L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood by Anne Soon Choi

L.A. Coroner
Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood
by Anne Soon Choi
Third State Books
Hardcover ISBN: 9798890130075
April 2025
256 pages

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“Gentlemen, you’re about to enter fascinating sphere of police work. The world of forensic medicine.” — Quincy M.E.

When a major celebrity passes away under mysterious or violent circumstances, it’s natural for the public to demand answers. What happened? How did they die? Did they suffer? Who or what is responsible for their death? And the person most qualified to answer these questions is a medical examiner or coroner. The art of the autopsy is one that has advanced greatly over the last several decades. Examining the body with attention to detail, running toxicology, ruling out countless scenarios and performing a psychological examination of the decedent all help the coroner interpret the story of the dead to the living. However, coroners are not infallible and any oversight or misstep can prevent justice from being served or lead to the proliferation of conspiracy theories about what actually happened. 

“Dating to medieval England, the coroner was a public official that was responsible for looking after the interests of the king when it came to the payment of death duties and to serve as a counterbalance to the sheriff. The coroner also presided over the coroner’s inquest where a jury would determine the manner of death—accident, suicide, or homicide based on evidence and eyewitness testimony. This very public display of the adjudication of death was to reassure the public that order would prevail.” — Anne Soon Choi

Dubbed the Coroner to the Stars, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, chief medical examiner for Los Angeles County, is one of the most famous and perhaps most controversial figure in the history of forensic science. A new book, L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood by Anne Soon Choi, examines the complicated legacy of Noguchi through his trials and tribulations working for Los Angeles County and through his most complicated cases. The author carefully navigates the story of a man who chased the American dream of hard work and upward mobility and became one of the best in his field but was plagued by mishaps and a constant need for attention and approval. 

Each chapter focuses on one major aspect of his career whether it’s his fight with the county to achieve the status of chief medical examiner—and then again to keep it—or the autopsy of a major celebrity and the ramifications of that work. Despite being a book about a coroner, Choi is careful to avoid sharing too much of the gruesome details. For those readers like myself, your morbid curiosity won't be fully satisfied. Others will appreciate that each case is treated with much respect with the focus being on the details of Noguchi’s work.

Some of Noguchi’s famous autopsies include:

Marilyn Monroe — RFK — Sharon Tate — William Holden — Natalie Wood — John Belushi — Albert Dekker — Divine — David Janssen — Janis Joplin — Gia Scala — Inger Stevens

Classic film and television enthusiasts will be interested in the dedicated chapters on Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Tate and Natalie Wood, which also discusses William Holden at length. 

Here are some key takeaways of interest:

• Noguchi’s work was the inspiration for Jack Klugman’s character in Quincy M.E. and one could say that Robert Ito’s character Sam Fujiyama is a hat tip to Noguchi’s Japanese heritage.
• Noguchi handled the autopsies of both William Holden and Natalie Wood—who died two weeks apart. His public statements about the level of intoxication of both figures drew ire from the public.
• Upset with Noguchi’s handling of Natalie Wood’s case, Frank Sinatra went to the administration office and presented a letter asking for Noguchi to be fired. According to the author, “Sinatra noted he was “particularly disturbed by Dr. Noguchi’s constant seeking of headlines and publicity for himself and investigations, often involving entertainers or other well-known individuals.”
• Marilyn Monroe’s case heavily relied on a psychological autopsy performed by another coroner to interpret Noguchi’s findings.
• Noguchi was sometimes careful what to reveal to the public and what to hold back. He was particularly cautious with Sharon Tate’s murder and the presence of the rope.
• His autopsy on RFK is referred to as the “perfect autopsy” and is studied as the gold standard by future coroners.
• The deaths of JFK and Marilyn Monroe led to the public interest in autopsies and forensic science. This interest would skyrocket during the 1970s and continues today.

Dr. Thomas Noguchi’s story is incredible complicated and I commend the author for handling it so delicately. Choi artfully weaves the story Noguchi’s career with his cases while shining a light on his battle with racism and his own personal failings. Choi’s “autopsy” on Noguchi’s complicated career leaves the reader with a comprehensive look in which no stone is left unturned.

