Susan Saint James

Susan Saint James (born August 14, 1946) is an American former actress. She is most widely known for the spy series It Takes a Thief, detective series McMillan & Wife (1971–1976) and the sitcom Kate & Allie (1984–1989).

Early life Saint James was born Susan Jane Miller on August 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, the daughter of Constance (née Geiger), a teacher, and Charles Daniel Miller, who worked for Mitchell Camera and later became the president of the Testor Corporation. Saint James was raised in Rockford, Illinois, where she began modeling as a teenager. In her younger school years she attended the Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois. She later attended Connecticut College. In addition to motherhood (her second-youngest son was born during the fourth season of Kate & Allie), she has been an active volunteer with the Special Olympics (an organization she began actively supporting in 1972). She has served on the Special Olympics board, She is a board member of the Telluride Foundation.

In 1998, Saint James, her sister Mercedes Dewey, and friend Barrie Johnson founded Seedling and Pip, a baby gift basket business. Saint James occasionally has emerged from retirement to appear in television series guest roles, such as the mother of (her real-life niece) Christa Miller in the first season of The Drew Carey Show, and ten years later, as a defense attorney on the February 28, 2006, episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She starred in a 1999 production of The Miracle Worker at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Connecticut.

Personal life

Saint James married aspiring writer-director Richard Neubert in 1967, but the marriage lasted only a year. She was married a second time in 1971, to Thomas Lucas, a makeup artist. They had a daughter, Sunshine Lucas (born 1972), and a son, Harmony Lucas (born 1974). They divorced in 1977.

While guest-hosting Saturday Night Live in 1981, Saint James met the show's executive producer Dick Ebersol. They married within the year and had three sons, including Charles. In March 2002, Saint James filed for divorce from Ebersol, but the couple reconciled later that summer.

She is a vegetarian.

She holds honorary degrees from six Connecticut institutions: the University of Connecticut, the University of Bridgeport, Southern Connecticut State University, Albertus Magnus College, the University of New Haven, She was a featured speaker at The Women's Conference in 2007, at a session called "Beyond Courage: Overcoming the Unimaginable." 1976 Scott Free Holly 1978 Night Cries Jeannie Haskins 1978 Desperate Women Esther Winters 1979 Rita Massaro 1979 Sex and the Single Parent Sally 1979 S.O.S. Titanic Leigh Goodwin 1982 Samantha 'Sam' Kandal 1983 I Take These Men Carol Sherwood 1983 After George Susan Roberts Television series