Wyle Noah life and biography

Noah Strausser Speer Wyle is an American film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. John Carter on the TV drama ER. He has also played Steve Jobs in the 1999 docudrama Pirates of Silicon Valley and Flynn Carsen in The Librarian franchise. Wyle was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2001.

Best known in the mid-'90s for playing the earnest but often fumbling Dr. John Carter on the hit television drama ER, Noah Wyle has also appeared in a few feature films, notably Swing Kids in which he played a chillingly ardent member of the Hitler Youth. The son of an electrical engineer and an orthopedic nurse, Wyle was raised in Hollywood. He attended a boarding school and, while growing up, dreamed of becoming a basketball player. Lacking the height and the necessary skill, he turned toward acting. After graduation, he had the opportunity to go to college, but turned it down in favor of studying acting with Larry Moss. Wyle supported himself by working as a busboy and gained experience on stage, a venue he dearly loves. In 1990, he landed his first television role, albeit a very small one, in the NBC miniseries Blind Faith. In 1991, he made his feature film debut as the contented son Ask in the family drama Crooked Hearts (1992). More supporting roles followed, including a turn as Sir Lancelot in Guinevere, a made-for-cable look at the famed Arthurian queen as told from a feminist perspective. In 1997, Wyle starred in the independent drama The Myth of Fingerprints as a 23-year-old who has trouble getting over a breakup with his girlfriend.

Born June 4, 1971, Hollywood native Wyle (pronounced WY-lee) became interested in acting as a high school student at The Thacher School in rural Ojai. He further explored drama by attending a summer acting workshop at Northwestern University in Chicago, and returned to California to ambitiously direct a production of Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit." After graduating in 1989, he studied acting with Larry Moss and worked as a busboy while appearing in more stage productions. He began to get his foot in the screen acting door with a bit part in the 1990 NBC miniseries "Blind Faith," and the following year, made his feature debut as the doomed son in a dysfunctional family in "Crooked Hearts" (1991) alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh and Peter Berg. A supporting role as a marine driver who testifies at a court martial in Rob Reiner's Oscar-nominated Best Picture "A Few Good Men" (1992), and one as a leader of a group of Lindy-hopping Hitler Youth in Thomas Carter's "Swing Kids" (1993), raised his stock in Hollywood. Wyle was also part of the ensemble including Rick Schroeder, Dermot Mulroney and Lucy Deakins in the 1960s high school drama, "There Goes My Baby" (1994). In a charming lead that tapped into the actor’s strength for old school derring-do, he was also cast that year as Sir Lancelot opposite Sheryl Lee's "Guinevere" (Lifetime, 1994), a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend.

Wyle’s career went into overdrive at the end of 1994 when he was cast in “ER,” a young, fresh take on the medical drama genre that made an instant star of Wyle for his role as the young, passionate humanitarian intern, Carter. Wyle stayed with the show for 11 seasons, longer than anyone else in the original ensemble, and earned more than half a dozen Emmy Award nominations while taking on additional film and TV projects between shooting seasons. In 1997, he appeared in limited theaters in the indie family drama "The Myth of Fingerprints" (1997) alongside Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner, while in 1999, his wholesome bookishness made him an excellent casting choice to play Apple computer guru Steve Jobs in the cable picture, "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" (TNT, 1999), which was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. In 2000, Wyle and fellow “ER” staffer George Clooney (along with revered stage vets Brian Dennehy and Richard Dreyfus) starred in “Fail Safe” (CBS, 2000), a televised play based on the Cold War military drama novel by Eugene Burdick. He had a small role as the science teacher of a teenager haunted by post-apocalyptic visions (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the surreal indie “Donnie Darko” (2001), and in a rare villainous role, played a dishonest police officer in the thriller “Enough” (2002), starring Jennifer Lopez.

Big screen success eluded Wyle, but he remained a television draw as the star of TNT’s tongue-in-cheek “The Librarian” action movie series; first playing the brainy keeper of a secret stash of magical items in “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear” (2004). Following his departure from “ER” in 2005, Wyle headlined the low budget drama “The Californians,” but found a much wider audience when he reprised his “Librarian” role and headed off to Africa in the sequel “Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006). He earned a second round of best actor nominations from the Saturn Awards for the film series before appearing in Oliver Stone’s “W.” (2008), a fictionalized biopic of the 43rd President of the United States that cast Wyle as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans. In another Washington-set drama, he portrayed a lawyer charged with defending a newspaper editor (Angela Bassett) who refuses to reveal the source of a story that “outs” a CIA operative in “Nothing But the Truth” (2008) inspired by the notorious Valerie Plame case. The film was well reviewed but only received limited release.

With “The Librarian: The Curse of the Jade Chalice” (TNT, 2008), Wyle’s historian was off to New Orleans in search of vampires, however his profile spike the following spring came thanks to the series finale of “ER” and the much anticipated return of Wyle and other former stars to wrap up their characters’ storylines. Wyle’s role at the center of that media event was followed by a supporting role in the Cold War coming-of-age drama, “An American Affair” (2009).

Filmography

1991 Crooked Hearts
1992 A Few Good Men
1993 Swing Kids
1994 ER
1994
There Goes My Baby
Guinevere
1997 The Myth of Fingerprints
1999 Pirates of Silicon Valley
2000 Fail Safe
2001
Scenes of the Crime
Donnie Darko
2002
White Oleander
Enough
2004 The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
2005 The Californians
2006 The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
2008
W.
Nothing But the Truth
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
2009 An American Affair

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