Susan Saint James Biography: The Inspiring Story of Courage, Comedy and Compassion
Susan Saint James was one of the most familiar and well loved faces in American television for more than two decades. Rising from teenage modeling and a studio contract in the mid 1960s, she became an Emmy winning actress before her twenty fourth birthday and went on to star in two of the most popular series of their respective eras, a stylish 1970s crime drama and a groundbreaking 1980s sitcom. She also built a film career in the late 1970s and early 1980s before stepping away from acting to focus on family and public service.
Susan Saint James (August 14, 1946, to October 26, 2026) was an American television and film actress known for her husky voice and warm, witty screen presence. She won an Emmy Award in 1969 for The Name of the Game, starred opposite Rock Hudson as Sally McMillan in McMillan & Wife from 1971 to 1976, and co-starred with Jane Curtin in the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie from 1984 to 1989. Her films included Love at First Bite (1979). After retiring from regular acting, she devoted decades to the Special Olympics and to supporting grieving parents after the death of her son Teddy in a 2004 plane crash.
As a performer, Saint James was defined by her natural warmth, quick wit, and a distinctive husky, throaty voice that made her instantly recognizable. She had a gift for playing intelligent, independent, free spirited women with humor and heart, and she brought an easy, modern sensibility to television at a time when the roles of women on screen were rapidly changing.
Publicly, Saint James was admired as much for her character as for her career. She was known for her boundless curiosity and her ability to make every person she met feel important, and she devoted decades to the Special Olympics and other causes. Her courage in the face of unimaginable personal tragedy made her a source of strength for countless families, and her endurance came from that same openness, generosity, and resilience.
Weeks after her 14 year old son Teddy was killed in a 2004 plane crash, Susan Saint James delivered his eulogy in an extraordinary way. She wrote it as a personal note to each of her other children and to her husband, giving every one of them words to help them heal. Her family later called it her defining act: even in the deepest grief of her life, she put everyone else first.
👶 Early Life
Summary: Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles in 1946 and raised in Rockford, Illinois, she modeled in Paris as a teenager before returning to Hollywood at 20.
🌴 Birth and Family
Susan Saint James was born Susan Jane Miller on August 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Constance Miller (née Geiger), was a teacher, and her father, Charles Daniel Miller, worked for the Mitchell Camera Corporation and later became a successful business executive. She had a sister, Mary Mercedes.
🏡 Growing Up in Rockford
When her father was transferred for work, the family moved to Rockford, Illinois, where Susan was raised. She attended Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic girls’ school in Lake Forest, Illinois, during her younger school years.
📸 Modeling in Paris
As a teenager, Susan began working as a model, and her career took her to Paris, where she modeled as a young woman. The experience gave her poise, independence, and an early taste of life in front of the camera.
🎓 College and a New Name
She later attended Connecticut College. Around the age of twenty, she adopted the stage name Susan Saint James and returned to Los Angeles to pursue acting, determined to build a career in Hollywood.
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🎬 Film and TV Career
Summary: Saint James won an Emmy for The Name of the Game, appeared in It Takes a Thief and M*A*S*H, and starred in films including Love at First Bite.
📝 A Universal Contract
At twenty, Saint James signed a seven year contract with Universal Studios, which was then one of the busiest producers of television programs and made for television movies. The studio system gave her steady work and valuable training in front of the camera.
📰 Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966)
Saint James made her screen debut in the made for television movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966), starring Tony Franciosa as an investigative reporter for a magazine publishing empire. The film proved so successful that it became the basis for a television series two years later.
📺 Early Television Roles
In 1967 and 1968 Saint James appeared in two episodes of the first season of Ironside, starring Raymond Burr, playing a different character in each. She later appeared on McCloud, playing a police officer, and in the pilot episode of the Western series Alias Smith and Jones (1971).
💎 It Takes a Thief (1968 to 1970)
Saint James had a small part in the pilot of the crime caper series It Takes a Thief, starring Robert Wagner as the suave cat burglar turned government agent Alexander Mundy. Her appearance led to a recurring role as Charlene “Chuck” Brown, a fellow thief and Mundy’s playful love interest, in four episodes between 1968 and 1970.
