Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration. Although he focused on domestic legislative affairs, the episode "Memorial Day" reveals that Josh holds the foreign diplomatic rank equivalent to that of a three-star general.

Josh is portrayed as having one of the sharpest minds on the President's staff; he is a witty, somewhat cocky, boyishly charming know-it-all. He is described by Will Bailey as "After Leo...the finest political mind in the party" ("Opposition Research").

Creation and development[link]

Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing, originally wrote Josh Lyman with long-time friend Bradley Whitford in mind. An early draft of the pilot script, dated February 6, 1998, describes Josh as being aged 38 and "a highly regarded brain."^[1] After reading the script, Whitford says he loved the character immediately and "desperately wanted" the part. While his audition impressed the show's executive producers, with Sorkin describing it as "simply the best audition for anything I'd ever seen,"^[2] Warner Brothers casting director John Levey was not convinced Whitford had enough sex appeal to play a lead character and executive producer Thomas Schlamme was concerned that he did not have enough depth to carry off the more dramatic scenes. After a second audition, Whitford was offered the role of Sam Seaborn. Whitford called Sorkin for help. "I just said, 'Aaron, I just feel this very strongly. This isn't about me wanting a job. This is the only time in my life I will play this card. I am this guy; I am not the other guy.'" Sorkin was impressed, and soon after Whitford was cast as Josh.^[3] In the very early episodes of the series, Josh was portrayed as overly tough and outspoken, but had mellowed by the end of season one, becoming more eager and simplistic in his personal demeanor, even switching places with Toby as the "hotheaded" one, as well as becoming much more markedly disorganized.

In researching for the role, Whitford says he found former Clinton communications director George Stephanopoulos's book All Too Human very helpful, "just because it gave a sense of the sort of smell and the texture and the level of intimacy with the president, which I was just unaware of."^[4]

Josh shares his name with a character in the Garry Trudeau cartoon strip Doonesbury, a White House deputy cabinet liaison ^[5] encountered by Doonesbury regular Joanie Caucus. A framed copy of a Doonesbury strip hangs in Josh's office.^[6] The character is said to be based in part on Rahm Emanuel,^[7] although executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell denies this claim.^[8] In the season 1 episode, 'Mandatory Minimums', Josh is called "Rambo" by one of the staff after an intense telephone conversation.

Character biography[link]

Personal history[link]

Josh comes from Westport, Connecticut. A Fulbright scholar,^[9] he graduated cum laude from Harvard University (where he worked at the Harvard Crimson), and Yale Law School,^[10][11] graduating c. 1984.^[12] He has been known to boast that he scored a 760 on the verbal portion of his SAT,^[13] although he claims, when trying to explain his lack of skill in serious relationships, his IQ does not "break the bank," so he had to work hard in college and law school to do well.^[14]

Josh is a non-practicing Jew; his grandfather was held in the Nazi concentration camp Birkenau during World War II.^[15] He had an elder sister, Joanie, who died when he was a child. She was babysitting him when a fire broke out in her home, and she died trying to put out the fire while Josh ran outside - an event which haunted Josh.^[16] Josh is an avid New York Mets fan, once trying to finish all of his work quickly in order to travel to a Mets intrasquad spring training game in Port St. Lucie, Florida ^[17] His father, Noah Lyman, was a litigator and an old friend of Leo McGarry. Although Josh thinks he would have preferred grandchildren to a son in politics, Noah was proud that Josh was working for Bartlet and often bragged about his son to his friends and neighbors. He died in 1998 on the night of the Illinois primary, after developing an unexpected pulmonary embolism while undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified form of cancer.^[18] His mother splits her time between Westport and West Palm Beach, Florida, before she sells the Connecticut house.^[19]

Professional history[link]

Before working for President Josiah Bartlet, Josh worked as the Chief of Staff for Congressman Earl Brennan, floor manager for the Minority Whip,^[10] Democratic legislative director in the House of Representatives and Democratic floor director in the Senate.^[20] Josh later became a staffer for then-Senator John Hoynes, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in 1998. However, Hoynes's tendency to go against Josh's advice, and to prioritize politics over Hoynes's own ideas and convictions frustrates Josh.

Thirteen weeks before the New Hampshire primary, Josh receives a visit from Leo McGarry, an old friend of his father's. At Leo's request, Josh travels to New Hampshire to hear Bartlet speak. He is so impressed by Bartlet's prioritizing conviction and honesty over popularity, that he immediately leaves Hoynes' campaign to work for Bartlet; he also recruits his old friend Sam Seaborn to the campaign.^[21]

Shortly after joining the Bartlet for America campaign, Josh hires recent college dropout Donnatella Moss as his assistant despite her apparent lack of qualification.^[18] Donna remained as Josh's assistant for most of the series since then. A largely unspoken friendship, and romantic tension, exist between the two for the majority of the series.

