Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning actress celebrated for her roles in McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie, has died at 80 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her death was confirmed by a representative to PEOPLE.

Saint James died Monday, Oct. 26, leaving behind a legacy that extended far beyond television. To audiences, she was a familiar face from some of the era’s most beloved sitcoms and dramas. To her family, friends and the countless people she helped, she was a source of warmth, generosity and strength, even when life delivered its most devastating blows.

In a statement to PEOPLE, her family remembered a woman who gave her time and energy freely and instinctively gravitated toward people who needed encouragement.

They said she taught her children to pause, show kindness and look out for others. Saint James, they added, had a remarkable ability to make every person she encountered feel like the most important individual in the room, whether that person was a fellow board member or a clerk in a shoe store who might leave the conversation knowing her entire life story.

Her family also recalled one of the most extraordinary demonstrations of that compassion. Just weeks after losing her youngest son, Teddy, in a 2004 plane crash, Saint James delivered a eulogy that offered each of her surviving children and her husband personal words of comfort and guidance.

Even in the depths of her own grief, they said, she continued to put others first.

Susan Saint James Built a Television Career That Lasted for Decades

From Childhood Moviegoer to Hollywood Star

Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles in 1946, Saint James grew up in Rockford, Illinois, where her fascination with movies began early.

In a 1977 interview with PEOPLE, she recalled seeing a film starring Rhonda Fleming when she was 7 and immediately imagining a future in Hollywood. She wanted to become a movie star, make friends in the entertainment industry and have a legitimate reason to see Rock Hudson every day for five years.

By age 10, she was already an enthusiastic moviegoer. She told PEOPLE that she watched the classic musical The King and I 31 times.

Saint James credited her parents with giving her a stable childhood that allowed her to become an unconventional adult. She attended Catholic school and described herself as exceptionally devout, joking that the word “Saint” in her professional name might have originated in what she called her “Virgin Mary complex.”

She graduated from high school at 16 and briefly attended Connecticut College, which was then a women’s college. She also spent time in France, where she became fluent in French, before moving to New York to pursue modeling.

Her enthusiasm, however, did not always fit the industry’s expectations.

“I was overenthusiastic and they kept telling me to develop ‘chic reserve,’” she recalled in 1977.

After several successful years, she changed her surname to Saint James at 20 and headed to Hollywood to pursue acting. She signed a weekly contract with Universal and began appearing on screen, including in the 1968 film Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.

That same year, she joined the television series The Name of the Game. Her performance earned three Emmy nominations, including one win, establishing her as a rising television talent.

‘McMillan & Wife’ Made Her a Familiar Face

In 1971, Saint James joined McMillan & Wife, starring opposite Hudson. The role brought her three additional Emmy nominations and helped cement her reputation as a leading television actress.

She remained with the series for five seasons, although her character eventually died as the show's story evolved.

Looking back in a 2015 interview with Yahoo, Saint James recalled working with Hudson for nearly five and a half years, including a period when the show continued without her.

She remembered being disappointed when her character was written out, but she also joked about how quickly Hudson’s character moved on to other romantic interests.

By then, Saint James was approaching 30 and felt it was time to explore opportunities in film.

Her movie credits included the 1977 film Outlaw Blues, opposite Peter Fonda; the 1979 vampire comedy Love at First Bite; and How to Beat the High Cost of Living, released in 1980 and co-starring Jane Curtin and Jessica Lange.

‘Kate & Allie’ Became Another Defining Chapter

A Sitcom About Friendship, Family and Starting Over

Saint James reached another career milestone in 1984 when she began starring alongside Curtin in Kate & Allie.

The sitcom followed two divorced women who moved into a shared home with their children, building a new family arrangement around friendship and mutual support.

The premise was not intended as a sweeping declaration that women should leave their partners and live with their friends, Saint James explained to PEOPLE in 1984. Rather, the characters had found what they believed was the most practical solution to their circumstances, with their friendship helping them navigate life’s challenges.

She initially had reservations about the project. Although she understood the difficulties faced by divorced women, she worried that the show might rely on children who could not convincingly carry their roles.

She ultimately agreed after becoming confident in the young cast. Filming in New York also allowed her to remain close to her family in Connecticut.

Saint James said she wanted her children to experience the same kind of structure she had enjoyed growing up and did not want her career to come at the expense of her family life.

The series became a hit. PEOPLE praised the show for presenting mothers as complex, fully developed people rather than limiting them to one-dimensional television roles.

Saint James received two more Emmy nominations for Kate & Allie before the series ended in 1989.

Marriage, Motherhood and a Life Beyond Hollywood

Finding Love With Dick Ebersol

Saint James was first married to screenwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968. In 1971, she married makeup artist Tom Lucas, who also became her manager.

The couple had two children, Sunshine and Harmony, before divorcing in 1977. Their children's distinctive names, combined with Saint James' vegetarianism and liberal views, contributed to the press portraying her as a hippie.

A new chapter began in 1981 when Saint James hosted Saturday Night Live and met Dick Ebersol, an NBC executive.

The two went on a date after rehearsal and quickly formed a strong connection. In a 1983 interview with PEOPLE, Saint James described the immediate certainty she felt about their relationship, saying she knew she would remove photographs of former boyfriends and ask Ebersol what he wanted for breakfast.

