[1] Noble studied acting and engineering at Southern Methodist University before leaving to serve in the United States Navy during World War II.
[2] Returning from the war, Noble studied acting under Lee Strasberg and made appearances in Broadway theater.
His big screen roles included Reverend John Witherspoon in the film version of the Broadway musical 1776 (1972); assorted roles as doctors in films such as One Summer Love (1976), 10 (1979) and Promises in the Dark (1979); Kaufman, the president's chief of staff, in Being There (1979); Father O'Flanagan in the comedy sequel Airplane II: The Sequel (1982); Sinclair in A Tiger's Tale (1987); Chief Wilkins in the comedy Paramedics (1988) and Dr. Bailey in Chances Are (1989).
Noble played the father of Larry Appleton in the 1980s sitcom Perfect Strangers.
[citation needed] Noble had lived with his family in Leonia, New Jersey, before moving to California in 1980.