A Nice
JEWISH DOCTOR

For emergency care, call Noah Wyle.

r. John Carter belongs
to Hollywood's HMO:
The caring but some-
what klutzy doc is one
of the Handsome Male
Objects on NBC-TV's
No.1 rated show, "ER."
But there is substance be-
neath the scrubs of the actor
who, at the season's finale, had
just graduated med school and
was moving on to his official des-
ignation of John Carter, M.D.

82

MICHAEL ELKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

With all the attention headed his
way, Noah Wyle hasn't gone
Hollywood.
He didn't have to — he was
born there.
Raised in a Reform Jewish
home, Wyle has always main-
tained links to his heritage, even
when as a youngster he attend-
ed a nearby boarding school that
he describes as "WASPY."
"It's not like I was the only
Jew there," he says. "I never felt

like an outsider.
But then again, my
sister had attend-
ed the school before
me, so she set the
standard."
"ER" is setting
the standards for
hour-long dramas
these days, with its Noah Wyle plays "Carter" on TV's "ER," which airs
dramatically jagged locally at 10 p.m. Thursday nights on NBC.
mix of tragedy and
Wyle injects some of his own
humor.
humor
and personality into the
"The show's success
is no accident," says part.
"There are quite a few simi-
Wyle, citing as reasons
what he sees as excel- larities between John Carter and
lent writing and acting. me," says the actor. "I think
The focus is on "em- we're both extremely hard-work-
powered doctors who ing, extremely self-critical, pay
are working really great attention to detail and tend
hard and are, often- to beat ourselves up a lot over
what I consider to be foolish mis-
times, very tired."
takes
or mistakes of just forget-
There's nothing tired
about the drama itself. fulness."
One thing Noah Wyle won't
In fact, Wyle seems en-
ergized just talking forget was his boarding school
about it, notably by his days — for better or worse. At
character's relationship bar mitzvah age, he was sent off
with the brooding Dr. to school in Ojai, Calif., which
Peter Benton (actor "upon retrospect, I enjoyed very
much."
Eriq LaSalle).
Not that the school's admin-
"Over the summer,
Eriq and I talked a lot istrators enjoyed his stint there.
about how we could "I was a little bit at loggerheads
sort of keep the rela- with the administration," says
tionship fresh but play Wyle.
Conceding he's not as good at
on different notes than
we played in the first math and science as his TV al-
ter ego, Wyle also admits that
season," he says.
there
isn't a wheelchair that's
There's "less of a drill
sergeant/private rela- been built that could have got-
tionship and more of a ten him through the Thacher
begrudging friendship, School's doors fast enough upon
where through Carter's graduation.
"I blew the 100 percent college
persistence and annoy-
admittance
rate for the centen-
ance, he actually be-
comes endearing to nial class (1989) of my high
Benton." Somewhat of school," he says, "because I was
a "Laurel and Hardy the only one that didn't go.
`They weren't happy with me.
aspect" exists to the
So I left, taking my diploma like
friendship, he says.
a baton on the run. And I didn't
really look back until "ER," when
In the '95-'96 season finale
they started sending me a lot of
of "ER," John Carter (Noah
the alumni newsletters and
Wyle) skipped his medical
alumni fund things."
school graduation to keep a
sick child company.
Hollywood became his uni-