Fresh out of the Connecticut College for Women, Susan Saint James secured work as a model, then talked her way into a contract with Universal Pictures. With no previous acting experience, Susan was given a co-starring assignment as magazine researcher Peggy Maxwell in Universal's made-for-TV Fame is the Name of the Game (1966). Susan would continue as Peggy in the subsequent TV series Name of the Game, which ran from 1968 to 1971 and which earned her an Emmy. During this time she also had a recurring role as kooky lady jewel robber Chuck Brown on the Robert Wagner TV weekly It Takes a Thief. Possessed of a breezy, garrulous, inquisitive quality, Susan was very much an acquired taste so far as many TV critics were concerned. Nonetheless, she achieved worldwide popularity as Sally McMillan on the TV detective series McMillan and Wife (1971-77) in which she costarred with Rock Hudson. The actress' comic skills grew sharper the longer she remained in the business; her best film appearance was as the constitutionally sloppy lady love of vampire George Hamilton in Love at First Bite (1979). In 1984, she co-starred with Jane Curtin in the single-mom sitcom Kate and Allie, which lasted until 1989. Her off-screen pursuits have leaned towards politics, ecology and social consciousness; she has been very active in the Democratic Party, and in 1974 hosted a fund-raising telethon for the party in the company of Hubert Humphrey.
by Hal Erickson
biography
