Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning television actor who achieved widespread fame starring alongside Rock Hudson in McMillan & Wife and later in the hit 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie, has died at the age of 80.

Her death on Monday followed a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, according to a representative who spoke with People magazine.

Honoring her warm demeanor, her family shared a tribute with People, stating: “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.”

Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 1946, she spent her childhood in Rockford, Illinois, following her father’s job relocation. During her teenage years, she worked as a model in Paris before returning to California at age 20, signing a seven-year studio contract with Universal Studios. Her television debut came in the 1966 television film Fame is the Name of the Game alongside Tony Franciosa.

The project evolved into the 1968 drama series The Name of the Game which featured a rotating lineup of lead actors including Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack. Saint James provided the regular continuity across the show in her role as research assistant Peggy Maxwell—a portrayal that earned her a prime-time Emmy Award in 1969.

Prior to that breakthrough, she held a recurring role on the crime series “It Takes a Thief” opposite Robert Wagner, while making guest appearances on notable shows of the era such as Ironside, McCloud, and Alias Smith and Jones. She also appeared in the 1968 feature film Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows, starring Rosalind Russell and Stella Stevens.

Her major stardom arrived in 1971 when she was cast as Sally McMillan, the spirited wife of Rock Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner, in the hit series McMillan & Wife. Her work on the show earned her three Emmy nominations between 1971 and 1976.

Saint James left the NBC production prior to its sixth and final season following a contract dispute, leading writers to kill off her character in an off-screen plane crash. She subsequently shifted her focus toward feature films.

Over the next several years, she appeared opposite Peter Fonda in Outlaw Blues (1977), co-starred with George Hamilton in the Dracula spoof Love at First Bite (1979), and joined Jane Curtin and Jessica Lange in the 1980 comedy How to Beat the High Cost of Living. In 1981, she co-starred in the romantic comedy Carbon Copy, which marked the cinematic debut of Denzel Washington. She also guest-starred in a 1980 episode of MAS*H.

Following mixed commercial success in feature films, Saint James reunited with Curtin for the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie. Broadcast from 1984 to 1989, the series featured Saint James as the free-spirited Kate paired with Curtin’s traditional Allie, earning Saint James two further Emmy nominations.

While guest-hosting Saturday Night Live in 1981, Saint James met Dick Ebersol, the show’s executive producer who later became the chairman of NBC Sports. The pair married six weeks after meeting and went on to have three sons: Charlie, Willie, and Teddy.

Tragedy struck the family in 2004 when a private plane crashed in Colorado, killing 14-year-old Teddy alongside the pilot and flight attendant. Ebersol and their son Charlie survived the crash with severe injuries. The family had been returning from a Thanksgiving trip to Los Angeles, with Saint James having disembarked during a planned stop at their second home before the aircraft took off again in bad weather.

Reflecting on her resilience during that period, her family noted in their statement: “Her defining act: weeks after losing her youngest son, Teddy, in the Nov. 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.”

Saint James filed for divorce from Ebersol in 2002, though the couple reconciled later that year. “We had a second chance,” she told People magazine in 2002. “I’m amazingly happier, so that’s a good sign.” Ebersol later paid tribute to her in his 2022 memoir “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night”, calling her “the greatest partner I’ve ever had by far.”

After Kate & Allie concluded, Saint James largely stepped away from screen acting to focus on raising her children in Litchfield, Connecticut, while Ebersol pursued his executive career at NBC Sports.

She made rare screen appearances in later years, including a guest role on The Drew Carey Show playing the mother of her real-life look-alike niece Christa Miller, as well as spots on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Suits. In 1999, she performed in a local stage production of The Miracle Worker in Torrington, Connecticut.

In 1998, Saint James co-founded Seedling and Pip, a Litchfield-based baby gift basket venture focused on books, alongside her sister Mercedes Dewey and a friend. She was also a long-standing supporter of the Special Olympics, serving as a volunteer and member of its board of directors.

Saint James is survived by her husband; her daughter Sunshine and son Harmony from her second marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas, with whom she maintained a friendship; her sons Charlie and Willie with Ebersol; and her niece Christa Miller, whose first television role was on Kate & Allie. Her first marriage to Richard Neubert ended in divorce.