Josh's defection from the Hoynes campaign later leads to an odd working relationship with his former boss when Josh is appointed President Bartlet's deputy chief of staff and Hoynes, his Vice President. While tension clearly exists between them, Josh often comes to Hoynes' defense (though he also gives tacit support to an abortive plan to cut Hoynes from the 2002 ticket in favor of Admiral Fitzwallace, and it's shown that Hoynes' top defender amongst the senior staffers is Sam which possibly due to Sam's staunch idealism and strict loyalty to those around him).

In the first season finale, Josh is critically wounded by gunfire from white supremacists during an assassination attempt on African-American presidential aide Charlie Young. Josh undergoes fourteen hours of surgery and is subsequently put through intensive psychotherapy with psychiatrist Stanley Keyworth after displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including raising his voice to President Bartlet in the Oval Office and breaking a window in his apartment.

Though idealistic like every other member of the Bartlet administration, Josh is perhaps the most willing to resort to less than honorable tactics and has, on occasion, been known to suggest solutions and methods that others in the staff see as less than honorable, as befits his role as the senior staff's attack dog. It is not unknown for Josh to resort to threats, intimidation, lies and even blackmail, to achieve what needs to be done for the Bartlet administration.

Josh's position in the Bartlet administration is temporarily compromised after he leaks information to the press about an anonymous hold on military promotions placed by Idaho Senator Chris Carrick. Carrick had been trying to secure a promise from the White House that a missile defense system would be built in his home state, but Josh's competitive nature will not allow him to make a compromise. After the leak, Senator Carrick releases the hold but resigns from the Democratic Party, informing Josh that he will seek re-election as a Republican and citing Josh as a key reason for his defection.

The embarrassment to the administration and to the party leads Leo to leave Josh out of key budget negotiations, negotiations which eventually result in a complete shutdown of the federal government. Josh soon finds himself stripped of much of his political authority, as freelance political advisor Angela Blake takes up many of his duties. He eventually returns from isolation after the First Lady pointedly asks President Bartlet "Where's Josh?" Josh is the only senior staffer to support the President's firm stand against Speaker Jeff Haffley; the President's eventual political victory over Haffley during this conflict is largely due to Josh's advice.

Towards the end of Bartlet's administration, John Hoynes publishes an autobiography as the first step in his return to politics; the book devotes many pages to praising Josh, whom Hoynes attempts to recruit as manager for Hoynes's presidential campaign. Josh decides that he doesn't want Hoynes (or current VP Bob Russell) to be President, and instead convinces Texas Congressman Matt Santos to run for president, much in the same way Leo McGarry recruited Bartlet eight years prior.

Josh leaves his position at the White House to run the dark horse Presidential campaign of Representative Matt Santos of Texas; leaving his legislative portfolio to be taken up by Clifford Calley. The Santos campaign initially loses the Iowa caucus, comes in third in the New Hampshire primary at 19% and goes on to win a come-from-behind victory in the California primary. Santos wins the Texas primary and the final New Jersey primary by a slim margin.

Going into the Democratic National Convention no candidate has enough delegates to win the nomination, with delegates split between front runner Vice President Bob Russell, Rep. Santos and former Vice President John Hoynes. At the convention Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker attempts an upstart campaign from the convention floor that further fractures the delegates. Ultimately Santos wins the nomination after a stirring convention speech that was expected to be his concession, and behind the scenes maneuvering by President Bartlet. Josh is influential in recruiting Leo McGarry as the vice presidential nominee, and rises to become campaign manager for the Santos/McGarry Campaign. (The Santos nomination is similar to the struggles that Governor Bartlet had in his dark horse victory over Senator Hoynes during the 1998 campaign.)

After Matt Santos is elected President of the United States in a narrow victory over Republican Senator Arnold Vinick, Josh becomes the White House Chief of Staff of the incoming Santos Administration. In his last appearance in the series, he is meeting privately with President Santos in the Oval Office.

Relationships with other characters and with the series[link]

Leo McGarry[link]

John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, described his character's relationship with Josh as a mentoring one, with Leo regarding Josh as a younger version of himself.^[22] Leo was an old friend of Josh's father, Noah Lyman. It is this connection that Leo used to get Josh to travel and see then Gov. Bartlet speak and later to join Governor Bartlet's presidential campaign in the first place.^[23]

Assistant Secretary of State Albie Duncan refers to Josh as "McGarry's boy,"^[24] and Bartlet believes that Josh would throw out the baby, the bath water and the bathtub in order to avoid letting Leo down.^[25] Both have shown strong loyalty to one another, with Josh going to great lengths to prevent damaging details of Leo's past drug addiction and alcoholism from being made public^[26] and Leo supporting Josh as he struggles with post traumatic stress disorder, promising that "as long as I got a job, you got a job."^[27] After Leo's death, President Bartlet says that Leo thought of Josh as a son.^[28]

Donna Moss[link]

Josh's assistant Donna Moss, portrayed by Janel Moloney, was originally slated to be a minor recurring character; however, the chemistry between the two actors caught producers' attention early on. After seeing Moloney and Whitford perform together in the pilot, Aaron Sorkin added a scene in which Donna argues with Josh to change his shirt before attending a meeting, eventually convincing him by saying that "All the girls think you look really hot in this shirt." Although Mandy Hampton was originally intended to be Josh's romantic interest, by the end of the show's first season the character had been written out and the role taken over by Donna.

