John Ford Noonan obit

Playwright John Ford Noonan Dies at 77

Mr. Noonan was best known for his Off-Broadway hit, A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, starring Eileen Brennan and Susan Sarandon. 

He was not on the list.

John Ford Noonan, best known for writing the two-hander A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, passed away December 16 at the age of 77 from heart failure, according to The New York Times.

Mr. Noonan, who was born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1941, received both a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Masters in theatre arts from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He taught high school Latin in Long Island while writing The Year Boston Won the Pennant, which, in 1969, would be his first play produced in New York—at Lincoln Center starring Roy Scheider.

Older People, produced at the Public Theater in 1972, and Getting Through the Night, seen in 1976, followed. But it was the aforementioned A Coupla White Chicks that became Noonan's biggest hit. Produced Off-Broadway at the Astor Place in 1980, the original production featured Susan Sarandon and Eileen Brennan. During its year-long run, other actors who stepped into the production included JoBeth Williams, Anne Archer, and Louise Lasser.

Mr. Noonan later addressed a “chemical addiction” in Some Men Need Help, which he subsequently adapted for PBS’ American Playhouse in 1985. He also utilized the two-actor format, which had been so successful for A Coupla White Chicks, in Talking Things Over with Chekhov. The latter, staged in 1990 at the Actors’ Playhouse, featured Mr. Noonan onstage opposite Diane Salinger.

The playwright also enjoyed success on screen, sharing a 1984 Emmy Award with Tom Fontana and John Masius for an episode of St. Elsewhere. As an actor, he was seen in Adventures in Babysitting, Flirting With Disaster, and My Divorce.

Mr. Noonan is survived by son Christopher Howell, daughter Jesse Sage Noonan, sister Dahlia Barbara Noonan, and five grandchildren.

 

Actor

Uncle Freddy

8.2

Short

Drunk at bar

2008

 

God Has a Rap Sheet (2003)

God Has a Rap Sheet

6.0

God

2003

 

My Divorce

The shrink

1997

 

SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground (1997)

SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground

6.5

TV Movie

Blanket Man (segment "Fern's Heart of Darkness")

1997

 

Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, and Ben Stiller in Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Flirting with Disaster

6.7

Mitch

1996

 

Night Man at the Sardi Building (1995)

Night Man at the Sardi Building

Video

Parole Board

1995

 

Bay State (1991)

Bay State

8.1

TV Series

Carter James (1994-1996)

1991

 

Elisabeth Shue, Maia Brewton, Keith Coogan, and Anthony Rapp in Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

Adventures in Babysitting

6.9

Pruitt

1987

 

Forty Deuce (1982)

Forty Deuce

5.5

John Anthony (as John Noonan)

1982

 

Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)

Next Stop, Greenwich Village

7.0

Barney

1976

 

Brown Wolf (1972)

Brown Wolf

Short

Skiff Miller

1972

 

Septuagenarian Substitute Ball

Ralph McCartney

1970

 

Writer

Night Man at the Sardi Building (1995)

Night Man at the Sardi Building

Video

Writer

1995

 

American Playhouse (1980)

American Playhouse

7.3

TV Series

play

1985

1 episode

 

Comedy Zone

5.3

TV Series

writer

1984

2 episodes

 

Denzel Washington, Ed Begley Jr., David Morse, Howie Mandel, Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, Ellen Bry, William Daniels, and Ed Flanders in St. Elsewhere (1982)

St. Elsewhere

8.0

TV Series

teleplay by

1983–1984

2 episodes

Plays

All She Cares About Is The Yankees (1988)

All the Sad Protestants

The Club Champion's Widow (1978)

Concerning The Effects Of Trimethylchloride (1971)

A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking (1979)

A Critic And His Wife (1997)

Drowning Of Manhattan (1992)

The Effects of Trimethylchloride (1972)

Getting Through The Night (1976)

Good-By And Keep Cold (1973)

Green Mountain (1987)

Heterosexual Temperature In West Hollywood (1987)

Lazarus Was A Lady (1970)

Linger

Listen To The Lions (1979)

Mom Sells Twins For Two Beers (1987)

Monday Night Varieties (1972)

Music From Down the Hill (1993)

My Daddy's Serious American Gift (1989)

A Noonan Night (1973)

Nothing But Bukowski (1987)

Older People (1972)

Pick Pack Pock Puck (1974)

Rainbows For Sale (1971)

Raunchy Dame In The Chines Raincoat (1987)

Recent Developments In Southern Connecticut (1990)

Sneaky Bit To Raise The Blind (1974)

Some Men Need Help (1982)

Spanish Confusion (1987)

Stay Away A Little Closer (1990)

Talking Things Over With Chekhov (1987)

What Drove Me Back To Reconsidering My Father (1988)

When It Comes Early (1995)

Where Do We Go From Here? (1974)

Why Can't You Be Him? (1987)

The Year Boston Won The Pennant (1969)