He acted in a number of high-profile films as well as B movies from the 1940s through the 1960s; he is best known for his supporting performances as Gus Esmond, wealthy fiancé of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe), in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and as musician Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1954).

[2] His father, Michael Joseph Noone, was an Irish vaudeville comedian and a native of Dunmore, County Galway, and his mother, Gracie Ferguson, was a Scottish piano teacher from Glasgow, Lanarkshire.

In 1953, Noonan appeared in the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Gus Esmond, the nerdy fiancé of Marilyn Monroe's character Lorelei Lee.

The following year, he played Danny McGuire, Judy Garland's bandmate, accompanist and friend, in the Warner Brothers film A Star Is Born.

[3][7] Eight months after an operation for a brain tumor, Noonan died in 1968 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, just a few days before his 47th birthday.