During the first four seasons, the relationship remains in stasis, with neither daring to make any real romantic move on the other. Sorkin admits that he was more inclined to move the relationship forward, but every time he discussed the possibility fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme would shout, "No! Wait another year!" Besides, adds Sorkin, "Sexual and romantic tension is, to me, much more fun than taking the tension away by having the sex and romance."^[29]

Other characters occasionally speculate on the pair's relationship. When Donna encourages Josh to ask Joey Lucas on a date, Joey guesses that Donna is attempting to cover her own feelings for Josh through misdirection.^[30] During the same episode Josh and Sam Seaborn discuss why Donna was being so pushy about asking out Joey Lucas; Josh comments that he wonders why Donna wouldn't be jealous to which Sam asked if Josh gets jealous when Donna has dates. Josh says he doesn't but does everything in his power to stop or hinder the dates from happening. During her first meeting with Josh, Amy Gardner asks him if he is dating his assistant,^[31] and later asks Donna directly, "Are you in love with Josh?", we do not see Donna's answer.^[32] When Donna recruits Josh to help her get a date with Jack Reese, Josh's behavior leads Jack to wonder whether he is getting "in between anything".^[33]

Following Sorkin and Schlamme's departure from the series at the end of the fourth season, the relationship takes some new turns, with Donna attempting to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. When Donna is badly injured in a terrorist attack in Gaza, Josh rushes overseas to keep vigil at her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. In the sixth season episode "Impact Winter," Donna finally breaks loose and quits her job as assistant to Josh, seeing no chance of career advancement. She begins working for Vice President Bob Russell's presidential campaign. Around the same time, Josh leaves his job to work on Matt Santos' campaign. This puts Donna and Josh in direct confrontation as their candidates battle each other for the Democratic Nomination. Santos beats Russell for the Democratic nomination in the season 6 finale "2162 Votes." Donna wants to return as Josh's deputy in season 7 premiere "The Ticket," but he finds himself forced to reject her as she is on record trashing his candidate while she was still working for the other team. During their conversation he reveals that he misses her "every day." Donna is eventually hired anyway and Josh gets over his objections when he realizes her past working for Russell is not a problem for the Santos campaign.

In the season seven episode "The Cold," Josh and Donna kiss passionately as she brings him the good news that Congressman Santos has caught up to Vinick and that they are tied in the national tracking polls. Josh apologizes, saying the kiss was "inappropriate", but Donna says "it was bound to happen sometime." Donna talks to Will, who says pursuing a relationship with Josh wouldn't be inappropriate, and to talk to C.J. about the matter. Later in the episode, Donna discreetly leaves the key to her hotel room on the table for Josh, but Edith Ortega notices the key before Josh can retrieve it and returns the key to Donna. In "Election Day," Josh and Donna consummate their relationship, sleeping together twice, both times on her initiative. Donna gives Josh four weeks to figure out "what they want from each other." She insists that if this cannot happen within four weeks, their relationship will remain in a constant state of ambiguity, which is not what Donna wants. After talking to Lou as well as his deputy-of-choice Sam Seaborn, Josh realizes that he desperately needs to take a break from work. At the end of the episode, Josh and Donna go on vacation together.

In the series finale "Tomorrow," Josh and Donna wake up in bed together on the morning of Inauguration Day – ten weeks after Donna set the four week deadline.

Sam Seaborn[link]

Sam is Josh's best friend, to the point that Sam considers him a brother.^[34] After Leo recruited Josh to the campaign, Josh's first stop was to recruit Sam (who was working, unhappily, at a law firm) to join them. Although from opposite coasts and possessing distinctly different personalities (Sam is polite, organized, and awkward while Josh is more harried, aggressive, and cocky) the two manage to be very much in sync and possess a common intellect, sense of humor and idealism. As two of the youngest members of the senior staff they occasionally get themselves in trouble for various schemes and incidents, usually with the best intentions. Both of them share a very similar gap between their professional and personal competence—they are both portrayed as immature, simple-minded and lacking in common sense when it comes to unimportant issues, but in contrast, are extremely effective and brilliant at their jobs. Much like the relationship between Jed Bartlet and Leo McGarry, Josh and Sam's friendship extends far past their role as co-workers and the two are each other's confidants on personal matters and relationship troubles. They even spend some holidays together when not going home.^[35]

After Sam leaves the White House at the end of Bartlet's first term to run for Congress, the role of Josh's counterpart is taken over by Toby Ziegler although that relationship becomes frayed due to Josh also leaving the White House to run the presidential campaign of Matthew Santos. After Santos is elected, once again Josh quickly resolves to include Sam (who lost his Congressional bid) by offering him the position of Deputy Chief of Staff, which Sam ultimately accepts, though after giving a frazzled Josh an ultimatum: get much-needed R&R for a few weeks or watch Sam return to California and never come back. Josh and Sam's last scene shows them together in the Oval Office for the new President's first briefing.

