Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper. He became a founding partner at a new firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, after he and his superiors abandoned their old agency in advance of an unwanted acquisition.

Draper's character is partially based on Draper Daniels, the creative head of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago in the 1950s who created the Marlboro Man campaign.^[1] However, some of the advertising techniques and the professional accomplishments of Don Draper are based on those of Rosser Reeves, who rose to chairman of the Ted Bates agency.

In 2009, the fictional Draper was named the most influential man in the world by Ask Men, ahead of real-life figures.^[2]

Character biography[link]

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Most of the characters in the series know little, if anything, of Draper’s history and true identity; Harry Crane remarks in the third episode of the series, "Draper? Who knows anything about that guy? No one’s ever lifted that rock. He could be Batman for all we know." Clues are given through flashbacks, confessions, and clandestine visits to figures from his past.^[3]

As the series unfolds, it is gradually revealed that the name "Don Draper" is an alias, and that the character's given name is Richard "Dick" Whitman.^[4] Dick Whitman was born in Illinois to a 22-year-old prostitute, who died giving birth to him. Dick was subsequently taken in by his biological father Archibald "Archie" Whitman and stepmother Abigail.

At age ten, Dick watched his father die when a horse was spooked by an electrical storm and kicked him in the face. Subsequently, Abigail, Dick and his half brother Adam moved to Pennsylvania (described by Draper as "coal country") and were raised by Abigail and a man referred to as "Uncle Mac", whom he later described to Betty has having been "nice to me".

His relationship with his family was apparently contentious—he revealed to his wife Betty that Archibald "beat the hell out of him" on a regular basis, and he "fantasized" about the day he could murder him. Abigail, meanwhile, made no effort to conceal Dick's past from him and referred to him as a "whore child". (When informed by his half brother Adam of Abigail's death from stomach cancer, he coldly replies, "Good.") He also appeared to be close to Adam, who was 11 years younger than he. However, when Adam seeks Don out years later in New York City, Don rebuffs his attempt and walks away. He later discovers that Adam hanged himself.

Although Don celebrates his birthday on June 1^[5], at the time of his birthday party in 1966 (Season 5: "A Little Kiss"), he says, "I turned 40 six months ago," which means that Dick Whitman was probably born in December 1925 or January 1926. Pete discovers from his friend Russ in the State Department that the real Don Draper would be 49 years old. (Season 1: "Nixon vs. Kennedy") The presidential election was held on November 8, 1960, making the real Don Draper's birth year 1911— making him fourteen or fifteen years older than Dick Whitman. On business trip to Baltimore in March 1963, Don tells Shelly, a TWA stewardess, that today is his birthday yet showing his driver's license will not help prove it (Season 3: "Out of Town").

Korean War[link]

Dick never finished high school, and in his early 20s he "ran away" to enlist in the U.S. Army and was sent to fight in the Korean War. ^[6] He was put under the command of a Lieutenant Donald F. Draper, an engineer^[3] who was in charge of building a field hospital with only Whitman to assist him.

During an enemy artillery attack, Lt. Draper was killed by a gasoline explosion accidentally caused by Whitman, charring his body beyond recognition. Seeing this, Whitman removed Lt. Draper's dog tags, switching them with his own. He later awakens in a hospital, presumed to be Draper, and is awarded the Purple Heart. He is then sent home with Lt. Draper's coffin (now believed to be Whitman's) to offer the Army's regrets to Whitman's survivors. He avoids meeting the Whitmans at the train station, but is spotted by Adam. Whitman makes his escape and begins his life as Don Draper.

Life as "Don Draper"[link]

Draper is working as a used car salesman when Anna M. Draper, the widow of the real Draper, tracks him down. The two become close friends, though their contact is limited after Draper meets and marries Betty Hofstadt. After securing a legal divorce, he continues to support Anna financially. In the later part of Season 2, Don visits her during a trip to California for a few weeks to help clear his head. Anna dies of cancer in Season 4, and Don is devastated, calling her "the only person in the world who really knew me".

