Don Draper

Don Draper
Jon Hamm as Don Draper
First appearance	Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Created by	Matthew Weiner
Portrayed by	Jon Hamm
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Creative director (advertising)
Family	Betty Draper
Children	Sally, Robert
Relatives	Adam (half-brother) - deceased Archibald (father) - deceased Elizabeth "Betty" Draper (wife)

Donald "Don" Draper, born Richard "Dick" Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Don is the creative director of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, and his character is based partly on Draper Daniels, the creative head of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago in the 1950s who fathered the Marlboro Man campaign.

Draper's Women

Draper meets his wife Betty Draper when she is modeling furs. Betty (Elizabeth) is not interested in him until he surprises her and buys her the fur she wore on a photo shoot. Betty and Don marry when she is around 20, and she gives birth to their first child, Sally, soon thereafter. A few years later, she gives birth to their son Bobby.

Don cheats on Betty repeatedly throughout Seasons One and Two. In Season One, Draper has affairs with Midge, a beatnik who likes to wear different wigs. She is an illustrator and works out of her small, dingy apartment. Draper meets up with Midge in Season One, Episodes 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and 10. Midge's beatnik lifestyle and friends do not appeal to Don, but she offers him an escape from his high-pressure job on Madison Avenue. Don receives a sizable bonus check of $2,500 from Sterling Cooper and he wants her to run away with him to Paris. However, Don realizes Midge is really in love with a fellow beatnik and instead stuffs the check in her blouse. He tells her to go buy a car with it and walks out.

Also during Season One, Don begins an affair with Rachel Menken. She is the Jewish daughter of Abraham Menken, the elderly founder of Menken's department store, which "shares a wall with Tiffany's." Rachel is educated, sophisticated, and business savvy. She is helping her father run the family's stores (he has no sons). Draper's firm is hired to update the failing and out-of-date Menken stores. Despite not getting along during initial business meetings, Draper soon begins to kiss her, take her out to lunch, and then eventually sleeps with her in Episodes 3, 6, 10, 11 and 12. Rachel tells Don that her mother died giving birth to her. Don then opens up and also shares that his mother, a prostitute, also died giving birth to him as well. They keep their relationship a secret as her father would not approve of her dating a non-Jew, not to mention that Draper is already married with children. Draper eventually wants to run away with Rachel and leave his family behind. It is then that Rachel angrily realizes that Don probably does not truly love her, but only wants to escape his life. She ends their affair on November 8, 1960, the night the 1960 Presidential election results are being tabulated ("Nixon vs. Kennedy," Season 1, Episode 12) and leaves on a long cruise to Europe.

With his relationships with both Midge and Rachel finished, Draper, in Season Two, turns to an older woman, Bobbie Barrett. She is the wife of Jimmy Barrett, a comedian and TV personality that Sterling Cooper is working with. Don and Bobbie have business meetings at Sterling Cooper and also with clients at a restaurant. Don does not like Bobbie's demanding and often, unprofessional behavior. However, she is very sexually aggressive and Don caves in to her during a severe hail storm in his car (Episode 3, "The Benefactor"). During Episode 5 ("The New Girl"), while having drinks with Bobbie at Sardi's, Draper runs into, to his shock, Rachel Menken, whom he has not seen in many months. Despite Rachel previously telling Don that she's never been in love and chooses a career over marriage, she is now married to another Jew, Tilden Katz. Bobbie instantly senses that Don had an affair with her in the past and wants to leave the bar. They continue their torrid affair until Episode 6 ("Maidenform"). When Draper is about to have sex with her again, Bobbie asks for "the full Don Draper treatment" and then goes on to say "I want it, I got it, and it's better than 'they' said." She lets it slip that he is known as a (sexual) connoisseur and has "lots of fans" (in Manhattan). Draper is furious and worried that other women he has slept with are now sharing details of their sexual escapades with him among each other. Don demands to know who told Bobbie about his previous affairs. Bobbie replies that it was a woman named Sarah Tammy who works at Random House (the viewer has not seen or heard of this woman). Don is suddenly scared that Betty will find out, although Betty already told her psychiatrist, during the Season One finale ("The Wheel"), that she knows that Don is not faithful to her. Draper ties Bobbie's wrists to the headboard and leaves.

Don still has to conduct business with Bobbie and Jimmy and the four of them (including Betty) meet up at The Stork Club for a night out on the town. It is at the end of the night (Season 2, Episode 7, "The Gold Violin") that Jimmy sits next to Betty and tells her that their respective spouses are having an affair. Betty is shocked and sickened. Jimmy finishes the night by telling Draper off (while Betty overhears this in the background).

