Sitcom star James Noble — who played absent-minded Governor Eugene Gatling on “Benson” — has passed away at the age of 94 after suffering a stroke.
His daughter, Jessica Katherine Noble Cowan, confirmed that the beloved character actor had passed away at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut on Monday.
James spent most of his career as a popular stage actor whose biggest brush with fame came from a short stint on the soap opera “The Doctors.”
He was 57 years old when James finally became an overnight name as Governor Gatling on “Benson” — which was a spinoff from the “Soap” sitcom and starred Robert Guillaume in the title role as a sharp-witted butler.
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The sitcom debuted in 1979, and stayed on the air much longer than “Soap.” James settled in as a television fixture for seven seasons.
The series would end with a finale where the governor and his former butler — who’d since become Lieutenant Governor of the unnamed state — settled in to watch gubernatorial election returns as the characters became rivals.
James returned to Connecticut and kept working steadily in small television roles and theatrical productions.
He was still going in front of the cameras as recently as 2011 — and was a regular fixture in Connecticut politics, where he was often introduced at events as “The Governor.”
