SUSAN SAINT JAMES:My Secret to LIFE

The star of McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie catches up with Closer

- Fortune Benatar

When Susan Saint James moved to Los Angeles as a young woman, she lived at the Hollywood Studio Club. “It was started for women by Mary Pickford,” she says of the silent movie icon. “And my mom approved because Grace Kelly had lived here. I started taking acting lessons, but I got the feeling right away that you could get stuck in acting class. Plus, I had to make money.” It didn’t take long for Susan to become a familiar face on television. After breaking out as research assistant Peggy Maxwell on The Name of the Game, a role that won her an Emmy, she became a star on McMillan & Wife. A decade later, she returned to TV on Kate & Allie. “I am still in touch with Jane [Curtin] and all the kids,” says Susan, 77. “It was great fun.”

What was your childhood like?

I was born in LA and lived there until I was 12. We moved to Illinois. Then after school, I went to New York and never looked back.

You started modeling as a teenager.

I was on my way to college, but I never got there because I just wanted to make a living. I was 16 years old and living at the Barbizon [Hotel]. I modeled for five or six months, got a book together and went to live in France. I speak French fluently, and I stayed a while because Kennedy was shot in November and I was just heartbroken. It was like the end of the world.

By 1966, you had moved to Los Angeles to be an actress. Is there anything you wish you could have told your younger self?

I think you have to go there with the idea that nothing is going to dissuade you. I tell people, talent, being interesting and being yourself adds 100 percent. It happened very fast for me, but you have to be the last man standing.

Did you have any role models when you were a young actress?