🗞️ The Name of the Game (1968 to 1971)
When Fame Is the Name of the Game became the NBC series The Name of the Game (1968 to 1971), Saint James joined the cast as Peggy Maxwell, an editorial research assistant at a powerful magazine publishing company. The series featured rotating lead stars, Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack, with only one usually appearing each week. Saint James provided continuity by working alongside all three characters, and she appeared in roughly half of the episodes, occasionally taking center stage in storylines of her own. Her charming, witty performance won her an Emmy Award in 1969 and made her one of television’s brightest young stars.
🎞️ Early Films
Saint James also appeared in feature films during her years at Universal. She played Linette Orbison in John Guillermin’s detective thriller P.J. (1968), starring George Peppard, and Rosabelle in Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968), the sequel to The Trouble with Angels (1966), starring Rosalind Russell as a Mother Superior leading a group of Catholic school girls on a cross country bus trip. She also appeared in the Western comedy The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County (1970) with Dan Blocker.
🎸 Outlaw Blues (1977)
After leaving her hit television series in the mid 1970s, Saint James turned to feature films. In Richard T. Heffron‘s comedy drama Outlaw Blues (1977), she co-starred with Peter Fonda as Tina Waters, a backup singer who helps a paroled songwriter fight to reclaim a song stolen by a country star.
🦇 Love at First Bite (1979)
Saint James achieved her greatest film success in Stan Dragoti‘s vampire comedy Love at First Bite (1979). George Hamilton starred as a debonair Count Dracula who is evicted from his castle in Romania and travels to New York in pursuit of Cindy Sondheim, a glamorous fashion model played by Saint James. Richard Benjamin co-starred as Cindy’s neurotic psychiatrist boyfriend, and Arte Johnson played Dracula’s servant, Renfield. The film was a box office hit, and Saint James received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress.
💸 How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)
Saint James co-starred with Jessica Lange and Jane Curtin in the comedy How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980), about three women in Oregon who plan to rob a shopping mall to solve their money problems. Her chemistry with Curtin would later lead to one of the great partnerships in television comedy.
🎖️ M*A*S*H (1980)
On March 3, 1980, Saint James guest starred on the hit series M*A*S*H in the episode “War Co-Respondent,” playing Aggie O’Shea, a war correspondent who visits the 4077th and attracts the romantic interest of Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda.
👔 Carbon Copy (1981) and Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder (1982)
Saint James played Vivian Whitney, the wife of a wealthy executive played by George Segal, in Michael Schultz’s satirical comedy Carbon Copy (1981), about a businessman whose life is upended when a son he never knew existed arrives on his doorstep. In Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder (1982), a drama set during the Vietnam War, she played Katherine Cross, an Army doctor who helps a soldier care for a group of orphans.
📺 Television Films
Saint James also starred in numerous television films, including Magic Carpet (1972), Desperate Women (1978), The Girls in the Office (1979), Sex and the Single Parent (1979), and the disaster drama S.O.S. Titanic (1979), in which she played Leigh Goodwin, a passenger aboard the doomed ocean liner.
📺 Guest Roles After Retirement
Although she largely retired from acting after 1989, Saint James occasionally returned for guest roles. She appeared on The Drew Carey Show (1996), played a defense attorney on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006), and appeared as Joy McAfferty on Suits (2011).
In 1986, Saint James joined Vince McMahon as a celebrity guest commentator for WrestleMania 2, one of the many famous faces the World Wrestling Federation recruited to bring mainstream star power to its biggest event.
🕵️ McMillan & Wife
Summary: As Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson, Saint James helped create one of the most appealing married couples in 1970s television.
🌉 A San Francisco Mystery
Saint James’s biggest fame came with McMillan & Wife (1971 to 1977), part of NBC’s rotating NBC Mystery Movie series alongside Columbo and McCloud. Rock Hudson starred as Stewart McMillan, the stylish police commissioner of San Francisco, and Saint James played his young, spirited wife, Sally, who has a habit of stumbling onto crimes and helping her husband solve them. Nancy Walker played the couple’s sharp tongued housekeeper, Mildred, and John Schuck played McMillan’s loyal aide, Sergeant Charles Enright.
💑 A Modern Television Marriage
Inspired by the witty husband and wife sleuths of the classic Thin Man films, the series stood out for its playful, affectionate portrayal of marriage. Saint James’s Sally was smart, curious, and independent, an equal partner to her husband rather than a passive spouse, and her easy chemistry with Hudson made the couple one of the most appealing pairs on 1970s television.
🏆 Emmy and Golden Globe Recognition
Saint James received several Emmy Award nominations for her work as Sally McMillan, along with Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series. The series was a ratings success and remained one of the most popular entries in the NBC Mystery Movie rotation.