Not many details have been provided as to how Don Draper became the creative director at Sterling Cooper. Draper moved to New York City where he worked as a fur salesman and attended City College at night. It was at this job that he met his future wife, Betty, a model who did a photo shoot for the company. Roger Sterling claims that he "discovered" Draper in this job, and brought him to work at Sterling Cooper. In actuality, Sterling met Draper when he wanted to purchase a fur for his mistress Joan Harris. After selling him the fur, Draper repeatedly lobbied Sterling for a job; Sterling declined Draper's repeated bids, but accepted his offer to share drinks. Sterling became very drunk, and the next day, Don reported to work at Sterling Cooper, explaining to an astonished Roger that he offered him a job the night before. Don and Betty marry in May, 1953, and eventually move into a house at 42 Bullet Park Road, Ossining in Westchester County, New York.

Draper eventually became Creative Director, and then a junior partner, at Sterling Cooper. He is considered a great asset to the company as he has considerable talent for understanding the desires of others, and for effectively pitching and selling ideas. Because of this, he has occasionally been courted by other advertising firms. Although his true character remains mysterious and heavily guarded, almost everyone at the firm respects his talent. Among these is account executive Pete Campbell, who seems to view Draper as both a mentor and a hindrance to his advancement within the firm. When Campbell purposely takes a package addressed to Draper from his late, estranged brother Adam, Campbell discovers Draper’s true identity, subsequently attempting to blackmail Draper with this information. However, when Campbell confronts Draper in his office with what he's discovered, Don walks directly to senior partner Bert Cooper's office, with Campbell following behind incredulously. Once in Cooper's office, Campbell reveals Don's true identity to Cooper, who shrugs off the news, much to Campbell's astonishment. However, Cooper later uses the same information to compel Don to sign a three-year employment contract.

Peggy Olson begins her career at Sterling Cooper as Draper's secretary, but with his support becomes a copywriter. He carefully but firmly nurtures her talent as she learns the process, although in the first season he makes sure she continues with her secretarial duties until promoting her in the episode "The Wheel". The relationship between Peggy and Don gradually evolves into one of mutual dependency and understanding. In Season 2, Don visits Peggy in the hospital after she gives birth and encourages her to move forward and forget it ever happened, assuring her that the incident will be kept a secret and won't affect her standing at the firm. Peggy bails Don out of police custody after a drunk-driving accident and allows his female companion to recuperate at her apartment. Don generally does not show her any favoritism, and aggressively shuts down her request for a pay raise (which she argues she should be given under emerging "equal pay for equal work" statutes), which leads her to seriously consider taking a job at another agency. However, he does treat her with as much respect as any of the male copywriters and often seems to rely on her talent. At the end of Season 3, when Don is planning on launching a new firm, he wants her to come with him. She initially refuses due to his presumptuous manner, but he eventually comes to her apartment and convinces her to join him, saying that if she didn't he would spend the rest of his life trying to hire her. In Season 4, Peggy is given more demanding assignments and greater responsibility as a copywriter at Don's new firm, and they develop a greater level of trust and comfort with each other both professionally and personally. In the season 4 episode "The Suitcase" we see Don go through a drunken breakdown after receiving word to call California, which he took to mean his confidant Anna Draper, who he knew was suffering from cancer at the time, had died. By the end of the episode's emotional journey he has confided in Peggy more about his past (his military service in Korea, having his father die in front of him) than anyone else at the agency to date.

Betty Draper was unaware of Don's past until she discovered a collection of photographs and other documents from his previous life which Don kept in a locked drawer in his desk. When Betty confronts Don and demands to know the truth, Don breaks down and reveals to her the secret of his true identity. Their marriage suffers another setback when Betty realizes, in the wake of John F. Kennedy's assassination, that she does not love or trust Don. She relocates to Nevada to file for divorce shortly thereafter. After being kicked out of the Draper family residence, Don moves into a Manhattan apartment near Waverly Place and Sixth Avenue.

In December 1963, Don convinces Bert Cooper, Roger Sterling, and Lane Pryce, along with Peggy, Pete, Joan and Harry Crane, to leave Sterling Cooper rather than take their chances when they learn that their parent company is being purchased by rival firm McCann Erickson. They form the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency, working out of a hotel suite before moving to the Time-Life Building.^[7]

Both in and out of the office, Don's life is an entanglement of boozing and sex with a large group of women he has met in business and social settings, including at least two secretaries (Allison and Megan), a stewardess (Shelly), an unemployed friend of a friend (Bethany), a teacher (Suzanne Farrell), a client (Rachel Menken), an artist (Midge Daniels), a waitress (Doris), a prostitute (Candace), a business consultant (Dr. Faye Miller), a hedonist (Joy), and the wife of the lead performer in the Utz campaign (Bobbie Barrett).^[8]

