Noah Wyle - Biography

Noah Strausser Speer Wyle (born June 4, 1971) is an American film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. John Truman Carter III in the Medical 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.

Early life

Wyle, the middle of three children, was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Marjorie (née Speer), a registered orthopedic head nurse, and Stephen Wyle, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur. His father was Jewish and his mother Episcopalian, and he was raised "fairly nondenominationally". Wyle's parents divorced in the late 1970s and his mother later married James C. Katz, a film restorationist with three children of his own from a previous marriage. Wyle'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.

Education

Wyle was educated at The Thacher School in Ojai, California, and graduated with the class of 1989. Wyle 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.

Career

Film

Wyle 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. 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 Television movie Guinevere. Recently, Wyle 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 alongside Stana Katic. 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.

ER

Wyle’s big break came when he was given the pilot script for ER and was cast as medical student John Carter. Wyle 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. Wyle left the series at the end of the eleventh season, although he returned in guest appearances for a four-episode arc during the twelfth season. 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. However, in 2009, Wyle returned to ER during its 15th and final season for five episodes, including the series finale. According to the Guinness World Records 2005 Special 50th Anniversary Edition, Wyle 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, Wyle's estimated salary was $9 million a year . Wyle has also appeared in the most episodes of ER, 255, 4 more than Laura Innes.

Stage

Along with his film and television career, Wyle has also appeared on stage appearing in a 1995 Los Angeles stage production of The 24th Day with Peter Berg. With The Blank Theatre Company, he performed in The Who, and more recently in Lobster Alice, with Nicholas Brendon, where he played the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. For his work as one of the producers of The Wild Party at the Blank Theare, he won an NAACP Theatre Award. Wyle has also produced Missouri Waltz at the theatre.

Falling Skies

Wyle is the lead in TNT's new sci-fi series from Steven Spielberg titled Falling Skies. Wyle plays the leader of a group of soldiers and civilians that battle against an alien force, according to the network.

Personal life

Wyle dated several women, including actress Samantha Mathis. While filming The Myth of Fingerprints in 1996, he met make-up artist Tracy Warbin. After proposing to her on Valentine's Day in 1999, they married on May 6, 2000. Together, they have a son, Owen Strausser Speer Wyle (born November 9, 2002), and a daughter, Auden Wyle (born October 15, 2005). Warbin's pregnancy with Auden was announced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Wyle 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.

Wyle and Warbin, his wife of almost 10 years, separated in late October 2009, according to People magazine. The couple live in separate residences, and both see their two children daily.

Appearances, interests, and philanthrophy

In 1999, Wyle 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 Wyle. It was a practical joke by Jobs and Wyle in light of the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Wyle 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. Wyle 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 (Los Angeles) in Hollywood, where the company has mounted numerous successful productions.

Wyle 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 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. Additionally, Wyle is also a vegetarian and a supporter of animal rights, having started a farm intended as sanctuary for abused and rescued animals. Wyle has also become a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, dedicated to protecting and conserving wildlife for future generations.

In 2009, Noah Wyle became a spokesperson for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), claiming that polar bears are "hanging on by a thread" and "may be extinct in our children's lifetime, due to the effects of climate change."

Filmography

External links