Toby Ziegler[link]

Josh has a complex relationship with Toby throughout the show's run. The two do not have much in common (one of their few unifying traits, their mutual Judaism, is negated by Toby's tendency to imply Josh doesn't really count as Jewish) and are often at odds on policy matters, Josh being more pragmatic while Toby is more idealistic. They still respect one another tremendously, though, and tend to be equally politically ambitious. When Josh leaves the White House to run the Santos campaign, he discovers that Toby has been informally advising dark-horse candidate Sen. Ricky Rafferty and has given her position statements originally drawn up by the Bartlet campaign. In a confrontation that turns physical, Toby accuses Josh of abandoning Bartlet at a time when he was needed. Obliquely in that conversation, and more explicitly in the next season, Toby admits to Josh that one reason for his anger was that he wanted to run a campaign with Josh. Toby was also affected by the recent suicide of his brother, who was diagnosed with cancer. Toby complained that he could have had years, but instead he just walked away; unable to express his anger at his brother for abandoning him, he projected it onto Josh. Their anger expressed and confronted, the two appear to repair their professional relationship, and Josh seeks Toby's advice covertly throughout the general election campaign.

Will Bailey[link]

When Will started working for the White House Josh and Will developed a working friendship and was not initially angered by Will's defection to work with the Vice President. Will acknowledges Josh as "the finest mind in the Democratic party" second only to Leo McGarry and as such lobbies Josh to run the Vice President's campaign. As Will put it he wanted Josh to make the Vice President a candidate that America would vote for and when the Vice President won the Presidency the two would work together to make him a worthy President. Josh turns down the offer but the two work together to stop what Josh views as a faulty Patient's Bill of Rights that the Republican Congress was trying to pass which Will was against mainly because it was a campaign subject that he wished the Vice President to address. However it is through working against the bill that Josh realizes how politically savvy Congressman Matt Santos is which leads to Josh picking him as his "fantasy candidate" for the Presidency several episodes later. However relationship between Josh and Will becomes considerably antagonistic during the '06 primaries when Josh became the campaign manager to Texas Congressman Matt Santos as Santos ran for the Democratic Nomination just as Will's candidate Vice President Bob Russell ran for the party's nomination. Will can't understand why Josh would pour that political talent into backing a candidate with such little chance of success, while Josh questions Will's integrity, both for backing an unworthy candidate, and for his methods. The two eventually come to a head as the Democratic National Convention heats up, the two spark an argument just prior to the convention in the Roosevelt Room in the west wing of the White House which irritates Leo McGarry who had become the Convention Chair under the orders of President Bartlet. Despite the tough politicking between the two, their aggression disappears once Santos is named the Democratic Presidential Nominee and the rivalry becomes moot. Following the nomination of Santos, the two are seen drinking beers together in the backroom of the convention.

C.J. Cregg[link]

C.J. trusts Josh the most of all the senior staffers, and therefore Josh shows great affection for her. She often asks Josh to look into questions posed in her press room, which Josh almost always does. The duo does tend to have disagreements, however, because Josh is more arrogant while C.J. is more personable and caring. Josh technically ranks higher than C.J. in the White House chain of command, but that doesn't stop C.J. from getting in the face of Josh such as when he replies to a blog called "Lemon Lyman", causing a press stir.

President Bartlet[link]

Throughout the series, Bartlet (along with Leo) appears as a fatherly figure to Josh. Although flashbacks reveal that President Bartlet initially had trouble remembering Josh's name and telling him apart from his other advisors, the President develops a special affection for Josh and even refers to Josh as his son in the season two finale Two Cathedrals. When Josh's father died, Josh booked a plane trip back to Connecticut when Bartlet made a surprise appearance at the airport terminal. Bartlet offers his condolences and asks Josh if he wants him to go to Connecticut with him, to which a visibly moved Josh says no. Josh tells Bartlet that his father was proud to have him working on the campaign, citing that his father wanted Bartlet to win the election. Bartlet regards his young Deputy Chief of Staff as an integral part of the machine that makes the White House run properly; the brain behind the political strategic planning of the administration. On one occasion, he jokingly remarks to his friend Leo McGarry that Josh "frankly, is a lot smarter than you." When Josh tells the President he wants to leave the Bartlet administration to run the Santos campaign, he says he had never imagined having the conversation, and tells Leo that he doesn't "know how to tell him." During the primary and general election, Josh worked to keep Santos from making any comments that would show Bartlet in any form of negative light. An example of this is very early in the campaign, Bartlet gave Josh some New Hampshire dropout numbers for Santos to use when talking about education, urging Josh to have Santos say Bartlet hadn't done enough. Immediately after the conversation, Josh burned the numbers.