A distraught Betty confronts Don (Episode 8, "A Night to Remember), but he repeatedly denies any cheating. This makes Betty question her sanity again, as she did in Season One, when her hands would go numb and she saw doctors and a psychiatrist. Later however, Betty is home alone, making dinner, and sees Jimmy's Utz Nuts television commercial air for the first time. The commercial was filmed weeks before Jimmy found out about his wife's adultery with Draper. Coincidentally Jimmy's lines are: "Imagine my horror when a night on the town turned ugly . . . "am I crazy? I don't think so." This commercial dialogue, could also refer to their Stork Club dinner that also "turned ugly." Furthermore, Betty is also thinking "Am I crazy?" because she is not sure, or can't admit to herself, that Don has been cheating on her for years. This commercial triggers something in Betty. She finally realizes she is not crazy, and she calls her husband at work, telling him not to come home. This begins many months of Don living in hotel rooms, sleeping in his office, and him disappearing for weeks during a Los Angeles business trip with Pete Campbell.

Betty's father has another stroke (Episode 10, "The Inheritance") and to keep up appearances, the two of them pretend to be a happily married couple while staying at her widowed father's home for a few days. Betty is upset because of her ailing father's memory loss and his new live-in girlfriend (Betty's mother died of cancer only a few months prior). Betty surprises Don on the floor (Betty is sleeping in the bed while she orders Don to sleep on the floor) of her childhood bedroom, with a sexual encounter in the middle of the night. Don believes, because of this one night of passion, initiated by Betty, that she has now forgiven him (although he still has not admitted to any infidelity). When they arrive back at their home however, Betty tells a confused Don not to move back in. Weeks later, the consequence of this sexual encounter, surprises Betty, and not in a positive way.

Don is an emotional wreck and decides to suddenly join Pete Campbell on a business trip to sunny Los Angeles (Episode 11, "The Jet Set"). It is here that Don meets a mysterious European Viscount with a beautful 20-year-old daughter named Joy. Despite telling Pete that the trip is strictly business and that he (Pete) won't even have time to swim in the hotel pool, Don does not show up for an important pool-side meeting with potential clients. Pete then takes over and for the first time, we see that a more mature Pete can handle clients on his own. Don instead joins Joy and her "Euro-trash" family at their lavish vacation home in Palm Springs. Like Bobbie, Joy is also sexually aggressive and pursues Don, even in front of her father. Joy is nude in the pool one night, trying to seduce Don again, despite being surrounded by other relatives and even small children, in and around their large pool. Draper then realizes, despite his numerous affairs, that this "sexual freedom" is way too much, even for him. Don then seeks out his confidant, Anna Draper, who lives by the beach in San Pedro, California (Episode 12, "The Mountain King.")

Despite Don's numerous affairs, he does at times, reject the advances of women. In Season 1, Episode 10 ("Long Weekend") Draper rejects Eleanor Ames, the sister of Mirabelle Ames, who Roger has just hired to advertise aluminum siding. While they wait in Draper's office at night, Mirabelle has sex with Roger Sterling, in his office. Roger then suffers a heart attack. In Season 2, Episode 2 ("Flight 1"), Don rejects the advances of a young, beautiful Asian waitress. In Episode 9 ("Six Month Leave"), Don ignores the advances of a woman at a secret, high-class, basement casino where he and Roger Sterling are celebrating Freddy Rumsen's last day on the job.

Biography

Little is known of Draper’s past, his history and true identity being a running mystery of the series' first and second season. Clues are given through flashbacks, confessions (to Rachel Menken, Draper's mistress in Season One) and secret visits, both past and present, to the real Don Draper's widow in Southern California, Anna Draper.

His real name is not, in fact, “Donald Draper”, but rather he was born in 1925 as "Richard (Dick) Whitman", the result of an encounter between his father, Archibald Whitman, and a prostitute. Following his mother's death in childbirth, he was raised by his abusive father and his father’s wife. When Dick was ten years old, Archibald was killed, having been kicked in the face by a horse. Dick's stepmother, who was pregnant when her husband died, subsequently began a relationship with a man known as “Uncle Mack” prior to giving birth to Adam, Dick's half-brother. Though the two boys might have developed a close relationship (as is seen in the box of photos that Pete Campbell has stolen off of Draper's desk), Dick's stepparents were resentful and even possibly abusive. Flashbacks in the first season (Episode 8's “The Hobo Code”) provide a glimpse into his family life.

Korean War

When Whitman was in his early 20s, he enlisted in the United States Army to escape his home life. He was eventually sent overseas during the Korean War and wound up being put under the command of Second Lieutenant Donald Draper, an engineer who had joined the army years before to earn money for his education. He is married, with no kids, but never mentions his wife Anna to Whitman since they have only been together for a few days. Lieutenant Draper had been given the task of establishing a field hospital, with only an inexperienced and scared Whitman to assist him, instead of the twenty men he expected.

