Susan Saint James, Emmy-winning actor of 'McMillan & Wife' and 'Kate & Allie,' dies at 80

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Susan Saint James, who co-starred with Rock Hudson in the 1970s TV crime series “McMillan & Wife” and later co-starred with Jane Curtin in the sitcom “Kate & Allie” in the 1980s, has died. She was 80.

People magazine, citing a representative for the actor, said Saint James died Monday. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“She never met a stranger," her family said in a statement to People. "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 on Aug. 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, she was raised in the northern Illinois city of Rockford, where her father had transferred for work. She began modeling as a teenager in Paris.

At 20, she moved back to Los Angeles and landed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios. She made her television debut in the 1966 movie “Fame is the Name of the Game” with Tony Franciosa.

She got another break when it became a series called “The Name of the Game” in 1968, with rotating lead characters played by Franciosa, Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Saint James provided the show continuity in her role as Peggy Maxwell, a research assistant who worked for all three men. She won an Emmy Award for the part in 1969.

Before “The Name of the Game,” Saint James had a recurring role in the crime-caper series “It Takes a Thief” starring Robert Wagner. Her other early TV credits included “Ironside," “McCloud” and “Alias Smith and Jones.” In 1980, she guest-starred in an episode of “M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H.”

Saint James, known for her unique, throaty voice, had a supporting role in the 1968 movie “Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows” starring Rosalind Russell and Stella Stevens.

She earned her biggest fame as Sally McMillan, the plucky wife of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, in the hit series “McMillan & Wife” from 1971-76. She received three Emmy nominations for the role.

Saint James left the NBC show before its sixth and final season because of a contract dispute, with her character killed off in a plane crash. Saint James then turned to feature films.

She played opposite Peter Fonda in “Outlaw Blues” in 1977. She co-starred with George Hamilton in the 1979 vampire spoof “Love at First Bite” and joined Jessica Lange and Curtin in the 1980 comedy heist “How to Beat the High Cost of Living.” She co-starred in the 1981 romantic comedy “Carbon Copy,” in which Denzel Washington made his movie debut.

After middling success on the big screen, Saint James reunited with Curtin in the CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie,” which ran from 1984-89 and earned Saint James two Emmy nominations as the free-spirited Kate to Curtin’s straight-laced Allie.

While guest-hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 1981, Saint James met Dick Ebersol, the show’s then-executive producer and the future chairman of NBC Sports. They married barely six weeks after meeting and had three sons, Charlie, Willie and Teddy.

Teddy died at age 14 in a 2004 private plane crash that also killed the pilot and flight attendant; Ebersol and Charlie survived with serious injuries.

The family had spent Thanksgiving in Los Angeles and were due to make multiple stops on the return trip. The flight landed first in Colorado, where Saint James got off to go to the family’s second home. It crashed upon taking off again for Indiana in snowy weather.

Her family's statement mentions the loss: “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, but they 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.”

In his 2022 memoir “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night,” Ebersol called Saint James “the greatest partner I’ve ever had by far.”

She retired when “Kate & Allie” ended, choosing to focus on raising her younger children in Litchfield, Connecticut, while Ebersol took the executive job at NBC Sports.

Saint James made occasional guest appearances after that, including as the mother of her real-life look-alike niece Christa Miller on “The Drew Carey Show,” as well as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Suits.” In 1999, she starred in a production of “The Miracle Worker” in Torrington, Connecticut.

In 1998, Saint James, her sister, Mercedes Dewey, and a friend founded Seedling and Pip, a baby gift basket business with a focus on books based in Litchfield, Connecticut.

She was a longtime supporter of Special Olympics, volunteering and serving on its board of directors.

Besides her husband, she is survived by daughter Sunshine and son Harmony from her second marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas, with whom she remained friends; sons Charlie and Willie with Ebersol; and Miller, whose first TV role was on “Kate & Allie.” Saint James’ first marriage to Richard Neubert ended in divorce.

FILE - Dick Ebersol, center, chairman NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, poses with his wife, Susan Saint James, left, and their son, Charlie Ebersol, before Dick Ebersol was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame during in New York on Oct. 24, 2005. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams, File)

FILE - NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and his wife, actress Susan Saint James, appear at the International Rescue Committee Freedom Award Dinner in New York on Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Reichbaum, File)

FILE - Actress Susan Saint James poses during a ceremony honoring her with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 11, 2008, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

FILE - Susan Saint James, left, and Dick Ebersol attend the premiere for "Suffragette" in New York on Oct. 12, 2015. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

A bagpiper in a kilt led hundreds of Azusa Pacific University students and the school president into the Cougars' stadium before kickoff against Whittier College earlier this season, a sun-splashed celebration of what once were two of the biggest brands in California small-college football.

Azusa Pacific had dropped the sport in 2020 after 55 years and Whittier in 2022 after 115 years, mainly for financial reasons.

The two are back on the field, not in a full reembrace of the sport's tradition and what it can do to enhance campus culture, but for another reason: Administrators saw an opportunity to bump shrinking enrollment numbers, a problem shadowing hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Football rosters, after all, can number about 100 players and the sport is seen as a popular marketing anchor.

The two schools are among 10 four-year colleges and universities that started or restarted programs this season, the most in a single year since 2013, according to the National Football Foundation. Seven schools have announced plans to start programs in 2027 or later.

Azusa Pacific won the 1998 NAIA Division I championship and became a full NCAA Division II member in 2013. The Cougars made playoff appearances in 2016 and ’18, but a decline in the number of West Coast Division II football schools made travel too costly.

