A Canadian-born actor who became a star in his later years on the TV sitcom Diff’rent Strokes has died.

Conrad Bain was a veteran stage and film actor when he took on the role of a white adoptive father of two young African-American brothers.

Bain died Monday of natural causes. He was 89.

Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Bain began his career on stage, making his New York debut in The Iceman Cometh in 1956.

He also made several films. In 1971, he auditioned for a film that he didn’t get. But director Norman Lear remembered him, and cast him in the ground-breaking series Maude where he played a doctor who was a frequent foil to star Bea Arthur.

He was so convincing in the role that a woman once stopped him in an airport seeking medical advice.