Career Highlights: When the Bough Breaks, Who?, The Woman Who Willed a Miracle
First Major Screen Credit: Who? (1975)
Biography
The son of a Dallas wholesale coal dealer, American actor James Noble spent much of his youth attending pool halls and movie houses. Noble retained his expertise with a pool cue throughout his life, while his stronger interest in acting (fueled by movies) manifested itself in local stage productions and drama studies at Southern Methodist University. Following Navy service in World War II, Noble went to New York to study at the Actors Studio, then went on to a stage revival of Pygmalion wherein he met his future wife, actress Carolyn Coates. The actor appeared on such TV soap operas as As the World Turns, The Doctors, A World Apart and such Broadway productions as 1776, spending much of his spare time in psychotherapy to handle his ongoing feelings of self-doubt. In films from the mid '70s, Noble principally played small roles as authority figures and politicians (Being There, The Nude Bomb), with occasional larger roles such as Bo Derek's father in 10 (1978). In 1981 Noble was cast as the genially absent-minded Governor Gene Gatling on the Robert Guillaume sitcom Benson, a role in which he remained until the series' 1986 cancellation. Two years later, James Noble resurfaced on TV in the role of a Nebraska-based recording engineer on the very short-lived situation comedy First Impressions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Actress Carolyn Coates born Oklahoma City OK, April 29, 1927; died Norwalk CT, March 27, 2005
James Noble (born March 5, 1922 in Dallas, Texas) is an American actor best known for his portrayal of the slightly daffy Governor Eugene Gatling on the 1980s sitcomBenson. He began his career in soap operas, most notably, The Brighter Day; As the World Turns, The Doctors and A World Apart. In 1985 he appeared as King Rupert in the Faerie Tale Theatre production of Cinderella. He played Reverend John Witherspoon in the movie 1776. In 2005 James Noble co-founded Open The Gate Pictures with actress Colleen Murphy and produced and starred in the highly acclaimed short film Glacier Bay with veteran actress Dorothy Brice. Glacier Bay has won several awards in a variety of film festival around the country.
James Noble also played the live action version of Hiram Lodge, Veronica Lodge's father in the Archie Comics, in the movie, Archie: To Riverdale and Back (1990).