriages to scriptwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968 and makeup artist and manager Tom Lucas from 1971 to 1977, she met NBC executive Dick Ebersol—the former head of NBC Sports and executive producer of Saturday Night Live—while hosting SNL in 1981. They went on a first date immediately after rehearsal and married six weeks later in November 1981.

"I knew I was going to take down my old boyfriends' pictures and ask him what he wanted for breakfast," she told People in 1983 regarding their immediate bond.

Why did Susan Saint James step away from acting after 'Kate & Allie'?

After spending more than two decades working rigorous network television schedules while raising children, Saint James chose to leave regular series work behind when Kate & Allie concluded in 1989. Explaining her decision to People in 2002, she noted that she had grown tired of the relentless balancing act, stating she no longer wanted to be "one of those people juggling knives and melons and then [saying], 'Toss me in a razor blade.'"

Despite stepping away from full-time performing, she occasionally returned for select television guest spots in later years, including appearances on The Drew Carey Show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006, and Suits in 2011. In 2008, her contributions to the entertainment industry were formally recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Who survives Susan Saint James?

According to her family's statement and reporting by the Associated Press, Saint James is survived by her husband of nearly 45 years, Dick Ebersol; her four surviving children, Sunshine Lucas, Harmony Lucas, Charlie Ebersol, and Willie Ebersol; seven grandchildren; her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey; and her service dog, Lola.

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