Thomas Noguchi, the former Los Angeles County chief medical examiner who oversaw some of Hollywood’s most notorious death investigations, is the focus of “Coroner to the Stars,” part of the Slamdance Film Festival.
Former L.A. County medical examiner Thomas Noguchi is profiled in a new documentary.
As part of the Slamdance 2025 Film Festival, “Coroner to the Stars,” directed by Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno, will be screened at the following venues:
Sunday, Feb. 23, at 4:30 p.m. at Panasonic Lumix Theater @ Quixote, 1011 N. Fuller Ave., West Hollywood
Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 6:45 p.m. at Landmark Theater 4, 8000 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles
For ticket information, go to: https://slamdance2025.eventive.org/films
“Coroner to the Stars” uncovers the history and the untold story of the infamous Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the former Los Angeles County chief medical examiner. Through rare archival footage and interviews, the film weaves together rich Japanese American history in Los Angeles and Noguchi’s remarkable work and contributions in forensic science.
Despite facing racism and immense challenges from the Hollywood elite and political adversaries, his work not only reshaped forensic science but also cemented his place in Los Angeles history.
Noguchi and actor/activist George Takei, who also appears in the film, will attend the world premiere on Feb. 23.
The Japanese American National Museum is a fiscal sponsor on this film, which was selected to participate in the CNN Films/Tribeca Film Institute storytellers lab.
During his tenure as coroner from 1967 to 1982, Noguchi not only left an indelible mark on the field of forensics, but on American culture as well. His high-profile cases featured some of the most famous and notorious figures of the 20th century, including Marilyn Monroe, Robert Kennedy, Sharon Tate (one of the victims of the Charles Manson murders), William Holden, Natalie Wood and John Belushi.
He managed to elevate the role of coroner from relative obscurity and morbidity into the national zeitgeist, inspiring the TV series “Quincy, M.E.” He firmly believed that each death taught us something important about how we live, and he abided by a personal creed to “tell it like it is.”
However, Noguchi’s candor was not embraced by everyone. His statements to press conferences and interviews often revealed personal details that made Hollywood elites bristle. After he revealed Wood’s blood alcohol content at the time of her death, a group of powerful, high-profile individuals, including Frank Sinatra, launched a successful campaign to remove Noguchi from office, which helped to largely obscure his story and achievemnts from future generations.
Noguchi’s story is simultaneously an immigrant’s struggle to make it in America, a scientists’s bumpy road through a medical field that is surprisingly political, and a meditation of personal loss and legacy.
Running the L.A. County Coroner’s Office is a nearly impossible job. With more than 10 million residents, L.A. County is the most populated county in the U.S. Upwards of 60,000 people die each year in a 5,000-square-mile territory consisting of 88 cities. One in six of those deaths is considered sudden, violent, or unusual. Those are the ones investigated by the medical examiner.
The office is tasked with identifying the bodies of homeless and unknown decedents, tracing strains of drugs in overdose deaths, helping diagnose outbreaks of deadly diseases, and determining the cause of death in homicides and traffic accidents.
This is all just a backdrop to what makes L.A. truly unique. The county is home to the most famous people on Earth. The city and its sordid past serve as the backdrop for the story of a young Japanese doctor trying to navigate its unique challenges.
Noguchi’s most famous cases represent the seismic shifts of a county and a country evolving during the 20th century. His time as the chief began during a crossroads for the entertainment industry — the star system was dying, paving the way for modern-day superstars — and continued through the counterculture movement and civil unrest of the 1960s and ’70s, and the waves of drug overdoses and gun violence in the ’80s.
While at the helm, Noguchi ruled Monroe’s death a suicide, concluded that RFK was shot from inches away, first linked Tate’s murder to a cult, recreated the drunken fall that caused Holden to bleed to death, reconstructed the cocktails of drugs that killed Janis Joplin and Belushi, and fueled suspicion of foul play in the drawing of Wood.
Despite the varying circumstances, one conclusion could be drawn from all these cases — fame kills.
In addition to Noguchi and Takei, interviewees include L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn; Rosalind Marks, Noguchi’s attorney; Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, chief medical examiner (1992-2013); Dr. Mark Fajardo, chief medical examiner (2013-2016); Dr. Cyril Wecht, American Academy of Forensic Sciences; and filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña.
The filmmakers: Ben Hethcoat, director, writer, producer; Keita Ideno, director, editor, writer; Billy Ray Brewton, Tommy Andrews, John Henry Hinkel, producers; Chiaki Yanagimoto, Michael McNamara, Ebersole Hughes Company, executive producers.