Biography

Slim, often bespectacled comedy performer Tommy Noonan (ne' 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 Delaware-born 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, brother John, who was already a well-known film commodity, had met and married movie actress Joanne Dru, whose brother was a singer-actor named 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 (1

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Filmography