Susan Saint James was born Susan Jane Miller on August 14, 1946 in Los Angeles. In 1958, the family moved to Rockford, Illinois. She went to the Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois. She began modelling while still in high school. Afterwards she attended Connecticut College. She adopted the surname "St. James" when she was 20 and decided to pursue acting as a career.
Susan Saint James signed with Universal and made her television debut in the TV movie Fame is the Name of the Game in 1966. It served as the pilot for the TV series The Name of the Game. She later had a regular role on the show. She also had a recurring role on the show It Takes a Thief. She guest starred on the shows Ironside and McCloud. She made her film debut in 1967 in P. J. She appeared in the movies Where Angles Go Trouble Follows! (1968), Jigsaw (1968), and The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County.
In the Seventies, she starred as Sally McMillan, the wife of Police Commissioner Stuart McMillan (Rock Hudson), on McMillan & Wife. She guest starred on the shows Alias Smith and Jones and M*A*S*H. She also appeared in several TV movies. She appeared in the movies Outlaw Blues (1977), Love at First Bite (1979), and How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980).
In the Eighties, Susan Saint James starred on the sitcom Kate & Allie. She guest starred on the show Tattingers. She appeared in the movies Carbon Copy (1981) and Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder (1982). In the Nineties, she guest starred on The Drew Carey Show and in the Naughts she guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the Teens, she guest starred on Suits. She appeared in the TV movie Holiday Hearts and the mini-series The Haunting of Bly Manor. From the late Teens into the 2020s, she had three guest appearances on the TV series Upload.
Chances are good that Susan Saint James will always be best remembered as Sally, the crime solving wife of a police commissioner on McMillan & Wife and the free-spirited Kate on Kate & Allie, but she played a variety of other roles. In How to Beat the High Cost of Living, she played Jane, a divorced woman who plots a heist with other women to solve her money woes. In Love at First Bite, she played quirky fashion model Cindy Sondheim, who becomes the object of desire of Dracula (George Hamilton). She played war correspondent Aggie O' Shea in a guest appearance on M*A*S*H. Susan Saint James played a wide variety of roles in her career and played all of them well.
