Noah Wyle's BiographyNoah Strausser Speer Wyle was (born June 4, 1971. His last name is pronounced "wali".
Noah is an American TV and film actor, perhaps best known for his role as Dr. John Carter on the television drama ER. Noah was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine in 2001.
The middle of three children, he was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Marjorie (née Speer), a registered orthopedic head nurse, and Stephen Wyle, an electrical engineer.
Noah's parents eventually split in the late seventies and his mother later remarried to James C. Katz, a film restorationist with three children of his own from a previous marriage.
Noah's paternal grandparents, Edith and Frank Wyle, founded the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum. Edith Wyle was an expressionist painter who also created The Egg and The Eye, an innovative café and shop on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, which soon became the preferred hangout for artists, travelers and dreamers.
Noah was raised in a Reform Jewish home. He was educated at The Thacher School in Ojai, California, and graduated with the class of 1989. Noah participated in a theater arts program at Northwestern University after his junior year of high school and appeared in high school plays even winning an award for a play he wrote.
After graduation he studied with acting teacher Larry Moss while living in a small apartment on Hollywood Boulevard.
Noah was first seen in the Paul Bartel film Lust in the Dust (a western exploitation/parody which starred Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan and Divine) as an extra in the local gang running the small town of Chile' Verde.
His later parts were a mini-series and featuring in the movie Crooked Hearts (1991) in 1990. In 1993 he worked in another feature, There Goes My Baby.
After appearing in several local plays in Los Angeles, he was cast in the box-office hit "A Few Good Men," in which he played a Marine jeep driver who testified in court.
Noah’s big break came when he was given the pilot script for ER. He also appeared in the feature Swing Kids as a leader in the Hitler Youth, and in the independent movie The Myth of Fingerprints with Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner and Julianne Moore.
Additionally, he starred as Lancelot opposite Sheryl Lee in the TV movie Guinevere. Recently, Noah starred in the original film, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear with Sonya Walger and in its sequel The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines opposite Gabrielle Anwar and in the third part of the series The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.
His other work has included a critically-acclaimed turn as Steve Jobs in the Emmy nominated Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). He has also appeared in several feature films including: White Oleander opposite Renée Zellweger, Enough opposite Jennifer Lopez, the independent feature Donnie Darko, as the President's interpreter in the 2000 live-television production of Fail Safe, and in the independent film, The Californians.
Noah was the only major cast member of ER to have been with the show since its inception (1994) when he left after its eleventh season (2005). His performances on the show earned him Emmy Award nominations in each of its first five seasons.
As part of an ensemble he was nominated several times for the Screen Actors Guild Award, he was recognized with three Golden Globe nominations as Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television and won the 2001 TV Guide Award for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Noah left the series at the end of the 2004-2005 season, although he returned in guest appearances for four episodes in the next seasons. He stated that he left because he wanted to spend more time with his family and friends and to make room for the upcoming generation. He will be reprising his role on ER for 4 more episodes, during the 2008-2009 season,the series last.
Along with his film and TV career, Noah has also been making some theater moves. Among others he appeared in a Los Angeles stage production of The 24th Day with Peter Berg in 1995, and with The Blank Theatre Company,he did the play The Who, and more recently he did Lobster Alice, with Nicholas Brendon, where he played surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, as a producer he will premiere "Missouri Waltz" soon.
In the year 2000 Noah was also featured in the U.S. Got Milk? advertising campaign, which tries to raise consciousness to the importance of milk.
According to the Guinness World Records 2005 Special 50th Anniversary Edition, Noah became the holder of a "Highest paid TV drama actor per episode" record during the 2003/04 season, earning approximately $400,000 per episode. While on ER, Noah's estimated salary was $9 million a year.
Noah was linked to several women during ER´s first seasons including Samantha Mathis, Friends star Jennifer Aniston and ER co-star Sherry Stringfield.
While filming The Myth of Fingerprints in 1996, he met make-up artist Tracy Warbin. After proposing to her on Valentine´s Day 1999, they married on May 6, 2000. Together they have a son Owen Strausser Speer Wyle (9 Nov 02) and daughter Auden Wyle (15 Oct 05). Tracy's pregnancy with Auden was announced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Noah bought Bo Derek's ranch in Santa Ynez Valley, California, in June 1999, for approximately $2.5 million. They listed their Los Feliz (Los Angeles) home at close to $4.4 million. The traditional-style house was designed by architect Paul Williams, was built in 1934 and has a theater, a detached guest house-office and a landscaped yard with city views, a pool, a koi pond, a patio and a fire pit.
In 1999, Noah made an appearance during the beginning of Steve Jobs' Macworld Expo Keynote presentation, initially pretending to be Jobs. When the audience caught on, Jobs himself appeared and began to banter with Noah Wyle.
It was a practical joke by Jobs and Noah in light of the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley.
Noah devotes much of his free time to the international non-profit organization Doctors of the World and to his work as a member of the Human Rights Watch Council.
Noah also serves as the voluntary artistic producer of the Blank Theatre Company in Hollywood, which stages annual young playwrights festival and whose alumni include Ed Asner, Sarah Michelle Gellar, D.B. Sweeney, James Kerwin, Amber Benson, Megan Henning, Travis Schuldt, Warren Davis, Grant Show, and Nicholas Brendon. He also recently acquired Second Stage Theater in Hollywood, where the company has mounted numerous successful productions.
Noah was the spokesperson for The Cover the Uninsured campaign in 2004, which had as Honorary Co-Chairs former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter.
The Cover the Uninsured Week is annually held in the United States of America and focuses attention on the plight of nearly 44 million Americans who go without health care coverage. The campaign includes several events among different communities, health and enrollment fairs, press conferences and business seminars all over the U.S.
