Susan Saint James, Emmy Winning Star of Kate and Allie and McMillan and Wife, Dies at 80

Susan Saint James, the Emmy winning actress who starred in The Name of the Game, McMillan and Wife and Kate and Allie, died on Monday, October 26, 2026. She was 80. A representative confirmed her death to People and said she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Entertainment Weekly and Page Six also reported the death on Tuesday, October 27, citing the same confirmation from her representative.

Her family said in a statement shared with People: "She 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."

The family added: "She never met a stranger. 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."

A television career built on three hit series

Saint James was born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles on August 14, 1946, and was raised in Rockford, Illinois. She moved to Hollywood at the age of 20, changed her last name to Saint James and signed a weekly contract with Universal. In 1968 she landed the role of research assistant Peggy Maxwell on The Name of the Game. The role brought her three Emmy nominations, and she won once, in 1969.

In 1971 she began playing Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson on McMillan and Wife, about a San Francisco police commissioner and his wife who solved crimes together. She stayed for five seasons and received three more Emmy nominations for the part. She also appeared in films including Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows in 1968, Outlaw Blues and the 1979 comedy Love at First Bite.

In 1984 she began starring with Jane Curtin on Kate and Allie, the CBS sitcom about two divorced friends raising their children together in New York City. The series ran for six seasons until 1989 and brought her two more Emmy nominations. She largely retired from acting after the series ended, with later appearances on The Drew Carey Show, on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006 and on Suits in 2011. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008.

Family, loss and work away from the screen

Saint James met NBC executive Dick Ebersol in 1981 while hosting Saturday Night Live, and they married 42 days after meeting. Their youngest son, Teddy, died at the age of 14 in a private plane crash in Montrose, Colorado, on November 28, 2004. Her husband and their son Charles survived the crash. Her family said that weeks after the crash she delivered Teddy's eulogy as a note to each of her other children and her husband, giving them words to heal.

Away from acting, she worked for decades with the Special Olympics, served on its international board of directors and helped other parents who had lost children, People reported. Her family concluded: "She brought that same fire and positivity to everything that followed, and never lost it." She is survived by her husband, Dick Ebersol, her four children, Sunshine Lucas, Harmony Lucas, Charlie Ebersol and Willie Ebersol, her seven grandchildren, her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey, and her service dog, Lola.