Biography
Slim, often bespectacled comedy performer Tommy Noonan (born Thomas Patrick Noone) started off in experimental theater alongside his half-brother, actor John Ireland, who went on to have an enviable career of his own. The actor then launched his own repertory theatre back in his home state in the early 1940s. His career was interrupted by a stint in the Navy during WWII, but he returned to it following his discharge.
Tommy wound up in New York and briefly displayed his budding talents on Broadway before RKO signed him up for post-war films and he relocated out West. By this time, his half-brother, already a well-known film commodity, had met and married movie actress Joanne Dru, whose brother was singer-actor Peter Marshall. With a solid background in comedy and burlesque, Noonan hooked up with straight-man Marshall to form the 1950s comedy duo of Noonan and Marshall. They appeared with a modicum of success in clubs and on TV, including The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show"). Their teaming, however, did not prevent them from boosting their own individual careers. Appearing in a few B-grade comedy film vehicles together, Tommy did better on the large screen in solo performances as a sort of wry, nerdy Tony Randall type in higher-grade films. He not only held his own as Marilyn Monroe's smitten schmuck of a boyfriend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) but went dramatic as Judy Garland's blunt, piano-playing pal in A Star Is Born (1954) and received some of the best film reviews of his career.
With Marshall, Tommy produced and wrote a couple of meager film vehicles to showcase the comedy team as a second-string Martin and Lewis, but the films, The Rookie (1959) and Swingin' Along (1961), were flat and were barely noticed upon their release. These failures broke the duo up for good. (Peter Marshall successfully went on to host the TV game show The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965) as Peter Marshall). The pickings were slim for Tommy in the 1960s, and he resorted to producing and co-starring in a couple of exploitative "comedy" vehicles. Promises..... Promises! (1963), which showcased a fading Jayne Mansfield, and 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964), which starred an equally unmemorable Mamie Van Doren, were unmitigated disasters. His last producing effort was the thoroughly irredeemable Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967).
The talented actor died five days before his 47th birthday in 1968 of a brain tumor and was survived by his wife, Pokie, and four children. He is not related to actor-writer-director-composer Tom Noonan (born 1951).