✈️ Leaving the Series
After five seasons, Saint James left the show in 1976 following a contract dispute. Rather than recast the role, the producers had Sally McMillan killed off in an offscreen plane crash. The series continued for one final season under the shortened title McMillan, but it did not survive without its title couple and ended in 1977.
🏠 Kate & Allie
Summary: Co-starring with Jane Curtin as two divorced mothers sharing a home, Saint James helped make Kate & Allie a groundbreaking 1980s sitcom.
🗽 Two Mothers in Greenwich Village
In 1984, Saint James reunited with her How to Beat the High Cost of Living co-star Jane Curtin in the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie (1984 to 1989). The series followed two divorced childhood friends who decide to combine their households and raise their children together in a Greenwich Village apartment in New York City. Saint James played Kate McArdle, a free spirited, outspoken travel agent, while Curtin played the conservative, traditional Allie Lowell.
👩👧👦 A Groundbreaking Premise
At a time when single parenthood and divorce were becoming more common in American life, Kate & Allie offered a fresh, realistic, and funny portrait of two women building a new kind of family on their own terms. The show resonated strongly with viewers, especially women, and became one of the most popular comedies of the mid 1980s.
🤝 The Saint James and Curtin Partnership
The heart of the series was the chemistry between its two stars. Saint James’s breezy, impulsive Kate and Curtin’s buttoned up Allie played off each other perfectly, and their friendship felt genuine to audiences. Saint James earned two Emmy nominations for the role, and the series ran for six seasons and 122 episodes.
👶 A Family Affair
Saint James’s personal and professional lives overlapped during the show’s run. Her son Willie was born during the fourth season, and her niece, Christa Miller, made her first television appearance on the series before going on to her own acting career.
The 1981 comedy Carbon Copy, in which Susan Saint James co-starred with George Segal, marked the feature film debut of a young actor named Denzel Washington.
❤️ Personal Life
Summary: Married to NBC executive Dick Ebersol from 1981, Saint James raised five children and endured the loss of her son Teddy in a 2004 plane crash.
💍 Marriage to Richard Neubert (1967 to 1968)
In 1967, Saint James married Richard Neubert, an aspiring writer and director. The marriage lasted only about a year and ended in divorce.
💍 Marriage to Tom Lucas (1971 to 1977)
In 1971, she married Tom Lucas, a makeup artist. They had two children, a daughter, Sunshine, born in 1972, and a son, Harmony, born in 1974. The couple divorced in 1977 but remained friends for the rest of her life.
💍 Marriage to Dick Ebersol (1981 to 2026)
In 1981, Saint James guest hosted Saturday Night Live and met the show’s executive producer, Dick Ebersol, who later became chairman of NBC Sports. The two married in November 1981, only weeks after meeting. They had three sons: Charlie, born in 1982, William, known as Willie, born in 1986, and Teddy, born in 1990. In March 2002, Saint James filed for divorce, but the couple reconciled later that summer and remained together for the rest of her life. In his 2022 memoir, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night, Ebersol called her the greatest partner he had ever had.
🏡 Life in Litchfield
When Kate & Allie ended in 1989, Saint James retired from regular acting to raise her younger children in Litchfield, Connecticut, while Ebersol led NBC Sports. The family also maintained a second home in Colorado. Saint James became deeply involved in her Connecticut community, where she was widely admired for her warmth and generosity.
✈️ The Loss of Teddy
On November 28, 2004, tragedy struck the family. After spending Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, the Ebersols were flying east on a private jet that made a stop in Colorado, where Susan got off to go to the family’s home. When the plane attempted to take off from Montrose Regional Airport in snowy weather, it crashed. Dick Ebersol and their son Charlie survived with serious injuries, but fourteen year old Teddy was killed, along with the pilot and a flight attendant. The loss devastated the family.
💞 Comfort for Grieving Parents
After Teddy’s death, Saint James devoted much of her time to supporting other parents who had lost children. In 2007 she spoke at The Women’s Conference in a session titled “Beyond Courage: Overcoming the Unimaginable,” sharing her experience of grief and resilience with others.
🛍️ Seedling and Pip
In 1998, Saint James, her sister Mercedes Dewey, and their friend Barrie Johnson founded Seedling and Pip, a Litchfield based business that created baby gift baskets with a special focus on books.
