Sagan Lewis, the actress known best for her role on the TV medical drama “St. Elsewhere,” died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, according to UTA. She was 63.
Lewis played Dr. Jacqueline Wade on “St. Elsewhere” for the show’s entire six-season run, from 1982 to 1988. Though she wasn’t one of the show’s top-billed stars, she was a regular throughout the series and appeared in its first episode. In the sixth season, she became featured in the opening credits.
Her character was a young surgical resident who was promoted to Chief Resident during the show’s run, with some plots revolving around her crumbling marriage and a relationship with a co-worker in its aftermath.
Sagan Lewis, the actress known best for her role on the TV medical drama “St. Elsewhere,” died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, according to UTA. She was 63.
Lewis played Dr. Jacqueline Wade on “St. Elsewhere” for the show’s entire six-season run, from 1982 to 1988. Though she wasn’t one of the show’s top-billed stars, she was a regular throughout the series and appeared in its first episode. In the sixth season, she became featured in the opening credits.
Her character was a young surgical resident who was promoted to Chief Resident during the show’s run, with some plots revolving around her crumbling marriage and a relationship with a co-worker in its aftermath.
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Other roles for Lewis included a recurring part on “Homicide: Life on the Street” as Judge Susan Aandahl and a guest spot on one of the final episodes of “M*A*S*H.” She also taught acting workshops at the Zaki Gordon Institute of Independent Film, as well as taking on the role of program director at the Sedona International Film Festival for several years.
A statement from the Sedona Film Festival on their Facebook page read in part, “She worked endless hours, often watching more than a thousand film entries herself, to choose the perfect films for our savvy Sedona audiences. She challenged us to listen to EVERY independent voice because ‘they all have a place in our festival.'”
Lewis was married to writer and producer Tom Fontana, who wrote for “St. Elsewhere,” in 1982. They divorced in 1993 but later reconnected, remarrying in 2015. He survives her, as does their son, Jade Scott Lewis.
Lewis requested memorial contributions to the Ocean Foundation. Of this request, Fontana noted, “To say that Sagan Lewis loved the ocean would be a massive understatement. The ocean and she were inseparable, no matter if she was on a beach in Maui or a mountain top in Sedona or walking along the grand canyons of New York City. The ocean fed her its life giving energy and she gave the ocean her beauty and devotion.”
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