Pete Campbell

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Pete Campbell
Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell.
Mad Men
Portrayed by	Vincent Kartheiser
First appearance	Smoke gets in your Eyes (1.01)
Created by	Matthew Weiner
Profile
Aliases	"Pete" (nick-name)
Occupation	Account Executive (Title undetermined): Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Former Account Executive Co-Head of Accounts: Sterling Cooper
Relationships Parents Andrew Campbell (father; deceased) Dorothy Dyckman-Campbell (mother) Sibling(s) Bud Campbell (brother) Spouse(s) Trudy Campbell (wife) Romances Peggy Olson (ex-lover) Children a son

Peter Dyckman "Pete" Campbell is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser.

Contents 1 Biography 2 At Sterling Cooper 3 Marriage and relationships 4 References

[edit] Biography

Pete Campbell was born in New York City to an upper class WASP family. In the show's pilot episode, he has just turned 26, which makes his birth year 1934. His mother, Dorothy Dyckman-Campbell, is a member of the elite Dyckman family, which owned most of upper Manhattan prior to 1929.^[1] Though Pete's grandfather lost most of his property in the stock market crash of 1929, and his father Andrew Campbell eventually squanders the remainder of the family fortune before his death, Pete's upbringing is in league with many children of his social status. He attended The Buckley School (New York City) and Deerfield Academy and spent summers at his parents' estate on Fisher's Island, as well as at exclusive country clubs in the Hamptons and Newport.^[2] Pete was in a fraternity during his college years at Dartmouth College.^[1]

Pete has a strained relationship with his mother and father. Both of Pete's parents are emotionally absent and disapproving of their younger son's decision to go into advertising. In Season Two, after his father dies in a plane crash over Jamaica Bay, Pete is unable to cry. In real life, actor Christopher Allport, who played Pete's father, was killed in a freak avalanche at the Mountain High Ski Resort in Southern California on January 25, 2008. The Mad Men writers then decided to kill off his character as well.

Later that season, Pete reveals that he "hates" his mother. Pete's older brother, Bud, also displays signs of resentment towards his parents, but is treated and regarded by both parents as the favored son. The brothers reminiscence about a childhood game called "rope" involving their mother (perhaps fantasizing about hanging her). This is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's film "Rope," loosely based on the story of Leopold & Loeb.

[edit] At Sterling Cooper

Pete was an account executive at Sterling Cooper until December, 1963 when he left to join the newly formed Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce. His former position entailed not only arranging meetings with clients, but also wining and dining them (and occasionally, arranging meetings for them with prostitutes). Early in the show, he appears to be unsatisfied with his position and would rather work on the creative end of things. To this end, he attempts to undermine Don Draper several times by pitching his own copy to clients. One of these occurrences nearly gets him fired, but it becomes clear he was hired for his family heritage and he remains at his post.

His relationship with Don Draper is a confused one, as he seems to look upon Don as both a mentor and an obstacle. Don is often the first person he comes to in the office for advice, but will not hesitate to betray or undermine Draper to achieve his goals. During Season One, Pete is in Draper's office after he has left for the day when a package is delivered. Pete takes the package which is from Don's brother Adam and reveals that Don Draper is in fact not his real name. He uses this information to blackmail Don into giving him the position of Head of Accounts, but this fails when Don calls his bluff and, when informed of Don's real identity, Bertram Cooper replies "Mr. Campbell...who cares?" In the following season, Pete appears to grow to be much more loyal to Draper, giving him prior warning of Duck Phillips' attempt to take over the firm despite the fact that Phillips had offered him the job of Head of Accounts.

At the beginning of Season Three, Pete is promoted to Head of Accounts by the new British management. He is overjoyed until he discovers that he is actually a "co-head" of the department, sharing the position with Ken Cosgrove. Pete is furious at the turn of events and lashes out at Cosgrove, despite the fact that it is clear the British wish to play the two off each other.

