Susan Saint James Parents: Meet Charles Daniel Miller and Constance Geiger Miller and Trace Her Family Roots

Susan Saint James returned to the news on November 5, 2026, as reports confirmed the cause of her death following her family’s announcement in late October. The actress, who died at 80, was remembered for her television performances and devotion to her family. Her story began as Susan Jane Miller, the daughter of Charles Daniel Miller and Constance Geiger Miller.

Her father worked in manufacturing and later became president of the Testor Corporation, known for model kits and hobby products. Her mother was a teacher with interests in theater, literature, travel and music. Their careers placed the family outside the entertainment industry in which their daughter eventually became famous.

Saint James was born in Los Angeles on August 14, 1946, and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. The move followed a change in her father’s work. Her professional surname sometimes obscures that family connection, but Miller was her birth surname, not Saint James.

Both parents died before their daughter. Charles died in 1993, and Constance died in February 2011 at 95. Contemporary accounts of Constance’s life provide a detailed record of the household and family history behind the actress.

Who Was Susan Saint James’s Father Charles Daniel Miller?

Charles Daniel Miller was from Middletown, Connecticut. He married Constance Geiger in 1941, and the couple moved to Los Angeles. There, he worked as a toolmaker at Mitchell Camera, a company associated with equipment used in film production.

That connection is an interesting part of the family’s history, but it should not be confused with a career as an actor or film director. His documented work involved technical and manufacturing skills. During the Second World War, those skills were also needed for defense-related work.

The family moved to Rockford in 1955. Charles became president of the Testor Corporation and was associated with the Hobby Industry Association of America. His position explains the Illinois upbringing that features in many short biographies of his daughter.

Susan was one of four children in the Miller family. Her siblings included Charles, David and Mary Mercedes. Later family accounts also identify actress Christa Miller as Susan’s niece, connecting another generation of performers with the same wider family.

Charles and Constance eventually moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1982, near Susan and her family. Their relocation brought them closer to the daughter who had returned to the region with husband Dick Ebersol. Charles died in 1993, many years before Saint James’s own death.

Who Was Her Mother Constance Geiger Miller?

Constance Geiger was born in Cromwell, Connecticut, on August 3, 1915. Her parents were Charles Robeson Geiger and Jane Irene Lamb. She attended Middletown High School and Connecticut State Teacher’s College, now Central Connecticut State University.

Her education led to teaching, and her obituary records work at the Eunice Knight Saunders School. She also performed in theater productions at Wesleyan University during a period when the institution was still an all-male college. The family therefore included an interest in performance before Susan entered professional acting.

Constance’s later life was marked by extensive travel. Her obituary described visits to dozens of countries and an enthusiasm for exploring places that were less common tourist destinations at the time. She also maintained a distinctive collection of hats, which inspired a book by her daughter Mercedes.

Books, poetry and storytelling remained important interests. The family remembrance described her sharing collections of favorite writing and music with relatives. These details offer a more individual picture of her than the simple description of “the actress’s mother.”

Constance died at home in Litchfield on February 20, 2011, surrounded by family. She was 95. Her obituary listed a large extended family and remembered both her personal curiosity and her close attention to relatives across several generations.

How Did Susan Jane Miller Become Susan Saint James?

Saint James developed an ambition to act while she was still young. She attended Catholic school in Illinois and later worked as a model, including a period in Paris. By the time she returned to Los Angeles, she was preparing to pursue entertainment professionally.

She adopted Susan Saint James as her acting name and signed with Universal. An early breakthrough came in the television film Fame Is the Name of the Game. When the concept became the series The Name of the Game, she played research assistant Peggy Maxwell, winning an Emmy in 1969.

Her best-known roles followed in McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie. The success of those programs made her professional name familiar to viewers, while the Miller family background received less attention. The two names describe the same person at different stages of her life.

She later built a family of her own with five children across two marriages. After Kate & Allie ended, she concentrated more heavily on raising her younger children and on charity work, especially Special Olympics. Her parents’ move to Connecticut had placed them near that later family chapter.

The confirmed names behind searches for Susan Saint James’s parents are Charles Daniel Miller and Constance Geiger Miller. Their lives encompassed manufacturing, education and a move from California to Illinois and then Connecticut, providing the family setting from which Susan’s television career emerged.