President Santos[link]

When Josh first meets then Congressman Matt Santos he is impressed by his conviction and sees in him the same willingness to put his beliefs before political profit as he did in President Bartlet. Santos at that point was ready to leave Washington and national politics to go back to Houston and spend more time with his family. When Josh gets caught up between offers from both major democratic candidates for the presidential nomination 2006, Vice President Bob Russell and former Vice President John Hoynes, he decides that he doesn't want to work for either of them. After a discussion with his mentor Leo McGarry Josh discovers that he already found his guy, Congressman Santos. He flies down to Houston to pitch Santos his plan to make him President of the United States and after a few days Santos accepts by telling Josh "I'm in, if you're in with me". The two start a close relationship which appears to be complicated when they got into a number of fights, but it comes across very clear that they care for each other, like in the Season 6 episode "La Palabra" when Josh urged Santos not to put his personal financial future at risk just to continue the campaign. During the general elections campaign 2006 Santos seems to be ready to fire Josh as Campaign manager in "The Wedding" but he keeps him on and ends up winning the elections. In "Election Day Part II", just after the final state (Nevada) was called, Santos looks at Josh across the room and thanks him, acknowledging that Josh was the major architect behind his victory. Despite their close relationship Santos has his own mind and disagrees with Josh at times due to Josh's willingness to resort to dirty politicking (early on in the Democratic Primaries) and when Santos passes Josh over to run his Presidential transition team (however Santos argues that it kept Josh from "saying no" to the people Josh would later have to deal with in his capacity as Santos's Chief of Staff). Despite this Santos considers Josh his top advisor (akin to Leo McGarry to Jed Bartlet) and tends to listen to Josh more often than not (examples would be when Josh recommended Leo McGarry as Santos's running-mate and also when Josh told Santos not to meddle in the Speakership race). Another example of the connection the two have is shown when Santos begins to have concern for Josh's well-being when Josh seems to overwork himself during the transition. Santos questions Donna Moss about Josh's personal life and asks her whether Josh is seeing anyone or ever has any fun. When Josh decides to take a vacation, Santos remarks that he would "drive Josh to the airport himself if it didn't require a motorcade". In the final episode Josh assumes his new position as White House Chief of Staff.

Increased focus in the series[link]

As the series shifted focus from the Bartlet administration to the Santos campaign during the final two seasons, Josh was removed from the "senior staff" ensemble and became a more central figure. While Bartlet and his staff began to appear in fewer and fewer episodes, Josh remained key to the storyline, and many episodes dealt with his difficulties running a campaign for an often uncooperative dark horse candidate.

See also[link]

• The West Wing
• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of politicians on The West Wing
• List of episodes of The West Wing

References[link]

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Dr. Abigail Anne "Abbey" Barrington Bartlet, MD, is a fictional character played by Stockard Channing on the television serial drama, The West Wing. In the show, she is the First Lady of the United States, the wife of President Josiah Bartlet.

Overview[link]

Abbey is a "world-class physician" (in her husband's words) and wife of more than thirty years to President Bartlet. In the first season episode "Five Votes Down," President Bartlet mentions to Charlie that they had been married 32 years, meaning they were married in 1967. Her maiden name is Barrington. The location of her undergraduate education is unknown. However, President Bartlet once confided in C.J. Cregg (his then press secretary) that he'd changed his mind about becoming a priest during his undergraduate years at Notre Dame after meeting Abbey.

She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Although we are told that her specializations are in internal medicine and thoracic surgery, this is very unlikely since those are two distinct specialties and would require entirely different residencies.^[1] If she was board-certified in both, she would have spent nearly 15 years just in residency after medical school which is not only unlikely but almost impossible because the funding for residency programs makes this extremely difficult.^[2] She began practicing medicine some twenty-five years before the start of the series, and is on the staff of both Boston Mercy Hospital (fictitious) and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. She is Adjunct Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Harvard Medical School.^[3]

She and her husband have three daughters: Elizabeth, Ellie, and Zoey. At the beginning of the series, Zoey is said to be 19 but this was retconned at the end of season 2 to being closer to 17. In season 2, Ellie is in medical school at Johns Hopkins University. Elizabeth is probably quite a bit older than Ellie because she's the only one who is married with a 12-year-old daughter in the pilot. Ellie was only 24 in season two, making her 23 in season one and only 11 years older than Liz's daughter. Ellie eventually marries "the fruit fly guy" (Abbey once said in "Isaac and Ishmael" that she had Liz very young). In the Season 2 episode "Ellie", President Bartlet wistfully says that his middle daughter is "all Abbey's" and hasn't been close to him. In the fourth season episode "Inauguration: Over There", it is established that Abbey never let the children have sugar (specifically candy) growing up, but that Jed gave it to them all the time behind her back.

To protect the secret of her husband's multiple sclerosis, Abbey gives the President doses of betaseron, which help keep his MS in check. It is only after he collapses and is confronted by Leo that she reveals their secret to a member of the White House senior staff. Her decision to medicate her husband, in violation of several American Medical Association rules, leads her to voluntarily give up her medical license for the duration of her stay in the White House. However, she later begins doing some volunteer work at a clinic in a rough part of Washington, D.C. When Leo McGarry questions her about this, she firmly tells him that she plans to continue this work and that any political issues it creates are not part of the discussion.

