Quincy, M.E. : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

The character of Quincy was based on the real-life Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Dr Thomas Noguchi, who became famous for his often controversial conclusions. He performed autopsies on many stars including Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and John Belushi. In true Quincy-style he raised doubts about the official account of Robert Kennedy's assassination by showing that Sirhan Sirhan could not have fired the fatal shot. He also acted as a technical advisor on the show.

There was a fully functional gas chromatograph on the set.

Anita Gillette, who played Quincy's wife, Dr. Emily Hanover, in the final season, also played his first wife who died of a brain tumor.

It originally debuted during the final season of "The NBC Mystery Movie" (1971). However, when that show was cancelled, Quincy was spun off into its own series making it the only element of that series to be spun off on its own.

Marc Scott Taylor was originally hired as a technical advisor, but became a semi-regular cast member because he could operate electron microscopes and other complex instruments, and it was more cost effective to give him a recurring bit-part than to train the actors to operate the equipment convincingly. His role was greatly expanded in an episode in which "Sam" had been poisoned, and "Mark" helped Dr. Quincy save his life.

The regulations of the day prevented the producers from showing Quincy's autopsies on screen. (These regulations have now been lifted and the corpses can be seen on screen in "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000) and "CSI: Miami" (2002).) The viewer had to rely on Quincy's description of what was going on.

Quincy served in the navy during the Korean War.