The Only ‘Benson’ Cast Members Still Alive Today

When Benson premiered on ABC on September 13, 1979, viewers already knew the man at its center. Benson DuBois had spent two seasons as the sharp-tongued butler on Soap, rolling his eyes at the Tate family’s chaos, and the spinoff sent him off to run the household of a widowed governor who could barely run himself. Over seven seasons and 158 episodes, Benson climbed from head of household affairs to state budget director and then lieutenant governor, a climb few sitcom butlers have ever made.

Robert Guillaume won an Emmy for playing Benson on both shows, and the series signed off on April 19, 1986, with Benson and Governor Gatling running against each other for governor, sitting side by side to watch the returns. The picture froze before the winner was announced, and ABC never brought it back to tell us. Forty years later, here is what became of the people inside that governor’s mansion, starting with the cast members we have lost and ending with the ones who are still with us.

Is Caroline McWilliams still alive?

Caroline McWilliams came to Benson the same way its star did. She had played Sally on Soap, and when the spinoff began she became Marcy Hill, the governor’s warm and unflappable personal secretary. Born in Seattle on April 4, 1945, she had cut her teeth in daytime as Janet Mason Norris on Guiding Light from 1969 into the mid-1970s, and she stayed with Benson through its second season and the first few episodes of the third.

Off camera, she married Michael Keaton in 1982, and the couple had a son, Sean, before divorcing in 1990. Sadly, Caroline McWilliams is no longer with us. She died at her Los Angeles home on February 11, 2010, at 64, from complications of multiple myeloma, her family told the Los Angeles Times, as TheWrap reported. The woman who replaced Marcy at the front desk would become one of the show’s sunniest faces, but first came a newcomer in the kitchen.

Is Billie Bird still alive?

Billie Bird arrived late to the party, and she made the most of it. When Gretchen was promoted to Benson’s assistant in season six, Bird stepped in as Rose Cassidy, the governor’s new cook, and stayed through the end of the run. By then she had been performing for most of the century. Born February 28, 1908, in Pocatello, Idaho, she spent her childhood performing in vaudeville.

Her best-known work came after Benson wrapped. Moviegoers remember her as the grandmother in Sixteen Candles, as a traveler at the airport in Home Alone and as Edith Butterwell in 1993’s Dennis the Menace. Billie Bird died on November 27, 2002, in Granada Hills, California, at 94, after years with Alzheimer’s disease, according to her Los Angeles Times obituary. She outlived the show by 16 years, and so did the man who played her boss.

Is James Noble still alive?

Governor Eugene X. Gatling was a sweet, scatterbrained widower who often seemed surprised to find himself in charge of a state, and James Noble played him with such gentle confusion that you could never stay mad at him. Noble was born in Dallas on March 5, 1922, and he studied at Southern Methodist University before serving in the Navy during World War II. He later worked on Broadway and appeared in the 1972 film version of 1776.

After Benson, he played the father of Larry Appleton on Perfect Strangers. James Noble died on March 28, 2016, at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut, at 94. A family spokesman told reporters he had suffered a stroke the week before, as CBS News reported. His on-screen kitchen, meanwhile, belonged to a woman who could stare down anyone in the building.

Is Inga Swenson still alive?

Gretchen Kraus, the formidable German cook who traded insults with Benson for seven seasons, was played by a Broadway leading lady. Inga Swenson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 29, 1932, and she earned two Tony nominations for Best Actress in a Musical, for 110 in the Shade and Baker Street. She also had a Soap connection, having played Ingrid Svenson, the birth mother of Corinne Tate, before she was cast as Gretchen.

Gretchen and Benson sniped at each other constantly, and the joke was that they were plainly devoted to each other, which earned Swenson three Emmy nominations. Inga Swenson died on July 23, 2023, at a care facility in Los Angeles, at 90. Her son Mark said she died of natural causes, according to TVLine, and her husband of 70 years, Lowell Harris, was by her side. The next resident of the mansion was a snob, and the man who played him was anything but.

Is René Auberjonois still alive?

Clayton Runnymede Endicott III joined the governor’s staff as chief of staff in season two, and he never once let anyone forget his breeding. René Auberjonois was born in Manhattan on June 1, 1940, and movie fans already knew him as Father Mulcahy in Robert Altman’s 1970 film M*A*S*H. His stuffy, wounded Clayton earned him an Emmy nomination in 1984.

After Benson, he became one of the busiest character actors around. He voiced the excitable Chef Louis in Disney’s The Little Mermaid in 1989, played the shape-shifting Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for seven seasons and joined Boston Legal as Paul Lewiston. When a fan asked in a 2013 Q&A on his official website whether Clayton lived on in his later characters, he answered, “There’s gotta be a little Clayton in me.” René Auberjonois died on December 8, 2019, at his Los Angeles home, at 79, from metastatic lung cancer, his son Remy confirmed to the Associated Press. He left behind his wife of 56 years, Judith. Two years earlier, the show had lost the man whose name was on the door.

