Film Veteran tom noonan Dies at 74 — Manhunter Villain, Monster Squad Presence and Sundance Winner
Tom Noonan, the distinctive character actor, playwright and filmmaker whose long career ranged from Off Broadway drama to memorable turns in genre and prestige films, has died. He was 74. Noonan passed on Saturday, February 14, 2026 (ET), and the news was confirmed by longtime collaborators and friends on social media, who described his passing as peaceful.
Career and signature screen roles
Noonan built a reputation for inhabiting quietly unsettling characters across decades of film and television. He first emerged on the New York stage, appearing in the original production of Sam Shepard's Buried Child, before moving into film work in the 1980s. Early screen appearances included small parts in films by heavyweight directors and supporting turns in features such as Heaven's Gate, The Man with One Red Shoe and F/X.
He earned wide notice for his portrayal of serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in Michael Mann's Manhunter, a role that would become one of his most enduring screen images. That performance led to further collaborations with Mann, including a part in Heat. Noonan also played Frankenstein's Monster in an offbeat 1980s horror-comedy and delivered scene-stealing work as a crime boss in RoboCop 2 and as the assassin known as The Ripper in Last Action Hero.
Across the 1990s and 2000s he continued to appear in a mix of studio and independent projects, with credits including The Pledge, The House of the Devil, Eight Legged Freaks and Synecdoche, New York. He lent his voice work to the animated Anomalisa, voicing the film's supporting characters, and his final major big-screen credit was the Todd Haynes fantasy Wonderstruck.
Playwright, director and off-screen life
Noonan was not only an actor but an accomplished writer and director. His two-hander What Happened Was…, adapted from his own stage play, premiered as a film in the early 1990s and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. He also wrote plays including Wifey and other stage pieces that informed his approach to intimate, character-driven storytelling.
Known among colleagues as thoughtful and quietly ironic, Noonan once described himself as a very quiet person whose casting often placed him in loud, unhinged parts. He spoke candidly about his early career pragmatism — at one point negotiating assertively for higher pay to secure a role he saw as artistically vital — a move that underlined his seriousness about the craft.
Tributes and legacy
Friends and collaborators expressed sorrow and gratitude after the news of his death. Directors and co-stars praised his work ethic and range, calling out a career that could swing from tender indie drama to chilling villainy. One longtime collaborator called Noonan "the proverbial gentleman and scholar, " while a fellow actor who worked with him on his Sundance-winning film described him as a privilege to work with and a close friend to the end.
Noonan's screen work also included numerous television appearances, with memorable turns on genre staples and prestige series alike. He leaves behind a body of work admired by genre fans and art-house audiences, and a reputation as an actor who could make even the briefest scene feel fully lived. Additional details about survivors were not immediately available.
Tom Noonan was born April 12, 1951, in Greenwich, Connecticut. Over a career that spanned stage, screen and the writer's room, he crafted a singular place in American film and theatre as a performer who brought intelligence and menace in equal measure.
