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Susan Michaelin Sullivan (born November 18, 1942 in New York, New York) is an American actress, most known for her roles in soap operas and television, as Robert Foxworth's later David Selby's wife and Jane Wyman's long-suffering daughter-in-law, Maggie Gioberti Channing on the 1980s night-time soap opera, Falcon Crest (a role she played from 1981 to 1989), and as Thomas Gibson's snobbish country-club mother and owner, Kitty Montgomery on the 1990s sitcom, Dharma & Greg.

While putting herself through college at Hofstra University, she worked as a Playboy bunny. She got her start in acting in the 1960s, playing opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway play Jimmy Shine. From there, she played parts in daytime dramas. Starting with a part on A World Apart in 1970, she moved to a five year stint as Lenore Moore Curtin Delaney on Another World. Taking over the role from Judith Barcroft, Sullivan played the role from 1971 to 1976, and it was this role that first established her as a household name. Susan played Dr. Elaina Marks opposite Bill Bixby in the Incredible Hulk TV Series pilot in 1977 and portrayed Poker Alice Ivers opposite James Garner as Bret Maverick in The New Maverick the following year.

An Emmy nomination for her role as Maggie Porter in the television drama Rich Man, Poor Man: Book II brought her even more attention. Her role as Dr. Julie Farr in Having Babies, which was made into two television movies and later a weekly series, was much ballyhooed but, in the end, proved unsuccessful as a TV series. In 1980, she wished to restart her career by appearing on the sitcom It's a Living. This role led to a successful audition for Falcon Crest. At first, Sullivan turned down the role, but accepted when the producers insisted.

The role of Maggie brought her back into the limelight and was her most successful role to date, acting on the series from 1981 to 1989. When Sullivan wished to leave the show, the writers of the series had her exit in dramatic fashion, with Maggie drowning at the bottom of the family pool, the result of her wedding ring being caught in the pool drain after she tried to fish her son's toys out. Until her character was killed off, Sullivan had appeared in every episode of the series (out of the 227 episodes produced, she had appeared in the first 207).

Sullivan drifted out of the public consciousness again, with appearances on The George Carlin Show and the political drama The Monroes in the early and mid-1990s. However, it was not until a supporting role in the movie My Best Friend's Wedding (as the mother of Cameron Diaz's character) that ABC executives were interested in Sullivan for a part on a new sitcom, Dharma and Greg. She played the snooty country-club matriarch Kitty Montgomery on the series from 1997 to 2002 and gained a new audience altogether. (Interestingly, she was reunited with actor Mitchell Ryan, whom she worked with on Having Babies, who played her husband, Edward).

In 1998, she won the Jane Wyman award at the Arthritis Foundation where her former Falcon Crest co-star, Wyman, was a regular member.

She also has a recurring role on Justice League Unlimited as Queen Hippolyta.

She has never married or had children, but her partner for over fifteen years has been psychologist and author, Connell Cowan. She also previously dated, among others, screen icon Cary Grant.

From 1984 until 1996, she was the spokeswoman for Tylenol brand pain reliever.

In 1979, she appeared as Vice-Admiral Lori Ciana in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though her entire part consisted of her character being killed in a transporter accident. According to Gene Roddenberry's novelization of the film, this character was Kirk's supervisor (and lover) at Starfleet Command.

• Susan Sullivan at the Internet Movie Database
• Susan Sullivan at TV.com
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (novel)#Other article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.