Abbey had a "deal" with her husband that he would only run for one term because of his MS. She is distraught and very angry with Jed when he breaks this promise and proceeds to run for reelection anyway. Things are tense between the two for the latter half of the second season, but as the third season progresses they worked through it. When she discovers that Jed had ordered the assassination of a foreign diplomat who was also a terrorist, and this eventually led his followers to kidnap Zoey, she is so angry that she leaves the White House and returns to New Hampshire with Zoey after her daughter is rescued. She eventually returns to help out during a Federal government shutdown, and when Jed asks bluntly if she will be by his side as his MS progressively worsens, she becomes noticeably upset and says she will be. In Season 6, Abbey is devoted to her husband when he is stricken with a horrifying MS episode during a summit trip to China, but later argues with him because he wasn't getting enough sleep in the course of his duties.

Abbey is a recurring character during the first two seasons, and the seventh and last season. She appears as a regular during the third through sixth seasons, despite the fact that there are many episodes in which she does not appear, a fact consistent with real life, where the First Lady must perform official duties all over the country and therefore cannot stay constantly with her husband at the White House. Various episodes mention that she is away in such locations as Pakistan and Argentina.

See also[link]

• The West Wing
• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of politicians on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes

References[link]

Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White House Chief of Staff. He is President Josiah Bartlet's best friend and a father figure to the Senior Staff, particularly Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn.

Creation and development[link]

In crafting the character of Leo McGarry, series creator Aaron Sorkin says he envisioned John Spencer in the part but had not imagined he would be available.^[1] Although he had recently decided he did not want to do another TV drama series due to the long hours, Spencer was so impressed by the pilot script that he took the part.^[2] Like the character, Spencer was a recovering alcoholic, and said he found he could relate to McGarry because "Leo's in recovery, too."^[3]

In an earlier draft of the pilot script, dated February 6, 1998, McGarry is called "Leo Jacobi" and is described as being aged 55 and "professorial".^[4]

Character biography[link]

Leo McGarry is from Chicago, Illinois born in 1948, though he seems to have some family connection to Boston, Massachusetts. He is of Irish and Scottish ancestry, had at least two sisters, Elizabeth and Josephine, the latter serving as a school district superintendent in Atlanta.^[5][6] He divorces from his wife of several decades, Jenny, in late 2000 as his workaholic attitude is shown to take a toll on his personal life, with McGarry admitting that he considers his job in the White House more important than his marriage.^[7] He and his ex-wife have one daughter, Mallory O'Brien, who teaches fourth grade. McGarry is a recovering alcoholic and Valium addict. His father was also an alcoholic, who committed suicide.^[8]

McGarry is a United States Air Force veteran, having flown a F-105 Thunderchief with the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in the Vietnam War.^[9] During the war, he was shot down and wounded. Prior to working in the White House, McGarry had been the United States Secretary of Labor during a presidency prior to the beginning of the show. He also speaks fluent Spanish. McGarry has amassed significant wealth during his life in the private sector as a member of the board of directors of a defense contractor, Mueller-Wright Aeronautics, for ten or twelve years.^[10] He also worked for Cultico, a chemical-agribusiness firm that was blamed for a disaster in Haryana, India in the 1980s. On more than one occasion, it is made known that he is the wealthiest member of the staff - even more than the President himself.

A lawyer by education, he served as the Secretary of Labor in the early-to-mid-1990s. In 1997, he travels to New Hampshire in an attempt to persuade his old friend Governor Josiah Bartlet to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Having so persuaded Bartlet, McGarry becomes his campaign manager and General Chairman of the "Bartlet For America" campaign, hiring Josh Lyman, Toby Ziegler, C.J. Cregg, and Sam Seaborn as advisers. Eventually, Governor Bartlet, who was considered to be an insurgent candidate by the media, defeats Senator John Hoynes of Texas for the nomination and goes on to win the presidency, appointing McGarry as his chief of staff.^[8]

As President Bartlet's top advisor, McGarry has an office adjacent to the Oval Office and sits in with the president in the Situation Room. McGarry is very involved in the formation of policy and the day-to-day operations of the White House and its staff. Some of his inspirations include "Big Block of Cheese Day" where groups that would normally not be considered for White House attention get to have meetings with senior staffers and a plan to make the staffers submit two-page reports on policy issues or get ignored. On more than one occasion, McGarry is said to be the man who "runs the country", and is treated with great respect by people on both sides of the aisle.^[11] When President Bartlet is giving instructions to the one Cabinet member who is appointed the designated survivor during the State of the Union address, he asks the man if he has a best friend, if that friend is smarter than him, and if he could trust that friend with his life. The Cabinet member says yes on all counts, Bartlet then says "That's your chief of staff", not aware McGarry has heard him in the next room and broken into a smile, visibly moved.

