The man who performed autopsies on celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Robert Kennedy, Janis Joplin and John Belushi, is the subject of a new documentary, Coroner to the Stars.
Ahead of the film’s debut in theaters on June 25, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who was chief medical examiner and coroner for Los Angeles County from 1967 to 1982, told People that he “never expected a film to be made about me.”
“At first I felt reluctant, but I realized this film could help people see how medicine, politics and society connect in ways we may not always see,” the 99-year-old told the outlet in an interview published on Monday, June 15.
“After many decades, memory becomes selective,” added Noguchi. The film brought back many moments — my near resignation, the political hearings and my wife, Hisako, who encouraged me to fight.”
Per UPI, the official was subjected to hearings in 1969 and 1982, in which he was accused of mismanagement and criticized for publicly discussing the high-profile deaths of Natalie Wood and William Holden.
As Examiner previously reported, Noguchi also disputed the official ruling of probable suicide in Monroe’s death because key evidence mysteriously disappeared — including stomach contents and organs that could have disproved an overdose.
The Some Like It Hot star was found dead in her Brentwood home on August 5, 1962, at age 36.
“There were several things that disturbed me about Marilyn’s case. The toxicology and autopsy didn’t line up the way they should have,” he wrote in his 1983 memoir, Coroner.
“In my work, the focus was always on the deceased and their families, not on myself,” Noguchi told People. But making the documentary, I understood it was not just about me — it was about history, about forensic science and also about the Japanese American story.”
“I saw that my career was not only about conducting autopsies. It was also about surviving politics, about Japanese Americans finding their place in society,” he continued. “When I was younger, I did not think of myself in those terms — I only thought of the next case. Looking back through the film, I realized my work left a cultural impact as well as a medical one. That was surprising to me.”