The actor best known for his roles in ‘RoboCop 2’ and ‘Last Action Hero’, Tom Noonan, has died at the age of 74.
Karen Sillas, Noonan’s announced the sad news on Wednesday, Feb 18. She confirmed that the late actor died peacefully on Saturday, Feb. 14. However, the cause of death was not revealed.
“My dear friend and co-star, Tom Noonan, passed away peacefully on Valentine’s Day 2026,” Sillas said via her Instagram. “Working with him in his original off-Broadway play, ‘What Happened Was…,’ at the Paradise Factory Theatre in the early nineties, was a turning point for me and my career that still resonates throughout my life and work as an actor,” she added.
Sillas, 62, went on to call her and Noona’s 1994 film adaptation of “What Happened Was” one of the “most iconic Indies in American cinema” before paying tribute to her late co-star and his legacy. “What a privilege and crazy fun it was working with this man and calling him my friend to the end … may his Legacy continue to shine on,” she concluded.
Tom Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1951. He started in theatre and appeared in the original Off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s famous play “Buried Child” in 1978. But it wasn’t until 1980 that the beloved actor made his big-screen debut in the comedy-drama “Willie & Phil,” followed by “Gloria” and “Heaven’s Gate” that same year.
However, Noonan’s breakout role came in 1986, when he starred as the main antagonist, Francis Dolarhyde, opposite William Petersen’s FBI Agent Will Graham in the edge-of-your-seat crime thriller “Manhunter.”
Noonan then starred as Frankenstein’s monster in Fred Dekker’s horror comedy “The Monster Squad” one year later. Dekker, in his own tribute to Noonan, remembered the late actor as “a highlight of my modest filmography.”
“He was the proverbial gentleman and scholar, and the world has lost a great talent,” the director wrote on Facebook. “R.I.P. Tom. Thanks for the great work.”
After solidifying his role as what one fan described as the “perfect bad guy” in “Manhunter” and “The Monster Squad,” Noonan was picked to play Cain in Irvin Kershner’s “RoboCop 2” in 1990. The science-fiction action film, a sequel to the 1987 original, saw Peter Weller return as the titular RoboCop.
Noonan, meanwhile, played both the leader of the Nuke drug cartel and, later in the movie, RoboCop 2. Three years later, the actor-turned-director starred as another antagonist – this time as the Ripper opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Detective Jack Slater in 1993’s “Last Action Hero.” Noonan’s final film before his death was the Todd Haynes-directed mystery drama “Wonderstruck” in 2017.
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