Tom Noonan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tom Noonan
Noonan in 2009
Born	(1951-04-12) April 12, 1951 (age 74) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Karen Young ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 1999)​
Children	2
Relatives	John Ford Noonan (brother)

Tom Noonan was born on April 12, 1951. He is an American actor, director, and writer. You might know him from his roles in movies like Manhunter (1986), where he played Francis Dollarhyde, or as Frankenstein's Monster in The Monster Squad (1987). He also played Cain in RoboCop 2 (1990) and Kelso the hacker in Heat (1995).

Tom Noonan has also directed and written for both theater and film. His first movie as a director, What Happened Was (1994), won important awards at the Sundance Film Festival. He won the top prize for drama and an award for his writing.

Early Life and Basketball

Tom Noonan grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. His mother, Rita, was a math teacher, and his father, John Sr., was a jazz musician and a dentist. He had an older brother, John Ford Noonan, who became a writer for plays, and two sisters, Barbara and Nancy.

When he was younger, Tom Noonan was a very good basketball player. He once said that playing basketball taught him a lot about performing. He didn't act in school plays or start acting until he was 27 years old. He felt that being in front of a crowd, doing something you love, teaches you many skills that are useful for acting.

Acting and Directing Career

Tom Noonan started his career in theater, appearing in a play called Buried Child. In the 1980s, he began working in movies. He is 6 feet 5 inches tall, which is quite tall! Because of his height, he was often chosen to play strong or sometimes scary characters, like villains. You can see him in these kinds of roles in movies like RoboCop 2, Last Action Hero, and Manhunter.

In 1986, he played Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter. This was the first movie to feature the famous character Hannibal Lecter. Later, in 1995, he worked with director Michael Mann again in the movie Heat, playing a character named Kelso. He also played the Frankenstein monster in The Monster Squad, which is a fun movie about classic monsters.

During the 1990s, Tom Noonan wrote several plays. He even turned two of his plays into movies: What Happened Was... (1994) and The Wife (1995). In the 2000s, he continued to act in many films. He received praise for his role as Sammy Barnathan in Synecdoche, New York, which was the first movie directed by Charlie Kaufman.

Tom Noonan has also appeared in many television shows. He was in an episode of The X-Files called "Paper Hearts" in 1996, which was written especially for him. He also appeared in crime shows like Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In CSI, he acted alongside William Petersen, who played his rival in Manhunter. He also played Detective Victor Huntley in the TV series Damages.

From 2011 to 2014, he played Reverend Nathaniel Cole in the AMC series Hell on Wheels. In 2015, Tom Noonan used his voice to play all the other characters in the stop-motion movie Anomalisa. For this voice work, he won an award for Best Supporting Actor from the San Diego Film Critics Society. He also appeared in the TV series 12 Monkeys from 2015 to 2018.

Film Roles

Television Roles

See also

In Spanish: Tom Noonan para niños