Personality[link]

Despite his outward cynicism and arrogance, Draper is portrayed as following a strict code of personal ethics, insisting on honesty, forthrightness and chivalry in his subordinates (if not always himself). He is extremely protective of people less confident than he; he warns Pete Campbell, in the first episode ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), about his rude remarks to and about Peggy Olson, whom Campbell has just met. During the episode "Six Month Leave", Draper admonishes several subordinates for mocking Freddy Rumsen's episode of urinary incontinence, a symptom of his alcoholism. In a fourth season episode Draper briefly scolds Ken Cosgrove in front of other employees for mocking a client with a severe stuttering problem. Finally, in one scene (season 2, episode 1) he is seen in an elevator as another man goes on about his sexual adventures ('soaked panties') even as an older lady enters and is clearly made uncomfortable. In protest, Don tells him to take his hat off in respect for the lady, and when the man refuses, Don reaches over to the man, removes it himself and hands it to him.

Draper also adheres to a more strict code of business ethics than many of his colleagues. A second season arc has Draper upset about being told to drop the small local Mohawk Airlines client in favor of a chance at American Airlines. He questions the unwise risk of giving up an existing client for the chance of getting a bigger one, and also challenges the aggressive greed, asking his colleague, Roger Sterling, "What kind of company do we wanna be?" (Sterling replies nonchalantly "The kind where everyone has a summer home"). In Season 3, he is hesitant to sign a wealthy client eager to pour his fortune into promoting jai alai, a sport the client thinks will replace baseball as "America's game", Don knowing the client is about to squander his considerable fortune on a doomed enterprise.

He also becomes a confidante to Art Director Sal Romano, a closeted homosexual, whom Don sees in a compromising position in a Baltimore hotel during a fire evacuation. Although Don continues to keep the secret, he nonetheless expresses his distaste for Sal's sexual orientation; he supports Romano's firing in Season 3 because the son of a prominent client is irate about Sal's refusal to accept his sexual advances in the film editing room.

While Don is not color-blind in matters of race, he recognises the changes sweeping the country and acknowledges the potential of what he calls "the Negro market." In the first episode of the series he is seen asking a black American waiter about his cigarette preferences. In "My Old Kentucky Home" (Season 3, Episode 3), Don attends a festive Kentucky Derby party hosted by Roger Sterling, where he watches as Sterling serenades his young wife in blackface minstrel makeup. He and Pete Campbell seem to be the only guests who disapprove of or are uncomfortable with the spectacle, although Laura Smith is seen nervously laughing.

It is also shown throughout different episodes that Don regrets how he treats his family. In the season three episode where Betty gives birth to their third child, he has a conversation with another man in the waiting room who says that he's going to be a better man for his wife and child. It is clear that Don feels exactly the same way.

On another family front, Don tends to dislike his father-in-law Eugene, but agrees to take the man into his home when he becomes unable to live on his own. On several occasions he shows more patience and understanding toward Eugene than does Betty.

Draper and women[link]

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Draper met his ex-wife Betty Draper (née Hofstadt) in her modeling days, surprising Betty by buying her the fur she wore on a photo shoot where he was in attendance; this gesture appears to be the start of their relationship. Betty and Don marry when she is in her early twenties, and she gave birth to their first child Sally soon after. A few years later, she gave birth to their first son, Bobby. In Season 3, Betty gave birth to a second son named Eugene after her recently-deceased father, with whom Don shared a mutually antagonistic relationship.

Don cheats on Betty repeatedly throughout seasons one and two. In season one, Draper is involved with Midge, a pot-smoking beatnik and illustrator who works out of her small, dingy apartment. Midge's beatnik lifestyle and friends do not appeal to Don, but she offers him an escape from his high-pressure job. Don receives a bonus check of $2,500 from Sterling Cooper and asks her to vacation with him to Paris. However, Don changes his mind after realizing Midge is in love with a fellow beatnik, and instead stuffs the check into her blouse; he tells her to go buy a car with it and leaves. Don doesn't see her again until season four, when Midge pretends to run into Don, hoping to sell him a painting in order to help fund her heroin addiction. He agrees to visit her apartment, but after learning of her true intentions he purchases a painting and leaves.