In season six, during a Middle East peace negotiation at Camp David, McGarry finds it impossible to support Bartlet's position about sending thousands of American soldiers to the West Bank and Gaza as part of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and (in a very tense moment) Bartlet and McGarry come to an agreement that McGarry would be resigning at the first available opportunity. Minutes after the conversation, McGarry suffered a near fatal heart attack and collapsed while walking alone on the grounds. He is resuscitated, survives, and later returns to work after Bartlet's last State of the Union Address in his new role as Senior Counselor to the President. McGarry is succeeded as Chief of Staff by his personal recommendation, C.J. Cregg, who had previously served as the White House Press Secretary.

However, Bartlet asks him to run the Democratic National Convention when it seems likely to deadlock. The Democratic Party's eventual presidential nominee, Congressman Matt Santos selects McGarry as his vice presidential nominee. This is particularly ironic, because McGarry had earlier insisted that Santos drop out of the race for the sake of party unity to allow a less impressive candidate (VP Robert Russell) take on the nod. But McGarry allowed Santos to make a closing speech that was so impressive that it helped put him over the top and become the party's Presidential nominee. McGarry was not overly impressive on the campaign trail, because he wasn't familiar with the candidate role. However he pulled off a trick when he acted like he was terrible at debate, leaked how bad he was through Annabeth Schott's email and then stunned everybody by convincingly winning the Vice Presidential debate.

McGarry's last screen appearance occurs in the episode "The Cold". Following a private meeting between McGarry and Bartlet in the Oval Office to discuss troop deployment in Kazakhstan (a scene which exhibits the unique closeness of their relationship), Josh Lyman asks him: "Everything okay?". McGarry answers with the character's last word on screen, a less than convincing "Yeah."

On Election Night, we hear that McGarry has gone up to his hotel room in Houston to take a nap before the results come in. He collapses in his hotel bathroom after an apparent heart attack. He is found by Annabeth Schott who rushes him to the hospital, where he is pronounced dead. McGarry's death comes ninety minutes before the polls close in California and other western states, thus giving some voters this information prior to casting their vote. A hard-line Republican strategist wants to bring up McGarry's death to benefit the Republican presidential nominee, Senator Arnold Vinick, but the visibly disgusted Senator tells her that he has been friends with McGarry for decades and will do no such thing, win or lose. Despite McGarry's death, the Santos-McGarry ticket narrowly wins the election over the Vinick-Sullivan ticket by a 30,000 vote margin in Nevada and McGarry posthumously becomes the Vice President-Elect after Santos' victory.

McGarry's funeral is held at an unnamed Roman Catholic church, though the funeral was filmed at The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, Maryland. President Bartlet, President-elect Matt Santos, Josh Lyman, Charlie Young, former DNC head Barry Goodwin, and McGarry's unnamed son-in-law serving as pallbearers. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Relationship with staff[link]

His role with the White House senior staff is alternately authoritarian, playful, and that of a father figure.^[12] He is characterized by the story that he tells Josh Lyman from the second season episode, "Noël":^[13]

Spencer described his character's relationship with Lyman as a mentoring one, with McGarry seeing Lyman as a younger version of himself: "a workaholic, a person devoted to government service." He considered the world of The West Wing a boys club at times, and felt McGarry could be harder on C. J. Cregg than he was on the male senior staffers.^[2]

Though he is not seen again onscreen, apart from the opening credits, after his death, his presence is felt in the series finale when his daughter presents a gift to President Bartlet that she found in McGarry's possessions. In the show's final scene, Bartlet opens the gift to find the napkin with the words "Bartlet For America", which McGarry had written to introduce to Bartlet the idea of running for president. Also, when Lyman went to see Cregg just before the Santos inauguration during the final episode, Lyman asks if she ever stopped thinking the office of the White House Chief of Staff as McGarry's office. Cregg replies "No." She then hands Lyman (the incoming Chief of Staff) a note with "WWLD?" on it, meaning "What would Leo do?"

Influence of John Spencer's death[link]

McGarry appears in two of the five episodes which had been filmed, but not yet aired, at the time of Spencer's death on December 16, 2005. The show's producers decided to let those episodes air in his memory. The character's death was written in response to the death of the actor, and McGarry is discovered dead in his hotel room offscreen. According to executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., the writers originally intended for Vinick to win the election. However, the death of Spencer forced him and his colleagues to consider the emotional strain that would result from having Santos lose both his running mate and the election. It was eventually decided that the last episodes would be rescripted by John Wells.^[14] Other statements from John Wells, however, have contradicted O'Donnell's claims about a previously planned Vinick victory. The script showing Santos winning was written long before the death of John Spencer. In 2008 O'Donnell stated to camera "We actually planned at the outset for Jimmy Smits to win, that was our .. just .. plan of how this was all going to work, but the Vinick character came on so strong in the show, and was so effective, it became a real contest ... and it became a real contest in the West Wing writer's room."^{[15][broken citation]}

