The man who performed autopsies on celebrities including Marilyn Monroe<\/strong><\/a>, Robert Kennedy<\/strong><\/a>, Janis Joplin<\/strong><\/a> and John Belushi<\/strong><\/a>, is the subject of a new documentary, Coroner to the Stars.<\/p>\n Ahead of the film\u2019s debut in theaters on June 25, Dr. Thomas Noguchi<\/strong><\/a>, who was chief medical examiner and coroner for Los Angeles County from 1967 to 1982, told People<\/a> that he \u201cnever expected a film to be made about me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt 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,\u201d the 99-year-old told the outlet in an interview published on Monday, June 15.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter many decades, memory becomes selective,\u201d added Noguchi. The film brought back many moments \u2014 my near resignation, the political hearings and my wife, Hisako, who encouraged me to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Per UPI<\/a>, 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<\/a> of Natalie Wood<\/strong><\/a> and William Holden<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n As\u00a0Examiner previously reported, Noguchi also disputed the official ruling of probable suicide in Monroe\u2019s death because key evidence mysteriously disappeared<\/a> \u2014 including stomach contents and organs that could have disproved an overdose.<\/p>\n The Some Like It Hot star was found dead in her Brentwood home on August 5, 1962, at age 36.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were several things that disturbed me about Marilyn\u2019s case. The toxicology and autopsy didn\u2019t line up<\/a> the way they should have,\u201d he wrote in his 1983 memoir, Coroner<\/a>.<\/p>\n MEGA<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn my work, the focus was always on the deceased and their families, not on myself,\u201d Noguchi told People. But making the documentary, I understood it was not just about me \u2014 it was about history, about forensic science and also about the Japanese American story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI saw that my career was not only about conducting autopsies. It was also about surviving politics, about Japanese Americans finding their place in society,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhen I was younger, I did not think of myself in those terms \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p>\n This story LA\u2019s \u2018Coroner to the Stars\u2019 Reflects on His \u2018Near Resignation\u2019 Over the Death of Marilyn Monroe<\/a> first appeared on National Examiner<\/i><\/a>. Follow National Examiner<\/strong> on Yahoo<\/strong><\/a> so you don\u2019t miss what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s debut in theaters on June 25, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who was chief medical examiner and coroner for Los Angeles County from 1967 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2462221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[346285,343913,348972,344421,314148,363142,395222,356454,484294],"class_list":["post-2462219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-coroner","tag-janis-joplin","tag-john-belushi","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-marilyn-monroe","tag-mega-agency","tag-national-examiner","tag-robert-kennedy","tag-thomas-noguchi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LAs-\u2018Coroner-to-the-Stars-Reflects-on-His-\u2018Near-Resignation.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2462219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462222,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462219\/revisions\/2462222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n