Emmy-winning actress Susan Saint James, known for Kate and Allie, McMillan & Wife, and a life put first for family, has died at 80 after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

A representative said Susan Saint James passed at age 80 following a diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, Daily Mail reported, sharing word first tied to her family’s account of a generous life off camera.

Saint James built a long television career as the bright center of two hit series, then spent decades as a wife and mother whose public grief after a plane crash showed the same steel her fans saw on screen.

She leaves her husband, television executive Dick Ebersol, four children, seven grandchildren, her sister, and her service dog, Lola.

Rock Hudson’s TV wife became a household name

Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Saint James modeled as a teenager, including a year in France, then returned home and signed a Universal contract at 19.

She later recalled the break in a 2015 Yahoo Beauty interview.

"An agent who was friends with my friend got me into Universal and they signed me into a contract at 19. They sent me over to read for a part, I met with the director, and he said, 'Can you read this?' I read it really fast, I was so nervous. He said, 'Perfect, just a little bit faster and you've got the part.'"

Early credits included the 1966 TV film Fame Is the Name of the Game and the series Name of the Game from 1968 to 1971. She also guested on It Takes a Thief with Robert Wagner.

From 1971 to 1976 she played Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson on NBC’s McMillan & Wife. The pairing drew Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. Series creator Leonard B. Stern later called her “a delight” and said Hudson felt comfortable with her.

Film work followed, including Outlaw Blues with Peter Fonda in 1977 and Love at First Bite with George Hamilton and Richard Benjamin.

Kate and Allie put two divorced moms at center stage

In 1984 she returned to series television on CBS opposite Jane Curtin in Kate & Allie, a New York sitcom about divorced mothers sharing a home. The show brought her major comedy awards attention, including Emmy recognition tied to that role in period coverage of her career.

She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008. Later guest turns included The Drew Carey Show in 1996, Law & Order: SVU, and Suits. Her final screen credit was three episodes of Upload between 2020 and 2022.

A six-week courtship became a 40-year marriage

Her first marriage, to Thomas Lucas, ended in divorce in 1977. That union gave her daughters Sunshine and Harmony.

She met Ebersol when she hosted Saturday Night Live. He was the producer at the door. She described the whirlwind in that same Yahoo interview.

"He's the best. I was divorced six years when I met Dick. I was kind of thinking it was good. I had a little Porsche. I had my two kids. I had a lot of friends in the music business. I had a good life. And they called me to be on Saturday Night Live. When Dick came to the door, he introduced himself as the producer. We met Sunday night and by Saturday night we were madly in love. Six weeks later, we were married."

They married in 1981 and had sons Charlie, Willie, and Teddy.

After the Colorado crash, she put everyone else first

On November 28, 2004, a charter jet crashed on takeoff in Colorado. Ebersol and son Charlie were aboard. Fourteen-year-old Teddy was killed.

The family’s statement, given as news of her death spread, cast that season as the measure of her character. Weeks after the crash she delivered Teddy’s eulogy as a personal note to her husband and her other children. Days after the wreck she sat with Tim Russert to thank people who had reached out and to say the family was okay.

The family wrote that even in the deepest grief of her life, she put everyone else first, and kept that fire afterward.

"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.... 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."

Survivors named in that statement are her husband, Dick Ebersol; children Sunshine Lucas, Harmony Lucas, Charlie Ebersol, and Willie Ebersol; seven grandchildren; her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey; and her service dog, Lola.

Hollywood sells image. Susan Saint James left a simpler record: show up for your family, keep your word in grief, and treat the person in front of you like they matter.