🎭 Return to the Stage
In 1999, Saint James starred in a production of The Miracle Worker, William Gibson’s play about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Connecticut.
🏅 A Life of Service
Summary: Saint James supported the Special Olympics for more than fifty years and received honorary degrees from six Connecticut institutions.
🥇 Special Olympics
Saint James became an active supporter of the Special Olympics in 1972, and her commitment lasted more than half a century. She volunteered at events, served on the organization’s board of directors, and represented Civitan International as its celebrity chairperson for the Special Olympics. Her advocacy helped raise awareness and support for athletes with intellectual disabilities around the world.
🏔️ Telluride Foundation
Saint James also served on the board of the Telluride Foundation, a community foundation supporting the region around Telluride, Colorado, where her family spent much of their time.
🎓 Honorary Degrees
In recognition of her public service and philanthropy, Saint James received honorary degrees from six Connecticut institutions: the University of Connecticut, the University of Bridgeport, Southern Connecticut State University, Albertus Magnus College, the University of New Haven, and Goodwin University. She was also honored by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.
On The Drew Carey Show, Saint James played the mother of Kate O’Brien, a character portrayed by her real life niece Christa Miller. The two looked so much alike that the casting needed no explanation.
🕊️ Later Years and Death
Summary: Honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2008, Saint James died of pancreatic cancer on October 26, 2026, at the age of 80.
🏆 Honors and Recognition
Saint James won the Emmy Award in 1969 for The Name of the Game and received multiple additional Emmy nominations over her career for The Name of the Game, McMillan & Wife, and Kate & Allie, along with Golden Globe nominations and a Saturn Award nomination. On June 11, 2008, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
🎉 SNL50
In her final years, Saint James remained connected to the television world that had defined her life. On February 16, 2025, she attended SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York, celebrating fifty years of the show where she had met her husband more than four decades earlier.
⚰️ Death
Susan Saint James died on October 26, 2026, at the age of 80. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. In a statement, her family said she never met a stranger and that every person she met became the most important person in the room, from a fellow board member to the clerk at the shoe store. She was survived by her husband, Dick Ebersol; her children, Sunshine Lucas, Harmony Lucas, Charlie Ebersol, and Willie Ebersol; her seven grandchildren; her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey; and her niece, the actress Christa Miller. She was predeceased by her son Teddy.
🏆 Legacy
📺 A Television Pioneer
Susan Saint James helped redefine the image of women on American television. From the independent, inquisitive Sally McMillan to the free spirited single mother Kate McArdle, she played modern women who were intelligent, funny, and self assured, and she did so at moments when television was only beginning to reflect the changing lives of American women.
👩👧 Champion of the Modern Family
Kate & Allie in particular broke new ground by portraying two divorced women raising their children together as a loving, functional family. The series offered recognition and reassurance to millions of viewers whose own lives looked different from the traditional families of earlier television, and its influence can be seen in many of the family comedies that followed.
💪 Strength Through Tragedy
The loss of her son Teddy could have broken her. Instead, Saint James turned her grief into compassion, reaching out to other families who had suffered similar losses. Her example of resilience and generosity in the darkest moments of life touched countless people far beyond the world of entertainment.
🤝 A Life Devoted to Others
Through her decades with the Special Olympics, her community work in Connecticut, and her many acts of everyday kindness, Saint James showed that fame could be a platform for service. Those who knew her remembered her curiosity, her warmth, and her genuine interest in everyone she met.
🏆 Susan Saint James’s Place in American Entertainment
Susan Saint James stands among the defining television actresses of the 1970s and 1980s, an Emmy winner whose husky voice, quick wit, and warmth brought joy to living rooms across America for two decades. Her legacy is ultimately one of grace and generosity, of a woman who helped bring modern womanhood to the small screen, met unimaginable loss with courage and compassion, and devoted her life to making every person she met feel like the most important person in the room.
🗣️ Why She Still Matters
Susan Saint James still matters because she helped television catch up with real women. Her Sally McMillan was a true partner rather than a decorative wife, and her Kate McArdle showed millions of viewers that divorced mothers could build loving, funny, thriving families on their own terms. Those portrayals paved the way for generations of television heroines who followed. Off screen, her five decades with the Special Olympics and her compassion for grieving parents after losing her own son continue to inspire. She remains a reminder that warmth, curiosity, and kindness can leave a legacy as lasting as any performance.
