‘Sounded like a prank’: Noah Wyle’s disbelief at being crowned Sexiest Man Alive
The Pitt star Noah Wyle‘s having one of his biggest years yet after scoring the Emmy in September and snagging the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards for his role on the medical drama.
He also won trophies as executive producer on the series and now has another feather to his cap – being named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2026.
The Pitt star Noah Wyle’s scooped three major awards this year - the Emmy, Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Award -and now, he’s been named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Monica Schipper/Getty Image
“I thought that sounded like a prank – just not in a million years did I think that this would be an honour bestowed on me,” the 55-year-old said of the news.
It wasn’t the actor’s first brush with the magazine’s sexiest listicles, having featured in a 1996 issue featuring the “Sexy Men of ER”, alongside his then co-star George Clooney.
While Clooney went on to win the Sexiest Man Alive title twice (in 1997 and 2006), Wyle has only now, 30 years later, been crowned for the first time.
The 55-year-old said his three kids – Owen, 24, Auden, 21, and Frances, 11 – all had different reactions to the news but his wife, Sara, thinks it’s an accolade long overdue.
“She thinks I’m a good guy and that the kind of person that I am and the kind of father I am, the kind of husband I am, is worth promoting,” he said.
“[And] she was very pleased that this reflects well on her taste.”
But he suspects his friends will have a different view.
“I am going to take a lot of ribbing from friends and family for sure,” he said.
The stars of ER (from left) Noah Wyle, Sherry Stringfield, Anthony Edwards, George Clooney and Eric La Salle. Supplied
Wyle added that Clooney will likely “be amused and feel, hopefully, like a proud papa, that I’ve come of gray-haired age”.
Wyle, who had a small role in the 1992 drama A Few Good Men alongside Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, became a household name with the success of ER.
From playing Dr John Carter in a Chicago emergency room in the 1990s to a career revival now, playing Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in a Pittsburgh trauma centre, which he calls the “second lightning strike in my life”.
