Coates was born in Oklahoma City and grew up in Santa Monica, Calif., where she acted in children's theater. She went on to major in acting at the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked in stock companies in the East. She met her future husband, James Noble - who played "Governor Gene Gatling" on the TV show Benson(1979) - in 1951 in Worcester, Mass., while playing "Eliza Doolittle" in "Pygmalion". The couple appeared in many plays together, notably "Long Day's Jou…
