LOS ANGELES, Oct 29 — Hollywood actress Susan Saint James, best known for starring in the hit television shows McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie, has died aged 80 following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

The Emmy-winning star died on Monday, her representative confirmed to People magazine, with her family paying an emotional tribute to a woman whose life was marked by television success, extraordinary generosity and the devastating loss of her teenage son.

Saint James, who became a household name in the 1970s and 1980s, lost her youngest son, Teddy, in a private plane crash in Colorado in November 2004. He was just 14.

Despite the tragedy, her family said she remained determined to help others, even while struggling with her own grief.

“She never met a stranger. Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment,” her family told People.

They recalled how, just weeks after Teddy’s death, she delivered a moving eulogy offering comfort and guidance to her surviving children and husband, television executive Dick Ebersol.

Saint James later received 27,000 letters of condolence and personally responded to 15,000 with handwritten notes.

Her family remembered her as someone who was “generous with her time and energy, which she valued more than money”.

Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles in 1946, she grew up in Illinois before pursuing modelling in New York and eventually moving to Hollywood.

Her breakthrough came in 1968 with the television drama The Name of the Game, which earned her three Emmy nominations and one win.

She subsequently starred opposite Rock Hudson in McMillan & Wife, playing the wife of a police commissioner from 1971 until 1976.

But it was her role alongside Jane Curtin in the beloved sitcom Kate & Allie that cemented her place in American television history.

The series, which ran from 1984 to 1989, followed two divorced mothers raising their children together in New York and earned Saint James another two Emmy nominations.

Away from the cameras, her personal life was equally eventful.

She met Ebersol while hosting Saturday Night Live in 1981, and the pair married just 42 days later.

They had three sons together, including Teddy. Saint James also had two children from her previous marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas.

Following Teddy’s death, she devoted herself to supporting grieving parents and continued her long-standing charity work, particularly with the Special Olympics.

She had largely stepped away from acting by the early 1990s to concentrate on her family, later making occasional television appearances.

In August, Saint James celebrated her 80th birthday surrounded by her children and grandchildren, including a special concert by the Doobie Brothers.

The band dedicated Black Water, Teddy’s favourite song, to her.

Her family said she described the celebrations as “one of the best two days of her entire life”.

She is survived by Ebersol, four children, seven grandchildren and her sister, Mary Mercedes Dewey.