Tommy Noonan (born Thomas Patrick Noone;[1] April 29, 1921 – April 24, 1968) was a comedy genre film performer, screenwriter and producer. He acted in a number of high-profile films as well as B movies from the 1940s through the 1960s; he is best known for his supporting performances as Gus Esmond, wealthy fiancé of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe), in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and as musician Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1954).
Early years
Born in Bellingham, Washington,[2] Noonan was the younger half-brother of actor John Ireland.[2]
He was the son of Michael Joseph Noone and Gracie Ferguson. His father was a vaudeville comedian and a native of Garrafrauns, Dunmore, County Galway, Ireland. His mother, a piano teacher, was from Glasgow, Scotland.[2] He attended New York University.[3]
Career
In 1934, Noonan and John Ireland made their stage debuts with a New York-based experimental theater.[4] They later appeared together in three films, including I Shot Jesse James (1949).
Noonan had a repertory company of his own prior to the Second World War.[4] On Broadway, he appeared in How to Make a Man (1960) and Men to the Sea (1944).[5]
He teamed with Peter Marshall to form a comedy team in the late 1940s. (Noonan's half-brother John Ireland was married to Marshall's sister Joanne Dru.) Their performances were limited because they continued their individual careers, "working together only when both were available at the same time".[4] As Noonan and Marshall, they appeared on television, nightclubs, and in the films Starlift, FBI Girl (both 1951), The Rookie (1959), and Swingin' Along (1962). They also wrote for other comics, including Rowan and Martin, which led to Marshall holding a lifelong grudge against Dan Rowan after Noonan fell ill near the end of his life and Rowan paid Noonan almost no attention.[6] The duo went their separate ways after the release of Swingin' Along.
In 1953, Noonan appeared in the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Gus Esmond, the nerdy fiancé of Marilyn Monroe's character Lorelei Lee. The following year, he played Danny McGuire, Judy Garland's bandmate, accompanist and friend, in the Warner Brothers film A Star Is Born. He also played a voyeuristic bank manager in the Richard Fleischer film noir melodrama Violent Saturday[3] in 1955.
In 1961, Noonan appeared on the CBS courtroom drama Perry Mason as the defendant and episode's title character, comedian Charlie Hatch, in "The Case of the Crying Comedian".
Noonan was married five times. His last wife was actress Carole Langley, whose stage name was Pocahontas Crowfoot;[2] they were married 16 years and had four children. Noonan also had a daughter from his first marriage and son from his second marriage.[3][7]
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