- Born
- Height6′ 6″ (1.98 m)
- Offbeat character actor Tom Noonan, born in Connecticut on April 12, 1951, started off his career in various theater troupes that utilized his skills as a guitarist and composer. A graduate from Yale's acting school, he founded the Paradise Theatre in 1983, which was instrumental later in his growth as an artist.
Gravitating toward film and TV in the 80s, he began appearing regularly in edgy, unsympathetic roles, most notably as the "Tooth Fairy" serial killer in Manhunter (1986) which was the first feature length film to introduce the infamous Hannibal Lector character. Most of his other work at this time was solid but unrewarding, including such looming parts in Easy Money (1983), Best Defense (1984), The Monster Squad (1987) and RoboCop 2 (1990), so he began to take classes in writing and directing in order to extend himself.
In the mid-90s, by appearing in a number of mainstream parts, he was able to finance his own first play-turned-art house film project What Happened Was... (1994), which became the darling of the Sundance Film Festival that year and won the Grand Jury Prize, not to mention an Independent Spirit nomination. He filmed it in eleven days at a cost of $300,000, and managed to edit it only hours before the Sundance deadline. The success of the two character film, which starred Tom and Karen Sillas as an awkward couple on their first date, induced Tom to finance another film, The Wife (1995), based on his Obie-winning (for writing) play "Wifey", which co-starred Tom with Julie Hagerty, Wallace Shawn and his one-time wife Karen Young. This film, which was warmly received at the Sundance Festival as well, was barely released theatrically, however, as was his third hands-on feature Wang Dang (1999).
Notable 90s TV work included roles in The X-Files (1993) and the miniseries North & South: Book 3, Heaven & Hell (1994), in which he also composed the score. Into the millennium, Tom was seen in such films as The Egoists (2003), Madness and Genius (2003), Seraphim Falls (2006), The Alphabet Killer (2008), The House of the Devil (2009), Night of the Wolf (2014), The Shape of Something Squashed (2014) and Wonderstruck (2017). TV offerings included "CSI," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and recurring roles on Damages (2007) (as Detective Huntley), Hell on Wheels (2011) (as Reverend Cole) and 12 Monkeys (2015) (as Pallid Man).
The New York-based actor continues to perform as well as teach acting at the Paradise Theatre, where many of his plays-turned-films got off the ground. He has also written short works of fiction.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpouseKaren Young(1992 - 1999) (divorced, 2 children)
- Towering height
- Often plays menacing, sadistic villains
- He and his fellow Heat (1995) cast member, Ted Levine, have both played villains caught with the help of Hannibal Lecter. Noonan played Francis "Tooth Fairy" Dolarhyde in Manhunter (1986), and Levine played Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
- The play, "A Poster for the Cosmos", was written specifically for Tom by writer Lanford Wilson.
- Made a guest appearance in the third season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000). He and "CSI" star William Petersen starred together in Manhunter (1986).
- He is not related to the actor Tommy Noonan.
- Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 130, pp. 305-309. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
- [on alternative takes of his 'Francis Dollarhyde' role] We shot every 'shirtless' scene in Manhunter (1986) both with tattoo and without. Michael Mann made the choice in the editing room to use the scenes without the tattoo. I remember him saying that it was 'too much' and it 'diminished' the character.
- I've always been a know-it-all. I drive a lot people a bit crazy. But I can't seem to help it. When I was a little kid no matter what my parents told me I would always argue - even if I agreed with them. And I've always been a show-off. As I've gotten older I've found ways to be more subtle about it, but that's the way I am. I suppose that has something to do with why I write and direct.
- I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away.
- [on Heaven's Gate (1980)] That was probably the worst experience I had in my adult life at that point. Michael Cimino's not a very nice person... He pointed a blank at my face once - which is really dangerous; you can kill somebody with a blank gun - like, threateningly. Like, "I want you to do this, and if you don't..." He was really crazy.
- [on Michael Mann directing Manhunter (1986)] Michael and I became very close during the shoot, but we almost never spoke to each other. He just sort of loved me, that's how I felt as a person. He used to send me Christmas cards - very fancy, with pieces of wax paper - but he stopped doing that. One time he was shooting, and I said something to him; it was not disagreeing, but I wasn't level. He took me outside and said, "You can say anything to me you want, but don't ever say anything in front of the crew." Other than that, he never talked to me. He would yell at people a lot. He would make Joan Allen cry sometimes. I thought she was really good. Sometimes she'd do a take, and he would say things "What the fuck? You think anybody's gonna believe that shit?" Maybe I'm exaggerating, it's been a while. There were probably 60 or 70 people on the crew, and there was turnover of like 80 jobs on the movie. The first scene I ever had was when I'm stting in this van and Joan is on the front steps. There was a little tiny imperfection in the van that wasn't even in the shot, you'd never have seen this in a million years. He complained to the producers. He was really upset, and the guy disagreed with him a little, and said "Michael, just calm down, they're gonna fix it." He said, "No, I'm telling you what's going to happen. When I turn around, they are not gonna be there. I'm never going to see anyone again in the art department." And the guy said, "OK, Michael," and all these people just left.[2015]
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