[edit] Marriage and relationships

Pete marries Trudy Vogel, a young woman of similar socioeconomic status, in March 1960. It can be concluded that Pete does not know very much about Trudy before he marries her; after their honeymoon, he tells his coworkers that she is much funnier than he imagined her to be.^[3] The two purchase an apartment on Park Avenue in New York City's Upper East Side. Pete's parents refuse to help the couple pay for the apartment, and Trudy's parents eventually pitch in, much to Pete's dismay. Trudy's parents also begin to pressure the couple to begin trying for a baby, something Pete is not too excited about.

After 18 months of trying to conceive, the two attend a fertility clinic, where it is discovered that Trudy has fertility problems. Trudy and her parents pressure Pete to look into adoption as an option. Pete is at first uncomfortable with the idea, but agrees to think about it, and mentions this to his brother. Bud tells their mother, who disapproves completely, stating that people of Pete's social status should not be picking from "discards."^[4] When Pete finds out that Trudy has put their name on a list to meet with a prominent local adoption agency, he shouts at her, throws the dinner she cooked (a whole roasted chicken) off their balcony, and declares that they are absolutely not going to adopt and his decision is final.^[5] This leads to a rift in the marriage. Trudy decides to stay at her parent's house during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Pete refuses to go with her, stating that if he is going to die, he wants to die in Manhattan.

What Pete and his mother did not know is that Pete has already fathered a child with his co-worker Peggy Olson. Pete initially met Peggy on her first day as Don Draper's new secretary, in March 1960 (the first episode of the show). A lower middle class Catholic from Brooklyn, Peggy tells Pete that she has just graduated from Miss Deaver's Secretarial School. After making rude comments about her dowdy appearance, Draper scolds Pete. Later that night, however, after his bachelor party, Pete shows up at Peggy's apartment drunk and tells her he wants to "be with" her that night. Despite his offensive remarks earlier at the office, the two sleep together. Months later, Peggy and Pete again have a sexual encounter. This time it's on Pete's office couch, early in the morning, before the other employees show up. However, a janitor can see their shadows engaging in intercourse through Pete's translucent office windows. Peggy shows up again very early to work, perhaps hoping to have another sexual encounter with Pete, but they have no more sexual liaisons. During the Season One finale, however, it is revealed that Peggy - who has put on a considerable amount of weight over the season - is in labor with Pete's child. She gives birth to a boy.

During the Season Two finale, when everyone in the office has left for the day, Pete asks Peggy to come sit down with him. Pete tells Peggy that he thinks she is "perfect," then confesses that he is in love with her and wishes that he had married her instead of Trudy, who he claims does not know him. This declaration causes Peggy to finally admit that she had his baby and gave it away two years ago. After Peggy reveals this, Pete sits in shock. Everyone has left the office for the weekend and one of the final shots shown is Pete, sitting alone in his dark office, holding a rifle on his lap. It is the same rifle he bought on store credit, in Season One, when he returned a gaudy and expensive ceramic chip-and-dip he and Trudy received as a wedding gift.

At the start of Season Three, which takes place about six months later, Pete and Trudy seem much closer: he immediately calls her when he discovers he is to be promoted, and there is no mention of adoption. They seem like a very happy couple doing the Charleston dance at Roger Sterling's garden party and Harry Crane's wife is jealous of them. When Trudy goes out of town weeks later though, Pete feels very lonely and pressures his neighbor's young German nanny into having sex with him. The father comes over to confront and warn Pete not to sleep with anyone in their upscale apartment building. When Trudy kisses Pete after returning home, Pete is noticeably distraught, and he later tells Trudy, "I don't want you to go away without me anymore." This could be interpreted as guilt for pressuring the nanny, or a desire to be more faithful to Trudy.

By the end of season 3 it is apparent that some form of fence mending has taken place between Pete and his father in law as he is able to bring Clearasil to the newly formed Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Pryce. This is an account Pete had lost due to his refusing to consider adoption upsetting his wife and angering his father in law, which could mean that he has conceded to adopt, or simply that Trudy convinced her father to help Pete.

[edit] References

v • d • e Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Characters Don Draper • Betty Draper • Peggy Olson • Pete Campbell • Joan Holloway Episodes Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 Related articles Awards and nominations