Is Robert Guillaume still alive?

Robert Guillaume was born Robert Peter Williams in St. Louis on November 30, 1927, and he came to television after years on stage. He almost said no to the part that made him famous. “When I got the role of Benson, I was not the happiest camper,” he recalled on OWN’s Oprah: Where Are They Now? in 2016, as Fox News reported. “I had reservations, ’cause you’re serving food, you’re serving the family, and all that sort of thing. It thrusts you back in time.” Once he studied the character, he said, “I figured out a way to take some of the stench off the idea.”

What he figured out was a butler who was the smartest person in every room, and audiences loved him for it. He won the 1979 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Soap, then the 1985 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Benson. A whole new generation met him in 1994 as the voice of Rafiki in The Lion King, and the audiobook version won him a Grammy. Robert Guillaume died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Los Angeles, at 89, after a battle with prostate cancer. Five members of the Benson family are still here, and the first one only worked in the mansion for a single season.

Is Lewis J. Stadlen still alive?

In season one, the governor’s chief of staff was John Taylor, a slick operator played by Lewis J. Stadlen, and when René Auberjonois took over the job as Clayton, Stadlen went back to his first love. Born in Brooklyn on March 7, 1947, he had made his Broadway debut playing Groucho Marx in Minnie’s Boys in 1970, and he went on to two Tony nominations, for Candide in 1974 and the revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996.

He later played Max Bialystock in The Producers on Broadway and Dr. Ira Fried on The Sopranos. BroadwayWorld reported in 2022 that he was taking on Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at Flint Repertory Theatre. Lewis J. Stadlen is alive and is 79, with his 80th birthday coming in March. The press secretary who came in after him took a long road to outer space.

Is Ethan Phillips still alive?

Pete Downey, the governor’s eager press secretary, joined the show in season two, and Ethan Phillips played him for five seasons before making one last guest visit. Pete fell for the new secretary Denise, and the two characters married on the show. Phillips was born John Ethan Phillips in Garden City, New York, on February 8, 1955.

A decade after Benson, he found his biggest role under heavy makeup as Neelix, the cheerful cook and morale officer on Star Trek: Voyager from 1995 to 2001. He later played Mitch Gorfein, the friend whose cat goes missing, in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, a judge on Better Call Saul and the lead role of Spike Martin on HBO’s Avenue 5. He appeared in the 2025 film The Home. Ethan Phillips is alive and is 71. His on-screen wife has kept just as busy.

Is Didi Conn still alive?

By the time Didi Conn joined Benson in season three as the bubbly secretary Denise Stevens, the whole country knew her as Frenchy, the beauty-school dropout from Grease. Born Edith Bernstein in New York City on July 13, 1951, she played Denise until Denise married Pete, then stopped by for guest spots in season six.

After Benson, she became a favorite with a much younger audience as Stacy Jones, the station manager on PBS’s Shining Time Station from 1989 to 1995. She has been married to composer David Shire since 1984, and because their son Daniel is autistic, she became a national spokesperson for Autism Speaks in 2008. She still celebrates her Frenchy years, and this year she has a recurring role as town councilwoman Geneva Potter on Fox’s Best Medicine. Didi Conn is alive and is 75. The next survivor only lasted three episodes, and it might be the best thing that ever happened to him.

Is Jerry Seinfeld still alive?

Jerry Seinfeld was never a main cast member, but no Benson story is complete without him. In 1980 the young comic played Frankie, a mail delivery boy who kept trying out his comedy routines on people who did not want to hear them. He lasted three episodes. Seinfeld has said nobody told him he had been let go until he showed up for a read-through and found there was no script for him. “I was angry,” he said in a 2006 interview, as Cracked recounted. “That doesn’t happen in stand-up.”

Born in Brooklyn on April 29, 1954, he went back to the clubs, and nine years later he had his own sitcom on NBC. Seinfeld ran from 1989 to 1998. In 2024 he directed and starred in Netflix’s Unfrosted, and he is still touring. Jerry Seinfeld is alive and is 72. The last survivor on our list is the one fans ask about most, because she walked away from the cameras for good.

Is Missy Gold still alive?

Katie Gatling, the governor’s precocious daughter, was the heart of the show, and Missy Gold grew up in front of us over seven seasons. Born on July 14, 1970, she started acting at six, and her older sister Tracey Gold would go on to play Carol Seaver on Growing Pains.

When the show ended, Missy Gold left acting behind. She studied at Georgetown University and earned a PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology, and today she is a licensed psychologist and a mother of two, according to Hello!. Looking back on her years as a child star, she told the New York Post in 2022, “I was fortunate. I was very fortunate.” She added that she would not send her own children into the business. Missy Gold is alive and is 56, the little girl from the governor’s mansion who grew up to spend her days helping other people.