Television lost one of its brightest, sharpest icons when Susan Saint James passed away at the age of 80. Her death on October 26, 2026, following a battle with pancreatic cancer, closes the book on a career that spanned generations of American living rooms.
If you grew up watching network television in the 1970s and 1980s, Saint James wasn't just an actress. She was a fixture.
Whether she was trading witty banter with Rock Hudson in McMillan & Wife or navigating the chaotic realities of single motherhood alongside Jane Curtin in Kate & Allie, she brought an effortless, modern energy to the screen. She didn't play victims or cardboard cutouts. She played sharp, funny, independent women who felt entirely real.
Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles in 1946, her journey to stardom wasn't a straight line. Raised in Rockford, Illinois, she started out modeling as a teenager before returning to Los Angeles in her early twenties. Hollywood took notice fast. Universal Studios handed her a seven-year contract, and she hit the ground running with roles in The Name of the Game, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969.
Then came McMillan & Wife. Paired opposite Rock Hudson, Saint James played Sally McMillan, the bright, stylish amateur sleuth who constantly dragged her district attorney husband into bizarre investigations. Chemistry on television is notoriously hard to fake, but Hudson and Saint James had it in spades. When she was later asked why Hudson chose her over other major contenders of the era, she recalled his typical candor. He told her he was getting too heavy from taking lunch meetings with other actresses and decided to cast her instead. That cheeky humor defined her public persona.
Despite earning three Emmy nominations for the role, Saint James walked away before the final season due to a contract dispute. Many actors would have faded after clashing with a major studio. She simply pivoted. She leaned into feature films like Love at First Bite and Outlaw Blues, proving she could carry the big screen just as easily as a weekly network slot.
Her greatest television triumph, however, arrived in 1984 with Kate & Allie.
Teaming up with Jane Curtin, Saint James starred as Kate McArdle, a free-spirited divorcée sharing a New York City apartment with her divorced friend. The sitcom was groundbreaking for its time, tackling the realities of post-marriage life, career pressure, and raising children without leaning on tired tropes. It earned her three more Emmy nominations and cemented her status as a titan of television comedy.
Behind the glitz of Hollywood, her life was marked by fierce loyalty and profound resilience. Her marriage to television executive Dick Ebersol was a legendary partnership in the industry. Yet, the darkest chapter of her life came in November 2004, when her youngest son, Teddy, died tragically in a plane crash in Colorado.
In the immediate aftermath of that unimaginable grief, Saint James did something extraordinary. Weeks after the crash, she stepped forward to deliver his eulogy, offering words of healing to her family and speaking publicly to thank supporters. She channeled her pain into advocacy, spending the next two decades quietly supporting other families navigating the loss of a child. Those who knew her best noted that even in her darkest hours, she put everyone else first.
Saint James leaves behind a massive blended family, her husband Dick Ebersol, children, grandchildren, and an entertainment landscape that feels markedly less vibrant without her. She never met a stranger. Every person she interacted with felt seen, valued, and heard.
Television changed a lot over the decades, but Susan Saint James never lost her spark. Her legacy isn't just a list of Emmy nominations or hit ratings. It's the enduring warmth she brought into millions of homes every single week.
