The Forgotten Scandals Of The ER Cast

Whether it was on-screen emergencies or off-screen cast squabbles, "ER" was a masterclass in stirring up drama. Created by Michael Crichton, who had previously written for blockbuster movies like "Jurassic Park" and "Twister," "ER" first premiered on September 19, 1994, on NBC. At the time, no one knew it would ultimately become one of the biggest medical dramas of all time while creating massive stars in the process. Many of the series' main cast went on to become household names, including George Clooney and Noah Wyle. Given its longevity and constant need for new patients at the fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, many famous actors guest-starred on the show, including Zac Efron, Chris Pine, Dakota Fanning, Shia LaBeouf, and Octavia Spencer.

With so many actors working on the show across its historic 15-year run, it is no surprise that the drama happening off-screen was just as interesting as the drama that went down on-screen. Despite being a medical show, actors report that their own health was neglected during filming. The departure of certain actors also upset showrunners, especially when they spoke up about issues. From questionable censorship to when the cast revealed what George Clooney was really like on the set of "ER", some of the show's biggest scandals almost flew under the radar.

Despite the off-screen controversies, "ER" became one of NBC's top primetime shows for most of the 1990s and set an example for an onslaught of future medical dramas like "Grey's Anatomy," which started in 2005 and is still airing at the time of this writing. The groundbreaking show's popularity carried it all the way until 2009, with a whopping 331 episodes that roughly equate to 250 hours of watch time. "ER" and its cast went on to earn countless awards, including Emmys, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and People's Choice Awards. 

Before Noah Wyle's stunning transformation into the lead star of "The Pitt," one of the most well-known controversies among the "ER" cast is how difficult star Wyle was to work with. Wyle starred as Dr. John Carter in the show from its start in 1994 until 2005, making him the last original cast member to leave the series. Given his longstanding reputation on "ER" that launched him into stardom, he was not always welcoming or kind to new castmates joining the show. At times, his ego would get in the way of professionalism. 

In 2018, he admitted he was not nice to co-star Kellie Martin, who played Lucy Knight, when she joined the show in 1998 before leaving quickly in 2000. "Here's where I harbor a lot of guilt," Wyle told Entertainment Weekly. "I was not nice all the time to Kellie. Kellie came on that show and we were like rock stars. We were like, 'Who's the new kid?' We worked extremely hard to be the No. 1 show over those five seasons, and when Kellie came on, or whenever anybody came on, it was like, 'Earn your keep!'"

He also discussed his troubling pattern of being unwelcoming and abrasive to new cast members in a 2019 interview. "When [Goran Visnjic] came on to the show, I had a chip on my shoulder," Wyle told The Hollywood Reporter. "I had a chip on my shoulder with anybody that came on that show. ... And it was not an easy environment to work in because we didn't suffer fools. We were really hard on people, and I was hard on people that were coming into the show, like Erik Palladino or Michael Michele. Everybody had to earn their keep, in my opinion, especially poor Kellie Martin. I owe her a big apology."

Sherry Stringfield starred as Dr. Susan Lewis in "ER" when it first began in 1994. Her character was initially supposed to be a part of major storylines, but Stringfield decided she no longer wanted to be a part of the show. Despite having a five-year contract at the start of "ER," she suddenly decided to depart the show after just two years in 1996. Her departure changed the trajectory of the show, as it required the scrapping of her character's planned romance with Dr. Mark Green, played by Anthony Edwards.

"I wouldn't describe the situation as pleasant. [The producers] were in shock," Stringfield told Entertainment Weekly (via The Sun). "They tried to talk me out of it. It took a long time to get out of my contract." The producers assumed she just wanted more money, but the real issue was her discovery that the lifestyle of a famous TV actor did not suit her. "It took them a while to realize it was about having a full-bodied life and getting out before I felt I'd sacrificed so much to get somewhere that I couldn't afford to leave. I'm from the theatre. I never wanted to be a star," she said. Despite her untimely departure that upset some producers, they eventually allowed her to return to the show five years later in 2001.

One of the several reasons Sherry Stringfield left "ER" was over her grueling work schedule. While the show was centered around patient health and well-being, the actors' own health was often overlooked to keep up with intense film schedules. Stringfield revealed she typically worked 18 hours a day, which eventually led her to contract viral meningitis and pneumonia, two potentially serious illnesses. This demanding schedule led to sleep deprivation and an unhealthy lifestyle that soon pushed Stringfield to leave the show after just two years. According to her, the rest of the "ER" cast was also struggling under enormous pressure and falling ill on set

"You get a cold, they won't let you off for a cold, then you get the flu, then you're running a fever, you're still coming in, you're taking a nap on the gurneys in between scenes, you push, push, push, and finally your body says no f***ing no way," Stringfield told Entertainment Weekly (via The Sun). Occasionally, things got so bad that some of the cast members were receiving their own medical treatment while shooting the medical drama. "There were a couple of episodes where people did scenes with IVs in their arms," Stringfield recalled. "They'd have the bag inside their lab coat. One time I opened someone's trailer and the person was sitting there with an IV. It was scary."

As one of the stars from "ER" you didn't know died, Vanessa Marquez was tragically shot and killed by L.A. authorities during a welfare check in 2018 after threatening officers with what turned out to be a BB gun. A year prior, in a January 2017 Facebook post, Marquez revealed she had experienced racism and sexual harassment on the "ER" set while playing Nurse Wendy Goldman before departing the show in 1997. "I was harassed daily on the set of ER. Sexual and racial. Daily attacks on my mexican heritage and yes, my p***y was grabbed on set in front of the male driven cast and crew and everyone laughed while I cried in pain in front of a young female PA witness to it. Eriq LaSalle was the p***y grabber. All the other 'stars' were the racial joksters. When the PA asked LaSalle to apologize he said Oh but I thought you liked it," she wrote.

In a since-deleted tweet in 2017, Marquez also accused her "ER" co-star George Clooney of getting her blacklisted from the entertainment industry. "Clooney helped blacklist me when I spoke up abt harassment on ER.'women who dont play the game lose career'I did," she tweeted (via Page Six). Clooney has since denied the accusations. "I had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted," Clooney said in October 2017 (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I take her at her word. I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show. I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldn't affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn't."

John Wells had one of television's biggest behind-the-scenes success stories as the showrunner, head writer, and executive producer of the iconic medical show "ER." In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in August 2025 to discuss his historic four-decade television career, Wells revealed that he had many private battles with network censors over controversial storylines he could not believe were issues at the time of "ER." "I had huge discussions during the ER days about racial storylines. 'Could this Black character actually kiss this white character?' This in 1998! I was like, 'Guys, what are we even talking about?'" Wells recalled.

Race was not the only thing Wells had to defend against censors while writing the medical drama. Another major argument ensued over the show's portrayal of HIV, which was a disease that was still tied to a lot of negative stigmas at the time. "A big storyline we did in the third season of ER was Gloria Reuben's character being HIV positive," Wells told The Hollywood Reporter. "There were real conversations where they said, 'So, she's going to survive? Should she survive?' It's HIV. It's terrifying. But there were already many, many people in the world dealing with it. And to suggest that anybody who becomes infected dies, that's not the message that we wanted moving through the world."