Susan Saint James, who starred opposite Rock Hudson in the 1970s crime series “McMillan & Wife” and with Jane Curtin in the 1980s sitcom “Kate & Allie”, has died at the age of 80.

CNN reported that People magazine, citing a representative for the actor, said she died on 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.”

From Paris modelling to a Universal contract

She was born Susan Jane Miller on 14 August 1946 in Los Angeles and raised in Rockford, Illinois, where her father had been transferred for work. She began modelling as a teenager in Paris, and at 20 moved back to Los Angeles, where she signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios.

Her television debut came in the 1966 film Fame is the Name of the Game with Tony Franciosa. When it became the series “The Name of the Game” in 1968 — built on rotating leads played by Franciosa, Gene Barry and Robert Stack — Saint James provided the continuity as Peggy Maxwell, a research assistant working for all three. She won an Emmy for the role in 1969.

Earlier she had a recurring part in It Takes a Thief with Robert Wagner, and her other early credits included Ironside, McCloud and Alias Smith and Jones. In 1980 she guest-starred in an episode of M*A*S*H. Known for a distinctive throaty voice, she had a supporting role in the 1968 film Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.

‘McMillan & Wife’ and the contract dispute

Her biggest fame came as Sally McMillan, the wife of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, in “McMillan & Wife” from 1971 to 1976. She received three Emmy nominations for the part.

She left the NBC series before its sixth and final season in a contract dispute — and her character was written out by being killed in a plane crash.

A date discrepancy

Hiru News, filing on 28 October and crediting CNN, says she died “yesterday” — which would be 27 October. CNN, publishing on 27 October and citing People and her representative, says she died Monday, 26 October.

The two cannot both be right, and the attribution settles it: CNN’s account comes from the actor’s representative, while Hiru’s “yesterday” appears to be measured against the date it picked up the story rather than the date of death. This article uses Monday, 26 October. Hiru’s account of her life otherwise matches CNN’s closely on every checkable detail — birth name, birth date and place, the Paris modelling, the Universal contract at 20, The Name of the Game in 1968 and the 1969 Emmy.

Not reported

Neither filing gives a place of death, says when she was diagnosed, or mentions funeral or memorial arrangements. Neither covers her later career, her activism, or her family beyond the statement quoted above.