RIP Tom Noonan

 

Tom Noonan Dies: ‘Robocop 2’, ‘Manhunter’, ‘Monster Squad’ Actor Was 74

DEADLINE

By Greg Evans

February 18, 2026

 

Tom Noonan, an actor who launched his career on the New York stage in the original 1978 Off Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child before pivoting to indelible film performances as menacing villains in Manhunter, Robocop 2, Last Action Hero and The Monster Squad, died Saturday, February 14. He was 74.

His death was confirmed on social media by Karen Sillas, his co-star in the 1992 play What Happened Was… and its 1994 Sundance award-winning film adaptation, and Fred Dekker, director of 1987’s The Monster Squad. Additional details on his passing, including a cause of death, were not immediately available, but Silas noted in her post that Noonan passed away peacefully.

“Tom’s indelible performance as Frankenstein in The Monster Squad is a highlight of my modest filmography,” Dekker wrote on Facebook, adding, “Having been knocked out by his performance as Francis Dollarhyde in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, I desperately wanted Tom to read the script and consider the part, but I knew that nabbing him was probably a long shot. Nonetheless, he agreed to meet me at his Hollywood apartment to discuss the role.

“I knew the first thing a serious actor would want to know was that my vision for Frankenstein was serious and not ‘campy.’..In the end, he found the make-up ardous and annoying (he was fond of tearing it off after we wrapped, and one night didn’t even bother to take it off; just drove home in his Frankenstein appliance). But all in all, he was the proverbial gentleman and scholar, and the world has lost a great talent. R.I.P. Tom. Thanks for the great work.”

A noted playwright (in addition to What Happened Was…, he wrote 1993’s Wifey and 1999’s Wang Dang, among others), Noonan was born April 12, 1951 in Greenwich, Connecticut, the younger brother of John Ford Noonan Jr., who himself would go on to a successful playwriting career (A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, The Year Boston Won the Pennant) and TV success (the elder Noonan was Emmy-nominated for his screenwriting work on St. Elsewhere).

The younger Noonan would become even more recognizable than his brother, with scene-stealing performances as a serial killer in Manhunter (1986), as Frankenstein’s Monster in The Monster Squad (1987), crime boss Cain in RoboCop 2 (1990), the assassin The Ripper in Last Action Hero starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, (1993), hacker Kelso in Heat (1995), Sammy Barnathan in Synecdoche, New York (2008), Mr. Ulman in The House of the Devil (2009), and the peace-seeking Reverend Nathaniel in Hell on Wheels (2011–2014). In the SyFy series 12 Monkeys, he played the villain variously known as The Tall Man and The Pallid Man (2015–2018) and he provided voices for the Charlie Kaufman-Duke Johnson animated film Anomalisa (2015).

Noonan’s earliest film roles were small parts in a trio of 1980 films helmed by heavyweight directors: Paul Mazursky’s Willie & Phil, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate and John Cassavetes’ Gloria.

Noonan also was a prolific TV presence, with appearances on The X-Files (he played an incarcerated serial killer in the notable “Paper Hearts” 1996 episode), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Tales from the Darkside and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the latter seeing his reteaming with Manhunter star William Petersen).

Other TV credits include Damages, Louie, The Leftovers, Monsters, The Equalizer and Early Edition, among many others.

Noonan was married to actor Karen Young from 1992 until their divorce in 1999. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

NOONAN, Tom

Born: 4/12/1951, Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Died: 2/14/2026,

 

Tom Noonan’s westerns – actor:

Heaven’s Gate – 1980 (Jake)

Seraphim Falls – 2006 (Minister Abraham)

Hell on Wheels (TV) – 2011-2012, 2014 (Reverend Nathaniel Cole)