Reception[link]

Leon Panetta, a former White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Secretary of Defense under Barack Obama, was impressed by the character, telling actor John Spencer that "Any administration that would have Leo McGarry as a chief of staff would be very, very fortunate."^[16] John Podesta, another former chief of staff, has also praised Spencer's performance, saying, "John plays this role in a calm, thoughtful, kindhearted, and loyal manner"^[17] although he has commented that Leo is not mean enough.^[18]

See also[link]

• The West Wing
• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of politicians on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes

References[link]

Bradley Whitford
Bradley Whitford, 2006
Born	(1959-10-10) October 10, 1959 (age 52) Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Alma mater	Wesleyan University (1981), Juilliard School (1985)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Jane Kaczmarek (1992–2009; divorced; 3 children)

Bradley Whitford (born October 10, 1959) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as Timothy Carter, a character who was believed to be Red John in the CBS series The Mentalist, and as antagonist Eric Gordon in the film Billy Madison.

Whitford was nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards from 2001–2003 for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" for his role on The West Wing, winning the award in 2001. This role has also garnered him three consecutive Golden Globe Award nominations for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role".

Early life and education[link]

Whitford was born in Madison, Wisconsin and graduated from Madison East High School in 1977.^[1] He majored in English and Theater at Wesleyan University (B.A. 1981),^[1] where his roommate was the younger brother of future castmate Richard Schiff. Whitford then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division as a member of Group 14 (1981-1985),^[2] which also included actor Thomas Gibson.^[3]

Career[link]

Whitford first appeared on television in 1985 in an episode of The Equalizer. His film debut was in the 1986 film Doorman. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1990^[4] playing Lt. Jack Ross (followed a few months later in the lead role of Lt. Daniel Kaffee), in the Aaron Sorkin written play A Few Good Men. This was the beginning of a recurring working relationship between Whitford and Sorkin. Whitford also made a guest appearance on ER in the Emmy award-winning March 1995 episode "Love's Labor Lost".

Whitford joined the cast of Sorkin's The West Wing as Josh Lyman with the show's premiere in 1999. For his role, he won an Emmy Award in 2001 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Whitford also wrote two episodes of the series ("Faith Based Initiative" in the sixth season and "Internal Displacement" in the seventh). After The West Wing ended in May 2006, Whitford appeared in Aaron Sorkin's later series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip playing the role of Danny Tripp.^[5] He appeared in the British drama Burn Up on the BBC in July 2008.

He starred on Broadway in Boeing-Boeing which began in previews on April 19, 2008 and opened on May 4, 2008. He left the show in September 2008, and was succeeded in the role by Greg Germann. He co-starred in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard horror film The Cabin in the Woods,^[6] filmed in 2009 but not released until April 2012. In 2010, Whitford starred as Dan Stark in the canceled Fox TV series The Good Guys opposite Colin Hanks.

In 2011, Whitford guest starred in In Plain Sight on USA Network as a man combatting paranoia. He appeared in the season three finale of The Mentalist as the long-sought nemesis of Patrick Jane, Red John. He also appeared on Law & Order: Los Angeles as a lawyer. On September 15, 2011, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, in partnership with Broadway Impact, announced the complete cast—including Whitford—and roles for the one-night only staged reading of "8," a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California's Proposition 8.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Whitford was married to fellow Wisconsin native, actress Jane Kaczmarek, best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle. They lived in San Marino, California with their three children Frances Genevieve (b. October 31, 1997), George Edward (b. December 23, 1999) and Mary Louisa (b. November 25, 2002). In 2007 the family appeared in magazine advertisements for the 2008 Chrysler Town and Country van. On June 19, 2009, the couple announced that they were filing for divorce after 16 years of marriage.^[8] One of the last times they were seen together publicly was in September 2008, at the opening of a Los Angeles production of The House of Blue Leaves,^[9] in which Kaczmarek was starring.^[10]

Politics[link]

Whitford is a political liberal and has appeared several times on Real Time with Bill Maher. He once co-hosted The Majority Report on Air America Radio alongside Janeane Garofalo, and made an appearance on the Al Franken Show Party Album. On February 26, 2011, Whitford spoke at one of the many protests in Madison, Wisconsin (his birthplace) in opposition to Governor Scott Walker's controversial budget bill.^[11]

Other[link]

In May 2007, Whitford was honored by Alliance for Justice, a nonprofit organization, as the 2007 Champion of Justice. He was the keynote speaker for Class Day at Princeton University in June 2007.^[12]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bradley Whitford

• http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20286482,00.html
• Bradley Whitford at the Internet Movie Database
• Bradley Whitford at the Internet Broadway Database
• Bradley Whitford at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• 2004 Commencement Speech at the University of Wisconsin
• 2004 Election Ad
• 2001 NPR Interview
• 2002 Interview (MoreMusic104)
• 2005 NBC Today Clip
• Clothes off our Back Foundation website
• Bradley Whitford: Q&A Interview at Broadway.com