Also during season one, Don pursues Rachel Menken. She is Jewish and the daughter of Abraham Menken, the elderly founder of upscale Menken's department store. Rachel, 28, is educated, sophisticated, and a savvy businesswoman, assisting her father in running the family business. Despite bickering with her during initial business meetings, Draper becomes close with her and eventually begins an affair with her. She ends their affair on November 8, 1960, the night the 1960 Presidential election results are being tabulated. She leaves on a cruise for Europe and suddenly marries a Jewish man sometime before the beginning of season 2.

In season two, Draper turns to an older woman, Bobbie Barrett. She is the wife of Jimmy Barrett, an insult comic loosely based on Rat Packer Joey Bishop, filming a commercial for one of Sterling Cooper's clients, Utz Potato Chips. They continue their affair, taking a trip to the beach at "Stony Brook" on Long Island, but their plans are interrupted by a car accident followed by his arrest for drunken driving. Unable to post bond with the cash on his person, Don reaches out to Peggy, who travels from Brooklyn to Long Island by car in the middle of the night, posts Don's bail, and later boards Bobbie until her injuries from the accident heal. Bobbie and Don continue their affair until the episode "Maidenform", when Bobbie lets slip that Draper's previous mistresses have been talking about his sexual prowess. Don, who values his privacy highly, is aghast that his extramarital escapades are being gossiped about, and immediately ends the affair. Don must continue his professional relationship with Bobbie and Jimmy, and the four of them (including Betty) meet at the Stork Club for a night out. At the end of the evening, Jimmy reveals to Betty that their spouses have had an affair; A horrifed Betty confronts Don, but he repeatedly denies the accusations, which infuriates her.

Eventually, Betty appears willing to put the suspicion behind her, but when she coincidentally sees the commercial Jimmy made for Utz air on television, her anger is reignited. She calls her husband at work and tells him not to come home, whereafter Don moves into a hotel room and frequently sleeps in his office. Betty's father Eugene has another stroke, necessitating a visit from Betty, and to keep up appearances, the two of them pretend to be a happily married couple while staying at her father's home. In his growing senility, Eugene openly expresses his disdain for Don, saying, "He's got no people. You can't trust a man like that." After witnessing the rapid decline of her father, Betty seduces Don in the middle of the night, leading Don to believe that she has now forgiven him. When they arrive home, however, Betty tells a confused Don not to move back in. Betty later discovers that she is pregnant.

Don impulsively decides to join Campbell on a business trip to Los Angeles. In California, Don meets a mysterious European viscount with a 21-year-old daughter named Joy. Despite telling Campbell that the trip is strictly business, Don joins Joy and her "jet set" family of self-described nomads at their lavish vacation home in Palm Springs. He sleeps with her the same night. Joy is topless in the pool one night, attempting to seduce Don again, despite being surrounded by other relatives and even small children, around their large pool. He later leaves her to visit Anna.

In season three, Don had an affair lasting several months with his daughter Sally's schoolteacher Suzanne Farrell. Their relationship builds slowly over several accidental meetings and conversations laden with innuendo. They finally consummate their relationship in September 1963. Don ends the affair with Suzanne on October 30, 1963. Thinking Betty and his children are out of town, he plans a weekend get-away with Suzanne. With Suzanne waiting out in the car, and intending only to go into the house for a suitcase, Don is stunned to find Betty at home. Betty reveals she has found the key to the locked drawer in Don's desk in which he keeps a box of photographs and other evidence of his past life, as well as several hundred dollars in emergency escape funds, and has discovered he has been lying to her. Don never returns to the car where Suzanne awaits him, apparently for hours, before giving up and returning home. He calls her the next day to break things off, even though they have not been discovered, in an attempt to save his marriage.

Don's womanizing hits its peak during season four, which takes place in 1964-1965. At the beginning of season four in 1964, Don hires a prostitute to slap him around during sex. Roger's wife Jane Sterling also sets Don up with a young, beautiful friend named Bethany, thinking Don hasn't been on a date since his marriage ended. During one weekend of heavy drinking, Don goes to bed with one woman, blacks out, wakes up with a different woman in his bed, and has no idea what has happened. He continues to see the prostitute and pay her and even sets Lane up with her hooker friend one night in his apartment.

