Trivia: 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. Noble continued to act, sticking to mostly guest roles on shows like Perfect Strangers and Law & Order, through the 1990s, and then appeared only sporadically onscreen in the next decade, though he kept up his stage work during that time. Noble died in 2016, at age 94.

Trivia: Many remember actress Caroline McWilliams for the role of Marcy on the popular sitcom Benson. Born in Washington and raised in Rhode Island, McWilliams began her career on screen in the late '60s, taking on the role of Janet Mason Norris on the long-standing soap opera The Guiding Light in 1969. She'd stick with the series until 1975, and eventually moved into comedy, parodying the daytime TV world she was so familiar with on the series Soap from 1979 to 1981. She'd simultaneously appear on Benson and married actor Michael Keaton in 1982, giving birth to a son the following year. McWilliams would go on to spend the 1980s making frequent guest appearances on everything from Hill Street Blues to Cagney and Lacey. The next decade would begin on a bittersweet note for the actress. While she made a prominent appearance in the 1990 film Mermaids, this was also the year she and Keaton divorced. The actress remained on top of her game professionally, however, with a recurring role on Beverly Hills 90210, and later on the 2003 drama Judging Amy. McWilliams also found a tremendous niche as a director, staging critically lauded productions of Divorcons (Let's Get a Divorce) and The Smoke and Ice Follies. Tragically, the actress died in 2010 at the age of 64.