"Falcon Crest" Star Susan Sullivan Says Her Cancer Is 'Muted' in Health Update (Exclusive) Mark GrayAugust 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM Gregg DeGuire/Getty for SAGAFTRA Foundation Susan Sullivan in 2019.
- - "Falcon Crest" Star Susan Sullivan Says Her Cancer Is 'Muted' in Health Update (Exclusive)
Mark GrayAugust 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Gregg DeGuire/Getty for SAG-AFTRA Foundation
Susan Sullivan in 2019. -
Susan Sullivan was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023, and revealed her blood cancer in 2025
The actress, 82, advises seniors: 'You're old, but you're still restless'
Sullivan recalls an early morning phone call from Cary Grant
Susan Sullivan portrayed the unshakable Maggie Channing on the popular '80s TV series Falcon Crest, but off-camera, she might be even more resilient.
Not only has she had a film and TV career spanning six decades, but the actress has gone through two cancer diagnoses — one of which is in remission, and the other is, as she puts it, "muted."
"I've had a really, really fortunate time on this planet so far, and I want it to continue," the Dharma & Greg actress, 82, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "And when you turn 80, longing is not over. You turn 80, wishing to be seen as attractive and charming and win the room is not over. It's all there."
She adds, "What I really would like people to think about in their 80s is the game is still on and you're old, but you're still restless."
CBS via Getty
Susan Sullivan on "Falcon Crest" in 1986.
At 82, few have had a career as prolific as Sullivan, having appeared in more than 70 shows and TV movies, including starring roles in Another World and Castle. She was also the pitchwoman for Tylenol for 11 years, and adds, "I have the beach house to prove it."
Thankfully, she never listened to career advice from Cary Grant, who she says once told her in her early 20s, "Darling, you don't want to be an actress."
These days, The Incredible Hulk actress does want to still act, but for the right role.
"What doesn't appeal to me is the makeup chair getting to the set, getting up at five o'clock now. None of that appeals to me anymore. What appeals to me is acting and writing and collaborating with people," she says from her home in Los Angeles.
During the COVID pandemic, in order to stay connected with friends, she and her longtime partner, psychologist and writer Connell Cowan (co-author of the self-help classic Smart Women, Foolish Choices), even created a soap opera for seniors that chronicled life in an upscale retirement community. Although it was officially called What Friends Do, she admits that she informally refers to it as "The Old and the Restless."
"Selfishly, I hope people find it and get a kick out of it," she said of the show, which she plans to release on YouTube, and is available on the Smartphone Theater website, "but for me, it's staying creative, which is absolutely the bottom line."
After creating the show, cancer started rearing its head. During a routine mammogram in 2023, Sullivan's radiologist noticed a swollen lymph node under her arm and suggested a biopsy. The following month, she was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and underwent surgery. Within months, she was cancer-free. In January 2025, though, the My Best Friend's Wedding star said on X, formerly Twitter, that she had lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, which required chemotherapy.
"At first it was all right, but then when it started to be painful, to have that chemo was like burning hot liquid, going into your veins, and then your veins collapse and they can't find a vein," she says. "I wasn't quite the adventurous, smiling, positive creature. I was more, 'F---, no, I'm not going back.' "
RealSSullivan/X
Susan Sullivan posted this photo to X while undergoing a treatment for lymphoma.
During her last PET scan, the lymphoma wasn't gone, but it was "muted," she says, adding that doctors want her to have infusion therapy every quarter.
"I have a tendency to be in the soft blanket of denial, and I said, I would rather see how my body does on its own and do a PET scan in November as opposed to an infusion in August, so that's where I am," she explains. "There are people who say, 'Oh, just do the maintenance, do it, do it, and I think maybe I should see what my body wants to do. I don't want to sit there for five hours with a needle in my arm if I don't absolutely have to."
In the meantime, Sullivan takes care of herself and exercises regularly.
"When you're going through this kind of therapy or chemotherapy, people have different reactions to it. It wasn't so terrible for me, but it affects your heart. It affects your whole system. So then you really have to take care of yourself, period. That's where I am. I'm basically sort of on hold, but I feel good and all through this," she says. "If I could give older people, people aging, any advice: work out. I work out twice a week. I do resistance training, and I worked out all through the pandemic. I worked out after the lung cancer surgery. I did what I could do, and it was always modified, but it is so essential to stay strong, particularly while you're aging, because you're sort of trying to keep up."
Five days after her lung cancer surgery, Sullivan says she was up and walking.
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