During a visit to San Pedro, California to visit Anna, he attempts to seduce Anna's 18-year-old niece, whom Don has known since she was a child. She refuses Don and instead tells him that Anna is dying of cancer.

When Don goes home drunk after an office Christmas party, and he forgets the keys to his apartment and has Allison, his secretary, bring them over. He quickly seduces her that night on his couch. This later creates tension in their professional relationship when Don acts as if nothing happened. Confused and heartbroken over the affair, Allison decides she can no longer work for Don or the agency, she asks Don to write a letter of recommendation for her to another potential job. But when his insensitivity offends her, Allison becomes greatly upset. She throws a brass cigarette dispenser at Don and calls him "a bad person" before quitting her job and storming off in tears. Don is visibly shaken by the encounter, and Allison is replaced with an older secretary by Joan, who hints that she's aware of Don having seduced her. Don later tries to write a letter of apology to Allison but gives up on it. Allison is replaced by Ida Blankenship, Bert Cooper's former secretary who later dies sitting up at her desk, shocking Don and the staff.

During season four, Don becomes friendly with Dr. Faye Miller, a consumer psychologist he frequently works with. At the beginning of 1965, before she dates Don, she informs him, "you'll be married by the end of the year." After fending off his gentlemanly advances on several occasions she begins a romantic relationship with him. During an existential crisis, Don somewhat reveals his checkered past; she sympathizes with him and offers emotional support. Faye however warns Don that she is "not good with kids and is inexperienced around them." At the end of that same episode, Sally runs down the hall at SCDP after a tantrum, and trips and falls badly. Instead of running into her father's arms, she falls naturally into Don's new secretary, Megan's arms. Megan Calvet previously worked as the lobby receptionist but became Don's secretary after Blankenship's sudden death.

Don is no longer seeing prostitutes and seems to have settled down with Faye. Although Don seems to be in love with the classy and intelligent Faye, Megan seduces him in his office one night, telling him not to worry, she won't make a scene like Allison did. When Faye's consulting firm can no longer work with SCDP, she is excited because she and Don can be "out in the open" now with their relationship during episode 12.

During the season four finale "Tomorrowland," Faye believes their relationship is stronger than ever. However, Don's ex-wife, Betty Francis, suddenly fires Carla, the children's nanny since birth, and Don has to scramble to find a full-time nanny for his three kids during their visit to California (to sign the "sold" papers for Don's house in San Pedro, which he bought for Anna in the 1950s). Don remembers how Sally fell into her arms several months previously, and decides to take Megan with him so she can take the three kids to Disneyland, and watch them at the hotel pool. When he goes to Anna's house one last time, Anna's niece says Anna left him her diamond solitaire engagement ring (the one given to her by the real Don Draper upon their engagement). Don looks at the ring and is very touched by Anna's gift to him. He sleeps with Megan during the California trip and decides to propose with Anna's engagement ring, telling Megan that the ring is very special to him and that he "finally feels like himself" with her. Megan accepts and Don returns to New York to let the partners and Joan know about his very sudden engagement. He telephones Faye and breaks off their relationship by informing her of his new engagement. Don also informs his ex-wife Betty, as she is packing up the last moving box from their one-time marital home, that he is engaged.

Draper and vehicles[link]

Don worked as a used-car salesman at the time Anna Draper found him, and on at least one occasion enjoyed the company of motorcyclists and hot rod enthusiasts while he was visiting Anna in Southern California. At the outset of the series, Don drives a 1959 Oldsmobile, then a 1960 Buick Invicta convertible. Later, Don wrecks an unassuming and utilitarian 1961 Dodge Polara, after which he is goaded by Roger Sterling into purchasing an ice blue & white 1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Sterling tells him that the Cadillac was a sign that Don had "arrived". By the start of Season 5 it had been replaced with a 1965 Coupe de Ville in silver with red leather interior.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Don Draper at AMCtv.com
• "The Secret of Don Draper's Sex Appeal" by Natasha Vargas-Cooper - Daily Beast - July 22, 2010
• Don Draper Suit & Clothes Style in Mad Menprovides details about Don's outfits - Gentleman's Gazette

v t e Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Characters Don Draper • Betty Draper • Peggy Olson • Pete Campbell • Joan Holloway • Roger Sterling • Lane Pryce Episodes Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 Related articles Awards and nominations Category