Thomas Noguchi

Thomas T. Noguchi (野口恒富) (born January 4, 1927) is a former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who served in that position from 1967 to 1982. Known as the "coroner to the stars", he determined the cause of death in many high profile cases. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy.

Career

Noguchi was born in Japan and graduated from Tokyo's Nippon Medical School in 1951 before interning at Tokyo University Hospital. Shortly thereafter he immigrated to the United States. He then served a second internship at Orange County General Hospital and a series of residencies at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and Barlow Sanatorium in Los Angeles. He was appointed a deputy coroner for Los Angeles County in 1961. In 1967 he became Chief Medical Examiner (CME) for the county, replacing his mentor Theodore Curphy. It was in this role that Noguchi came to public attention for a series of autopsies he either performed or supervised on a range of celebrities that included Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Janis Joplin, Albert Dekker, William Holden, John Belushi, Natalie Wood, and Sharon Tate.

He developed a high profile as CME, and was often accused of speaking too freely to the media, which led to his ultimately being forced to step down from his position in 1982. He was later appointed Chief of Pathology at the University of Southern California and then as Administrative Pathologist for Anatomic Pathology services at the USC Medical Center.

Noguchi was appointed Professor by both the University of Southern California and UCLA. He is a past president of the American National Association of Medical Examiners. In 1999 he was honored by the Emperor of Japan who awarded him the Order of the Sacred Treasure for "outstanding contribution to Japan in the area of forensic science". [ [http://www.jfk.duq.edu/bioNoguchi.html Duquesne/Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law -- bio] ] He retired the same year.

Publications

*"Coroner", 1983. A best selling memoir written with Joseph DiMona. (Published in the UK as "Coroner to the Stars")
*"Coroner at Large" 1985. A book about historical coroners and famous deaths. ( [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE2DB113AF930A15751C0A960948260 NYT review.] )
*"Unnatural Causes", 1988. A detective novel written with Arthur Lyons.
*"Physical Evidence", 1990. A detective novel written with Arthur Lyons.

Film

He appeared as himself in the films "Faces of Death" (1978). In 2000, Noguchi appeared in Michael Kriegsman's autopsy-related documentaries, "Autopsy: Through the Eyes of Death's Detectives"; and "Autopsy: Voices of Death", wherein Dr. Noguchi takes the viewer through a complete autopsy.

He is said to have been the inspiration for the TV series "Quincy, M.E." (1976-1983), which starred Jack Klugman. [ [http://www.who2.com/thomasnoguchi.html Thomas Noguchi] ]

References

External links

*imdb name|id=634027
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20030215020505/http://www.omnimag.com/archives/interviews/noguchi.html 1986 interview]
* [http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~noguchi/ Subject's USC web page, last updated in 1999]