James Noble Dead at 94

James Noble

TV, film and stage character actor James Noble, who starred in the ABC sitcom Benson, died Monday, March 28. He was 94.

The news was confirmed to the Associated Press by Noble's daughter, Jessica Katherine Noble Cowan. She said he died at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut after suffering a stroke.

Noble, whose career dated to the early 1950s, was best known for his role as Benson's Eugene Xavier Gatling, the scatterbrained governor of an unnamed state who is forever getting into scrapes only to be rescued by his sharp and sharp-tongued "director of household affairs," Benson DuBois, played by Robert Guillaume.

As the series progressed, Benson eventually becomes the governor's budget director, then his lieutenant governor and a candidate for the executive mansion himself. The show ran from 1979 to 1986.