Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning star of “McMillan & Wife” and “Kate & Allie,” has passed away at 80. NBC News reports a representative said she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Her family said she “never met a stranger,” describing a performer who treated every person in the room as the most important one there. The career that made that warmth famous spanned network crime dramas, a long-running sitcom, and a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2008.
Born Susan Jane Miller on Aug. 14, 1946, in Los Angeles and raised in Rockford, Illinois, she modeled in Paris as a teenager, then signed a seven-year Universal contract at 20. Early credits included It Takes a Thief, Ironside, McCloud, and Alias Smith and Jones.
Her first major break came with “The Name of the Game,” where she played research assistant Peggy Maxwell across rotating leads. She won an Emmy for that work in 1969, proof that she could hold a sprawling anthology together with charm and timing.
The role that made her a household name was Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson on NBC’s “McMillan & Wife” from 1971 to 1976. Three Emmy nominations followed for the plucky partner in a San Francisco crime series that mixed mystery with marital banter.
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She left before the show’s final season after a contract dispute, then shifted toward features such as “Outlaw Blues,” “Love at First Bite,” “How to Beat the High Cost of Living,” and “Carbon Copy,” which marked Denzel Washington’s film debut. A 1980 M*A*S*H guest spot kept her on the comedy map.
Television brought her back in force with CBS’s Kate & Allie from 1984 to 1989. Reunited with Jane Curtin, Saint James played free-spirited Kate McArdle and earned two more Emmy nominations as the sitcom tracked two divorced moms rebuilding a household in New York.
From Universal Contract Player to Prime-Time Anchor
Saint James’s path is a clean map of late-20th-century network TV. Universal put her in rotating crime and adventure hours, The Name of the Game made her indispensable, and McMillan & Wife turned her into a lead audiences invited into their living rooms every week.
That arc also shows how hard she pushed for better terms. Walking away from Sally McMillan before the final season was a rare power move for a woman in a hit franchise, and the film stretch that followed kept her working even when box office returns were mixed.
Kate, Allie, and a Quieter Chapter
“Kate & Allie” gave her a second signature role and a softer comic register. Curtin’s Allie played the straighter hand, while Saint James’s Kate brought the spark that made the roommate premise feel lived-in rather than high-concept.
When the sitcom ended, she largely stepped back to raise her younger children in Litchfield, Connecticut, while husband Dick Ebersol took on NBC Sports leadership. Occasional returns included The Drew Carey Show opposite her niece Christa Miller, plus guest turns on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Suits.
She co-founded the baby gift business Seedling and Pip, supported Special Olympics for years, and stayed close to a blended family that includes children Sunshine, Harmony, Charlie, and Willie. Ebersol later called her the greatest partner he ever had.
Which Susan Saint James role did you meet first, Sally McMillan or Kate McArdle?
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