Susan Saint James, Kate & Allie and McMillan & Wife Star, Dies at 80
By Victoria Edel and Colleen Kratofil
A rep for Saint James confirmed to PEOPLE the Emmy winner died on Monday, Oct. 26
Susan Saint James has died at the age of 80. The actress was best known for her roles on the TV series McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie.
A rep for Saint James confirmed to PEOPLE that the actress died on Monday, Oct. 26 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, her family remembers Saint James 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.”
They continued, “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. 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.”
The statement 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, as well as her beloved service dog, Lola.”
Saint James was born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles in 1946. She was raised in Rockford, Ill. She told PEOPLE in 1977 that at age 7, she saw a Rhonda Fleming film and knew “I’d be a movie star, be friends with people in Hollywood, and have a legitimate reason to see Rock Hudson every day for five years.” By age 10, she was an avid moviegoer. She told PEOPLE she saw the classic The King and I 31 times.