Susan Saint James, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, appeared in Suits, Katie & Allie and McMillan & Wife.
Tributes were paid tonight to the sitcom star Susan Saint James, who has died at the age of 80.
The actress, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was famous for her roles in Katie & Allie in the 1980s and McMillan & Wife in the 1970s, in which she played Rock Hudson‘s wife.
She was nominated for an Emmy three times for her work on TV show The Name Of The Game and won once. Her final role was in an episode of legal drama Suits – the show that made Meghan Markle famous – in 2011.
Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, 67, was among those paying tribute today, recalling how she was compared to Saint James when she was starting out in Hollywood.
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A family representative said actress Susan died on Monday 26 October after being diagnosed with cancer, according to People. In a statement they said: “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.
“Her defining act: weeks after losing her youngest son, Teddy, in the November 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. Days after the crash she sat with Tim Russert to thank the people who had reached out and to tell them the family was okay.”
Jamie Lee Curtis added her own recollections, writing: “I auditioned for a spot as a Universal Studios ‘contract player’ which was a remnant of the old studio system from the golden age of Hollywood.
“When Monique James, the woman that ran the programme, announced that she had signed me to a seven-year contract she said, and I remember it, ‘I haven’t felt the same spirit and energy in someone since we signed Susan Saint James’.
“For me that was enormous praise because I LOVED Susan and her free spirit, no nonsense, tongue-in-cheek way as an actress, beautiful, and a little ballsy, quick to crack a joke and she had really extraordinary timing.
“Of course, it was put to great use in many movies including my favourites, The Trouble With Angels and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows and on TV in McMillan and Wife and later, Kate and Allie.
“She was a beautiful mother and sister and auntie and grandma Gigi and friend and wife to her beloved husband, Dick Ebersol, and together they suffered the unimaginable loss of their son, Teddy, who died at 14 in an airplane accident.
“I always considered her a bit of a spirit guide and good friend through the often turbulent waters of the entertainment business. She was a very special woman and will be greatly missed. To her family and friends, My Hand In Yours.”
Saint James was married to scriptwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968 and make-up artist Tom Lucas from 1971 to 1977, with whom she had daughter Sunshine and son Harmony.
She met television executive Dick Ebersol in 1981 while hosting Saturday Night Live and they married that same year. They had three children: Charles, William and Edward, known as Teddy.
Teddy died in November 2002 at the age of 14 in a private jet crash which was also carrying Dick and Charles.
The captain, Luis Polanco, and flight attendant Warren T. Richardson III, were also killed. Dick and his older son, Charles, along with the first officer, survived, though were badly injured.
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