Kate & Allie Star Susan Saint James Played Two Characters On Raymond Burr's Classic Cop Drama
Many actors who went on to huge things played minor roles in network procedurals to pay the bills prior to their big breaks. Lots of major movie stars have appeared in "Grey's Anatomy," for example, and "Law & Order" has also been a springboard for A-listers. The same was true back in the 1960s, when the late Susan Saint James — who would become known as the star of the popular '80s sitcom "Kate & Allie" – made her first onscreen appearance in an episode of "Ironside."
"Ironside" was a popular cop drama starring Raymond Burr as a former San Francisco detective who quit the force after a shooting left him paralyzed. He continues to work as a consultant, using brains rather than brawn to solve cases. It ran for eight seasons from 1967 to 1975. In 2013, NBC brought "Ironside" back with Blair Underwood as Robert Ironside, but it didn't last long — it ranks among the worst reboots of the 2010s.
Susan Saint James played nightclub singers in two different episodes of Ironside
It's not uncommon for actors to play different parts in long-running TV shows, though Susan Saint James' appearances on "Ironside" were unusually close together: She guest-starred in two Season 1 episodes that aired only two months apart.
In "Girl in the Night," James played a mysterious singer with short hair named Elaine Moreau. While at a nightclub in Las Vegas, Elaine meets Ironside's colleague Detective Sergeant Ed Brown Ed Brown (Don Galloway) and he falls head over heels for her. When Elaine disappears and Ed wakes up in the hospital, Ironside digs into Elaine's past, which involves mob connections and ends in tragedy.
In "Something for Nothing," James once again played a short-haired singer mixed up in the criminal underworld. She portrayed Verna Cusack, one half of a musical duo with her husband, Tommy (James Farentino). When Ironside watches the duo perform one night, he learns that Tommy is in debt to eyepatch-wearing crime boss Roy Faber (Vincent Gardenia).
It's a bit odd that the creators of "Ironside" decided to cast James in two similar roles for episodes that aired so close together, but they clearly trusted her to make the two characters distinct. After all, she was a talented actress — following James' death in October 2026 at the age of 80, fans pointed out that she was one of the most underrated TV stars of her generation.