They married just 42 days after meeting and later welcomed three sons: Charles, William, and Edward, known as Teddy.

Their family life would become the center of Saint James’ world, eventually taking precedence over the Hollywood career she had worked so hard to build.

She Stepped Away From the Spotlight for Her Children

By the end of the 1980s, Saint James was gradually withdrawing from acting. Her later television appearances included The Drew Carey Show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006 and Suits in 2011.

She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008, but she had already made peace with a quieter life.

In a 1993 interview with the Baltimore Sun, she explained that her children had reached an age when they needed to take center stage within the family.

She did not want her celebrity to overshadow them or leave them feeling pushed aside whenever she entered a room. Stepping back from television, she said, had made her life more pleasant.

Her decision reflected a priority she maintained throughout her life: fame could wait, but being present for her family mattered.

The 2004 Plane Crash That Changed Her Family Forever

Losing Her Youngest Son, Teddy

In November 2004, a private jet carrying Ebersol, Charles and 14-year-old Teddy crashed in Montrose, Colorado. Teddy died in the accident, which occurred as the family was traveling after celebrating Thanksgiving in Los Angeles.

Saint James later told PEOPLE that the family had been left with vivid memories of the time they spent together before the crash. They had laughed, exchanged expressions of love and said goodbye, expecting to reunite at Christmas.

Those memories became especially important in the aftermath.

On Christmas, the family opened gifts Teddy had selected for them before his death. Saint James remembered the presents as hilarious and said the moment made it feel as though he were still there with them.

Days after the crash, she appeared on NBC's Today with family friend and journalist Tim Russert to thank the public for its condolences and reassure those who had reached out that the family was coping.

Her family said she received 27,000 letters of support and personally responded to 15,000 of them with handwritten notes.

At Teddy’s funeral, she delivered a eulogy that offered individual messages of comfort to Ebersol and each of her surviving children. Her family later described the speech as a powerful example of her instinct to help others through their darkest moments.

Even while mourning her son, Saint James tried to give her loved ones the words they needed to begin healing.

Turning Grief Into Support for Other Parents

Saint James also shared a message with her children about the difference between sadness and anger.

She encouraged them to grieve without allowing anger to consume them, explaining that the crash was not something God had chosen to cause and that the pilots had not wanted to die. In her view, anger could rob them of the ability to process their sadness.

Rather than keeping that experience within her family, she made it a mission to support other parents who had lost children.

Among those she befriended was Lynn McDonnell, whose daughter Grace was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. The two developed a close relationship and sometimes spoke several times a week.

Saint James’ family said she continued to find ways to lift people up through empathy and advice drawn from her own experiences.

Her response to tragedy became another expression of the generosity that had defined her long before she became famous.

Philanthropy, Business and a Passion for Special Olympics

Saint James' life outside acting was equally varied.

She co-owned WZBG Radio in Litchfield, Connecticut, with iHeartRadio Chairman Bob Pittman. In the 1990s, she founded Seedling & Pip, a business selling baby gifts and books. During her 50s, she returned to school to become a master gardener.

After Ebersol retired in 2011, the couple spent time traveling across the country, attending minor league baseball games and staying at Hampton Inn hotels, according to her family.

One of Saint James' longest-running commitments was the Special Olympics. She attended the first Special Olympics Games in Chicago in 1968 at the invitation of founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

She went on to serve for decades on the organization's international board of directors and later joined the board of Special Olympics Connecticut. She also created and ran the Susan Saint James Celebrity Poker Tournament at Foxwoods to raise money for the organization.

Her charitable work extended to the Telluride Foundation, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame and Assistance Dogs of Hawaii.

For Saint James, service was not simply an addition to her public life. It was a sustained commitment to causes and people she cared about.

Susan Saint James Celebrated Her 80th Birthday With Family and Music

Saint James marked her 80th birthday in August with two days of celebration surrounded by the people she loved.

The night before her birthday, she attended a Doobie Brothers concert with her children and grandchildren. The band, with which she had toured in the 1970s and 1980s, surprised her with birthday wishes and dedicated “Black Water,” Teddy’s favorite song, to her.

On her actual birthday, family members and close friends gathered in her backyard with Ebersol.

According to her family, Saint James described the celebrations as “one of the best two days of her entire life.”

Her family said her seven grandchildren — five girls and two boys, ages 5 to 18 — brought her tremendous happiness.

Family Remembers an Actress Who Always Put Others First

In their statement to PEOPLE, Saint James’ family emphasized that her defining qualities were not her awards or television roles, but her ability to make people feel seen, valued and supported.

They recalled a woman who could connect with strangers as naturally as she connected with loved ones, and who continued offering encouragement even after experiencing an unimaginable loss.

Saint James is survived by her husband, Dick Ebersol; her four children, Sunshine Lucas, Harmony Lucas, Charlie Ebersol and Willie Ebersol; her seven grandchildren; her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey; and her beloved service dog, Lola.

Her career brought her into millions of homes through McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie. But the memories her family shared reveal a legacy that reached beyond the screen: a life shaped by compassion, resilience, family devotion and an enduring determination to help others find their footing when life became difficult.