{"id":489385,"date":"2026-02-19T04:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489385\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:46:11","slug":"tom-noonan-star-of-robocop-and-the-monster-squad-dies-aged-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489385\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Noonan, star of RoboCop and The Monster Squad, dies aged 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor and director<\/a> Tom Noonan has died aged aged 74.<\/p>\n

Known for portraying iconic villains such as Cain in RoboCop 2, Noonan also portrayed serial killer Francis Dollarhyde in the 1986 thriller Manhunter and the hacker Kelso in the 1995 drama Heat.<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s long-time friend and collaborator<\/a> Fred Dekker announced his death on Tuesday night local time.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s with great sadness that I share the passing of Tom Noonan,\u201d Dekker said.<\/p>\n

Dekker directed Noonan in his role of Frankenstein\u2019s Monster in the 1987 horror comedy, The Monster Squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom\u2019s indelible performance as Frankenstein in The Monster Squad is a highlight of my modest filmography,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI desperately wanted Tom to read the script and consider the part, but I knew that nabbing him was probably a long shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonetheless, he agreed to meet me at his Hollywood apartment to discuss the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KnownKnown for roles such as Frankenstein\u2019s Monster, actor Tom Noonan has died aged 74. Credit: Getty, HBO<\/p>\n

Dekker said he pursued Noonan for the role after seeing his breakout appearance in Michael Mann\u2019s Manhunter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, he was the proverbial gentleman and scholar and the world has lost a great talent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Born in Greenwich, Connecticut,<\/a> on April 12, 1951, Noonan only started his acting career at the age of 27 after initially pursuing an interest in basketball thanks to his 196cm height.<\/p>\n

But that stature helped his rapid rise to villain stardom as he appeared in RoboCop, Last Action Hero, Manhunter and The Pledge in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

His debut feature film as a director came in 1994 with What Happened Was, an adaptation of his self-penned stage play of the same name.<\/p>\n

Karen Sillas appeared in both versions and remembered Noonan as a defining part of her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with him was a turning point in my life as an actor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a privilege, and crazy fun, it was to call him my friend to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film went on to win the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n

A cause of death has not been revealed at the time of publication.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NDIS worker allegedly steals eye-watering sum from taxpayers<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Eight skiers found dead after huge California avalanche<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor and director Tom Noonan has died aged aged 74. Known for portraying iconic villains such as Cain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,480,134,44,14179],"class_list":["post-489385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-sunrise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}