Noah Wyle's First Role Was In A Raunchy Western Starring Divine And Tab Hunter

These days, pretty much everyone who watches TV knows who Noah Wyle is from his stint as dreamy young medical trainee and eventual physician Dr. John Carter on "E.R" or his Emmy-winning turn as attending trauma physician Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch on HBO Max's hit series "The Pitt." In 1984, however, he was a total unknown who hadn't starred in anything at all, and he got his very first chance to experience acting in a feature film on the set of a really raunchy Western — Paul Bartel's "Lust in the Dust." "Lust in the Dust" was a comedy Western written by "Mork & Mindy" scribe Philip John Taylor that starred 1950s film heartthrob Tab Hunter and drag queen Divine, and it's as wacky as you might expect.

Divine plays a dance hall girl named Rosie Velez who gets lost in the desert and is rescued by gunman Abel Wood (Hunter), who ends up getting into a row with local criminals over the location of some treasure. "Lust in the Dust" is extremely campy and has become a kind of queer cult classic in some circles, as Bartel is best known for the campy 1982 black comedy "Eating Raoul," while Hunter and Divine are both LGBTQ legends in their own right. It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but with that cast and some little glimpses of a very young Noah Wyle, some fans might find it worth checking out.

While Wyle isn't in "Lust in the Dust" all that much, playing a background character in the rowdy town of Chili Verde, he did open up about his experiences on set in the documentary "Tab Hunter Confidential," saying: 

"The first film I ever appeared in was 'Lust in the Dust.' That set in particular had a real sense of frivolity and fun about it, and I remember being struck by Tab's naturalism, and how effortlessly everything he was doing was coming across."

Hunter is definitely playing the "straight man" (no pun intended) to Divine's chaos in "Lust in the Dust," and it must have been a fascinating lesson in acting to see the two perform in such different ways. Hunter was a fairly understated actor, having first become famous for heartthrob roles in films like 1955's World War II drama "Battle Cry" or the 1961 romantic comedy "The Pleasure of His Company," though the press was deeply concerned with his perceived homosexuality. In the 1980s Hunter leaned into it, starring in the cult classic John Waters film "Polyester" opposite Divine and then in "Lust in the Dust." (Hunter would eventually come out as a gay man in his 2005 memoir, even revealing that he once had a relationship with late "Psycho" star Anthony Perkins.) 

While "Lust in the Dust" may not have been the most conventional start for Wyle, it sounds like it gave him some great lessons in acting and having a bit of fun on set, something that probably comes in very handy on the highly stressful "The Pitt." Everybody's gotta start somewhere, and starting out with Divine and Tab Hunter is honestly pretty great.