Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning star of “Kate & Allie” and “McMillan & Wife,” has died at 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, her family confirmed.

Page Six reported that a representative for the actress said she passed away Monday, with the confirmation coming Tuesday. The cause was pancreatic cancer.

For millions of viewers who grew up with network television, Saint James was a familiar face across two generations of hits. She built a career on sharp timing, warm presence, and roles that treated ordinary family life as drama worth watching.

Breitbart noted the same core facts: the Emmy-winning TV actress died at 80 after pancreatic cancer, remembered for “Kate & Allie,” “McMillan & Wife,” and “The Name of the Game,” and survived by husband Dick Ebersol, four children, and seven grandchildren.

Family recalls a woman who never met a stranger

Her family shared a statement that focused less on ratings and more on character. They described a mother and wife who measured a life by attention paid to other people.

The family said 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.”

"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."

They added that she brought “that same fire and positivity to everything that followed, and never lost it.” Survivors include 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.

Celebrity passings have stacked up across entertainment in recent seasons, from sitcom veterans to stage and screen names, including coverage of ‘Saved by the Bell’ actor Dennis Haskins and other familiar TV faces.

From Hollywood at 20 to Emmy nights

Born Susan Jane Miller, she later took the name Saint James. At 20 she moved to Hollywood, signed with Universal, and began landing film work, including early credits such as “Where Angels Go” and “Trouble Follows.”

In 1968 she broke through on “The Name of the Game.” The role brought three Emmy nominations and one win. About three years later she joined Rock Hudson on “McMillan & Wife,” picking up three more Emmy nominations across five seasons before her character was written out.

She later told Yahoo she and Hudson “did a pilot one year and then worked together almost five and a half years, except that they went on a year without me.” On the exit, she said, “My character died. It was very sad, but [Hudson’s] character didn’t waste any time having any other girlfriends either!”

Film work continued in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including “Outlaw Blues” with Peter Fonda and “How To Beat the High Cost of Living” with Jane Curtin and Jessica Lange. Readers who follow actor obituaries will recognize the same pattern seen when Michael Wright, star of ‘The Five Heartbeats,’ was remembered for a defining screen role that outlasted the news cycle.

Kate & Allie made divorced motherhood prime-time normal

In 1984 she teamed again with Curtin on “Kate & Allie,” playing Kate McArdle. The sitcom followed two divorced women raising kids under one roof. It earned Saint James two more Emmy nominations and ran until 1989.

She pushed back early on any claim that the show was a manifesto. In a 1984 interview with People, she said the premise was practical, not ideological.

"This is not a statement saying, ‘Girls, leave the guys and go live with your best friend.’"

She added, “Kate and Allie didn’t plan this. It’s just the best solution they could think of, and their friendship sustains them.” That framing mattered. The series sold resilience and friendship without turning the living room into a lecture hall.

After the show ended, she largely stepped away from Hollywood. Later credits included “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2006 and “Suits” in 2011. In 2008 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Marriage to Dick Ebersol and a family’s hardest night

Her personal life had its own arc. She married scriptwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968. In 1971 she married makeup artist Tom Lucas; they had Sunshine and Harmony and later divorced in 1977. Lucas also managed her career for a time.

In 1981, while hosting “Saturday Night Live,” she met NBC executive Dick Ebersol. They married about six weeks later and had three sons: Charles, William, and Edward, known as Teddy.

Tragedy hit in November 2004. A private jet carrying Ebersol, Charlie, and Teddy crashed in Montrose, Colorado, after the family had been celebrating Thanksgiving in Los Angeles. Teddy, 14, was killed. Charlie survived. Health scares and sudden losses keep drawing audiences back to familiar names, much as readers did with hospital news around Boy Meets World star Will Friedle.

In a 2022 People interview, Saint James spoke about the crash without self-pity. She said families lose children in many ways, and that her family’s last stretch with Teddy left clean, fond memories instead of unfinished anger.

"There’s so many ways that these things can happen. You can have an argument the night before, or you’re far away or working. It’s a whole other experience that we had, because we could just remember the hilarious time that we had in LA. Everybody has a really fond memory of that, and everybody said, ‘Oh, I love you. See you at Christmas. Goodbye.’"

An 80th birthday she called one of her best

Back in August she marked her 80th birthday with the people closest to her. The night before, she saw the Doobie Brothers with her children and grandchildren. On the day itself, the celebration moved to the backyard with kids, grandkids, her husband, and close friends.

Family members told People she gushed that the weekend “was one of the best two days of her entire life.” That detail lands harder now. The same industry that chases youth still produces lives measured in long marriages, grown children, and ordinary joy in a backyard.

Entertainment deaths continue to arrive in clusters, from television to music, including recent farewells such as Angry Anderson, the Australian rock frontman, gone at 79. Saint James’s record sits in a different lane: multi-camera comedy, network drama, and a public image built on steadiness rather than scandal.

She leaves behind the kind of résumé older viewers still quote at the dinner table, and a family statement that cared more about kindness than red carpets. In a business that often rewards noise, that is a clean final credit.