Susan Saint James, ‘Kate & Allie’ Star, Dies at 80

Susan Saint James died Monday at 80 after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, a representative confirmed to People. The Emmy-winning actor built a television career and, according to her family, a reputation for looking after other people.

Her family issued a statement that mixed biography with straight-faced counsel. They described her as “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.” The family’s portrait is affectionate, and also rather complete.

What made her a television fixture?

Saint James became a television fixture in the late 1960s on NBC’s “The Name of the Game,” an anthology drama (a series of self-contained stories). She played research assistant Peggy Maxwell. The role brought three Emmy nominations, including a 1969 win for supporting actress in a drama series.

The award arithmetic matters: it supplies a firmer foundation than the shorthand of “Emmy-winning star.”

In 1971, she began “McMillan & Wife” opposite Rock Hudson. Saint James played Sally McMillan, the wife of a San Francisco police commissioner. The series ran through 1976. Her performance earned three more Emmy nominations.

In 1984, she returned to series television with CBS’s “Kate & Allie,” opposite Jane Curtin. They played two divorced mothers who decided to raise their children together in a Manhattan apartment. The sitcom (comedy series) lasted six seasons and brought Saint James two further Emmy nominations. It coincided with the end of her regular television work, although occasional credits followed.

Her film credits were more compact: “Outlaw Blues” (1977), the vampire comedy “Love at First Bite” (1979) and “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” (1980). The vampire label belonged to only one of them.

What did she do beyond acting?

Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 1946, Saint James grew up in Rockford, Ill. She pursued modeling and acting before largely retiring from Hollywood after “Kate & Allie” concluded in 1989. She later made occasional television appearances in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Suits.” The retirement left a long gap between credits, not a disappearance.

She became a longtime advocate for the Special Olympics and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008. Her survivors include her husband, former NBC executive Dick Ebersol, four children and seven grandchildren.

How did grief define her public life?

The family statement said: “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.” That last detail offers the least polished evidence of her public manner: a private loss managed through calls, thanks and reassurance.

The Special Olympics now carries the public memory of an advocate who backed it for years. Saint James’s family supplied the sturdier measure: attention redirected toward other people.