Background

Tom Noonan was born on April 12, 1951, in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. He is a son of Rita (McGannon) Noonan, a mathematics teacher, and John Noonan, Sr., a jazz musician and director of dental surgery. Tom is also a brother of John Ford Noonan, a playwright, and has two sisters, Barbara and Nancy, as well.

Education

Tom Noonan graduated from Yale School of Drama.

Career

At the beginning of his career, Tom worked in a theatre, appearing in the original Off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's play "Buried Child". He also worked in various theater troupes, that utilized his skills as a guitarist and composer.

In 1983, Tom founded Paradise Factory Theatre, a center for theater and film development. Also, it was in the 1980's, that he began to appear in films.

In his early career as an actor, Noonan appeared 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 that time was solid, but unrewarding, including such looming parts as 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-1990s, Tom appeared in a number of well-paid mainstream roles and he was able to finance his own first play-turned-art house film project "What Happened Was..." (1994), which was highly estimated at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize. He filmed the work in eleven days at a cost of $300,000 and managed to edit it only hours before the Sundance deadline. Having received much acclaim for the film, Tom financed another film, "The Wife" (1995), based on his play "Wifey". This film was released only theatrically, however, it was highly acclaimed at Sundance Festival as well.

In the 2000's, Tom appeared in various other movies, including "Synecdoche, New York", where he played the role of Sammy Barnathan. Also, in 2015, the actor voiced all of the supporting characters in Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion comedy-drama film "Anomalisa".

During his career, Noonan also appeared in different television series, including "The X-Files", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", "Tales from the Darkside" and others.

Moreover, Tom acted as a music composer under pseudonym Ludovico Sorret for his films, including "What Happened Was..." (1994). Under his own name, he composed music for miniseries, including "Heaven and Hell", and for films, including "Romance". Noonan edited his films under pseudonym Richmond Arriey.

Currently, Tom continues to perform, as well as teach acting at his Paradise Factory Theatre.

Achievements

• Tom Noonan is a prominent actor, film director, music composer and screenwriter. He gained prominence for his roles in such movies, as "Manhunter" (1986), "The Monster Squad" (1987), "RoboCop 2" and others.
  
  The most famous movies, that he directed and wrote plot for are "What Happened Was..." (1994) and "The Wife" (1995).
  
  In 1994, he was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for the movie "What Happened Was...". In 1998, the actor received Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking.

Works

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  • What Happened Was

    (Co-workers in a large Manhattan law firm, Jackie and Mich...)

    1994
  • The Monster Squad

    (Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Gill-Man, the Mummy and the Fr...)

    1987
  • The Alphabet Killer

    (A ten year old girl is found brutally murdered outside th...)

    2008
  • RoboCop 2

    (Unknown to Robocop, the evil corporate empire, which crea...)

    1990
  • The Wife

    (A sudden visit from a patient and his unstable, outrageou...)

    1995
  • Anomalisa

    (On a trip to Ohio, Michael is separated from the routine ...)

    2015
  • Manhunter

    (Using his uncanny ability to get inside psychopaths' mind...)

    1986
  • Last Action Hero

    (Superstar Schwarzenegger bursts through the screen as a b...)

    1993
  • The House of the Devil

    (In the 1980's, college student Samantha Hughes takes a st...)

    2009
  • Wonderstruck

    (In this movie, Ben and Rose are children from two differe...)

    2017
  • Synecdoche, New York

    (Tom appeared in a role of Sammy Barnathan in this movie.)

    2008

Views

Quotations: "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."

"Making "bad people" seem human is the key to making them really scary."

"I've always been a know-it-all. I drive a lot of people a bit crazy. But I can't seem to help it."

"I think I probably have a creepy kind of scary quality. Otherwise, I wouldn't get jobs. But I also think it has a little bit to do with, you've done it a couple times, and then people see you that way."

"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 think that's what happens, when you get scared, and you're rushing, and you don't have time. Rather than cut things out and take a chance, and build things up you think are working, you cut everything down a little bit, and everything sort of suffers."

"When I first started acting, somebody once said to me, that anything that is a problem that prevents you from getting a job will eventually be a strength. It works both ways. The odder you are, the harder it is to get work, but once you sort of establish it, you have no competition."

"I tend to be very private. It's easier for me. When you're acting, you're very susceptible to comments that somebody makes, so if they know something is going to happen on the show, and they say something, it can actually throw you off. So I tend to not share things with anybody."

"Everybody has a lot of darkness in them because without that you're not a whole person."

Personality

Being a tall man (196 cm), Tom is probably responsible for his tendency to play roles of menacing villains.

Connections

In 1992, Tom married Karen Young, an actress. Their marriage produced two children, one of whom is Wanda. Tom and Karen divorced in 1999.

Father:

John Noonan, Sr.

Mother:

Rita (McGannon) Noonan

child:

Wanda Noonan

Brother:

John Ford Noonan

Sister:

Barbara Noonan

Sister:

Nancy Noonan

ex-wife:

Karen Young