School president Adam Morris said he first approached athletic director Gary Pine about restarting football five years ago. A $1 million private gift funded startup costs, and the school moved from Division II to Division III and joined a Southern California-based conference. APU will begin competition in women’s flag football in the spring.

“Yes, it’s an opportunity to grow enrollment and there is some financial upside to the decision,” Morris said. “Really, it’s a great opportunity to touch the lives of 110 young men who will leave this place to go out into this community and have an impact in a significant way.”

APU’s on-campus fall enrollment is 1,900, down 46% from 3,359 in fall 2020. APU brought in 652 freshmen (49 were on the football roster) and transfer students to campus this fall, up 19% from a year ago. The school’s online learning program raises total enrollment to about 6,000.

On the same day Azusa Pacific and Whittier returned to the field, Mount Mercy University in Iowa played its first-ever home game. More than a thousand fans showed up, many tailgating in the parking lots before and after and, in a nod to the Mustangs' NAIA champion men's bowling team, some wore T-shirts reading: "Mount Mercy. A bowling school with football.”

As much as any small college, Mount Mercy has used athletics to drive enrollment, which numbers 1,450 this fall. Some 60-70% of the student body participates in one of 22 sports Mount Mercy offers.

The football team brought about 100 more male students to campus. A local family foundation provided startup costs, including $2.1 million for a 9,000-square-foot football building that includes a weight room, athletic training space, coaches' offices and meeting rooms. The facility rates among the best in the NAIA.

While administrators describe how a football team can bring a sense of community to a campus and enhance student life, athletic director Paul Gavin acknowledged the underlying motivation was to generate revenue, whether from students who want to play for the Mustangs or from those who want to attend a college that has a team.

“There’s no doubt if football is done right, if you stay within budgets and financial constraints and scholarship limitations, it’s a cash cow from a tuition revenue and then from auxiliary income from housing and meal plans, not to mention philanthropy,” Gavin said. “If you do it right, people will come. If you don’t, you can have the adverse aspect. I don’t want to think about that or have to deal with that.”

U.S. high school graduation peaked at an estimated 3.9 million in 2025, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. It's projected to decrease by 2041 to an estimated 3.4 million, a drop of nearly 13%, because of a falling birth rate. College enrollment is projected to follow suit. Many small private colleges already have been been hit by severe enrollment drops coming out of the pandemic.

A number of schools have added sports in hopes of boosting enrollment — Adrian College in Michigan launched more than two dozen a generation ago and is now up to more than 50 — but football is often considered an anchor sport. It is also expensive.

Research has shown that adding football may not be the solution colleges hope it will be.

A 2024 University of Georgia study looked at 36 small colleges that added football between 2004-16. Researchers examined how starting a program affected enrollment, demographics and net tuition and fee revenue compared with schools that did not start a program.

Aside from a one-year jump in male enrollment tied to bringing in football players, overall enrollment patterns were similar to those at non-football schools. Factoring in costs of operating the program, tuition revenue per student did not increase even the first year at the new football schools. The study did find positive impacts on student life.

Welch Suggs, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at Georgia, noted the study was done over a period of growth in higher education.

“What it says to me is if a school is adding football right now, it’s one of several last-ditch efforts to try to maintain enough enrollment to keep the doors open, because this year’s graduating high school class is going to be the smallest in a generation in terms of sending students to college,” Suggs said.

In all, 62 four-year college football programs have been added or restarted in the last decade. The net gain is 56 because three of those programs shut down and three of the schools closed.

In the 10 years before that, from 2006-16, a total of 10 four-year schools with football closed and three dropped their programs, according to the NFF.

The return of football at Azusa Pacific and Whittier has been greeted with much fanfare by alumni who remember the schools' heydays.

Christian Okoye, the 250-pound “Nigerian Nightmare,” played for APU in the 1980s before he became a beloved Kansas City Chiefs running back and the 1989 NFL rushing leader. Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches George Allen and Don Coryell started their careers at Whittier, and President Richard Nixon was a lineman for the Poets.

Whittier's original football program dated to 1907, and the move to drop football along with lacrosse and golf in 2020 saved money but cost the school many of the 120 athletes who were affected.

When school President Kristine Dillon arrived in 2023, alumni immediately asked for football's return and raised more than $800,000 in initial funding. The reintroduction of football has helped increase enrollment from 764 in 2024 to 905 this fall, with 41% of students playing a sport.

Dillon noticed a change in the campus vibe once the fall semester started. Her house is on campus, and she started noticing cheerleaders outside her window practicing almost every night.

“We've got more students as a percentage living on campus, so the level of activity in clubs and our version of fraternities and sororities is growing,” Dillon said. “I'll give at least some credit to the growth football has had, not just for enrollment but for the sense of a lively campus.”

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Players from Whittier College take a break during an NCAA Division III college game against Azusa Pacific, Sept. 19, 2026, in Glendora, Calif. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Whittier College lineman Isaac Ruiz (68) celebrates a touchdown against Azusa Pacific during an NCAA Division III college football game on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Glendora, Calif. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Azusa Pacific's Damar Smith (39) concentrates before an NCAA Division III college football game against Whittier College, Sept. 19, 2026, in Glendora, Calif. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Players from Azusa Pacific warm up before an NCAA Division III college football game against Whittier College, Sept. 19, 2026, in Glendora, Calif. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)