L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood by Anne Soon Choi is on sale now. Thank you to Third State Books for sending me a copy to review.

Photo credit: Anne Soon Choi

Author bio: Anne Soon Choi, Ph.D., is a historian and professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her essay “The Japanese American Citizens League, Los Angeles Politics, and the Thomas Noguchi Case,” on which this book is based, won the 2021 prize for best essay from the Historical Society of Southern California. Choi has previously served on the faculty of Swarthmore College and the University of Kansas and is an Andrew Mellon Fellow and an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Ethnic Studies Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles, California. — Source: Edelweiss and Third State Books

Love With the Proper Stranger (1963)

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is a darling film. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen star as Angie and Rocky two Italian-Americans living in New York City who are in a bit of a quandary. Their recent passionate rendezvous has resulted in an unwanted pregnancy. Angie, a Macy's shop girl, searches for Rocky, a jazz musician, to tell him the news. He barely even remembers her but now they are inextricably linked with the growing consequence of their previous actions. Angie and Rocky plan to seek an abortionist but decide against it when it comes to the actual event. What do they do now? Get married? Move on?

This film is really two stories. First it's the story of Angie and Rocky seeking an abortion. The second is their complicated love story. Despite the heavy and controversial subject of abortion, which at the time was still illegal, this is a very sweet and gentle story about two young people in the city finding themselves thrown together in an interesting story.

I very much enjoyed the performances of Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. Wood was a lot more subtle in her role as Angie as she had been in some other films of hers I've seen. Seeing this side of Natalie Wood was a lot more palatable for me that's for sure! Out of the two, Steve McQueen's character Rocky was my favorite. It's very easy to develop a little crush on Rocky when you watch him become protective and caring of Angie.

Tom Bosley has a supporting role (his movie debut!) as Anthony Columbo, the restauranteur boyfriend of Angie that her mom and brothers picked out for her. I really adored his character. He genuinely cares for Angie and I loved the opposing scenes in which he finds himself being very clumsy when visiting Angie's family and Angie finds herself being very clumsy when she visits Anthony's family.

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is just the sort of quiet movie I really enjoy. It doesn't have some big message, it's not trying to fulfill some grandiose purpose and it's not trying to be something huge. It's just a simple human story that makes you feel and makes you think all while entertaining you.
 
I would vote for this film to NOT be a part of any discussion of abortion. I think it's just a love story and it should be left at that. It's from a different time and circumstances were different so it's really not an appropriate film to use in the modern day debate on abortion. Also, do not think this is an abortion movie because it's not. It's a love story!

This film is not available on DVD. It's a Paramount film and most of us know how difficult it is to get our hands on some of the films from that studio! Maybe Love with the Proper Stranger is part of the 600 Paramount films Warner Bros. acquired distribution rights for (see that news here). For now, it can be occasionally seen on Turner Classic Movies.

A BIG THANK YOU to Paul from Art, Movies, Wood and Whatnot who sent me a recording of this movie from a TCM broadcast. I am forever indebted to him for so graciously sending me this film! Thank you!

An aside:
To those of you who are bakers, I did find a goof in the scene in which Anthony is baking a cake. He takes the cake out of the oven and Angie helps loosen it from the bundt pan. At one point she burns her hand. She runs her hands under cold water but Anthony's mother slaps butter on her hand. Funny thing is that the cold water would have helped her infinitely more so than the butter! The cold water helps stop the burning. Once you burn yourself, your flesh continues to burn until it cools down. Anyways, a few moments later, Anthony brings out a perfectly frosted cake to serve to Angie, his mom and his sisters. Earlier in the scene I proclaimed to Carlos " I hope he's not thinking of frosting that cake while it's hot!". In timing, he would have had to frost a hot cake in order to have brought it out so quickly. Any baker knows that a cake needs time to cool before frosting. Otherwise the frosting will melt and you'll end up with a gloopy glaze rather than smooth frosting!