Soon after, while digging fighting positions, the two men are fired upon by the enemy. Draper and Whitman both duck down into the shallow dirt hole that Draper is digging with a small shovel. The shooting stops and both men are relieved. They both stand up to share a smoke together. Draper lights his cigarette with a lighter. At the same time, Draper notices that Whitman has urinated on his pants, as a result of being very frightened when they were fired upon. Whitman doesn't realize it, and with the cigarette lighter in his hand, leans over to check his wet pants. Unfortunately, Whitman accidentally fumbles and drops his lit lighter on the dirt ground where gasoline has been spilled. Both men see what has just happened and neither has time to run. The flame travels rapidly along the trail of gasoline and within seconds, it ignites a stockpile of explosives. Whitman is blown free from the area with some injuries and a concussion. When he comes to his senses and staggers towards Draper, he finds him burned and bloodied beyond recognition. Before being killed, Draper told Whitman that he only had about 80 more days of military service left before he was to be honorably discharged for good. With this knowledge, in a split-second decision, Whitman switches his dog tags with those of his commanding officer.

A dazed Private Whitman wakes up in the hospital where he is presented with the Purple Heart under the name of Donald Draper. Hospital and military personnel tell "Draper" he can go home, when recovered, and serve the last remaining days of his military service through the reserves. They also want him and another military representative to take the casket home to the Whitman family by train.

When they arrive at the train depot with the casket (containing Lieutenant Draper's remains, but believed to be holding the corpse of Dick Whitman), Dick sees his stepmother, half-brother, and "Uncle Mack." (Season 1, Episode 12, "Nixon vs. Kennedy"). He tells the military representative that he can't get off the train (he looks to be overcome by grief) to comfort "Whitman's family" (really his own) and to "just go" because "he can't." The military representative understands, gets off, and stays with the family for about two minutes while the casket is unloaded and the family signs off for it. Dick observes this from the train's windows. Dick's younger half-brother Adam, who looks to be around 9-years-old, becomes suspicious though, certain he has just spotted Dick on the train. Adam tells his family that Dick is alive on the train, but no one believes him. They tell him to "stop it." Dick makes eye contact with Adam as well. When the train pulls out, Adam runs after Dick calling his name. Dick looks over his shoulder at Adam and then moves to the back of the train to begin his new life as "Don." Adam remains haunted and tormented by this vision for the rest of his life.

Life as "Don Draper"

In the show's Second Season, it is revealed that Don's identity change had not gone completely unnoticed, having been tracked down by Anna Draper, the somewhat crippled, but very kind wife of his late commanding officer. Eventually the two secretly become close friends, spending every Christmas together in California. Anna is the only person who apparently knows the entire truth about Dick Whitman. He never tells her that he was, in fact, accidentally responsible for her husband's death. He does offer to give her her husband's dogtags and Purple Heart, which she does not take. Instead, he keeps the Purple Heart in his office desk. Whitman promises to take care of her financially forever. Anna cannot receive death benefits from the military since everyone believes that it was Dick Whitman, not her husband Donald Draper, that was killed. Whitman evidently paid for her small beach house, with a porch, in San Pedro, California.

Though not many details have been provided as to how Don Draper became the creative director at Sterling Cooper, some details have been given. For some time, Draper was a used car salesman before writing copy for a fur company. It was at this job that he met his future wife, Betty, who was then a professional model, with the classy blonde looks of Grace Kelly. Though she at first refused his advances, he eventually won her over by buying her the blue fur coat she had modeled and been reluctant to return. They soon married and had two children, Sally and Bobby. Though Draper cares for his family and strongly desires to be a good husband and father, he has had numerous affairs. It is implied that he is unsatisfied with his life and marriage to the point that he questions whether or not he loves his wife.

Draper is the creative director and a junior partner at the fictitious advertising agency, Sterling Cooper. He is considered an asset to the company as he has considerable talent for understanding the desires of others and selling ideas to them. He has occasionally been courted by other advertising firms, but up until the end of the second season, he remains loyal to Sterling Cooper. There is a division among the employees at Sterling Cooper in terms of their opinion of Don Draper. Almost everyone respects his talent, but his true character remains mysterious and heavily guarded from them. This is most true for account executive Pete Campbell, who has coveted Draper’s job for some time and even went as far as to try to blackmail him at the end of the first season when he was not considered for the open position as "Head of Account Services." Campbell stole a package sent to Draper from his long-lost half-brother Adam, which revealed Draper’s true identity. To Pete’s surprise, the senior partner Bert Cooper could not have cared less and it is presumed that Draper’s past remains unknown to the rest of the employees.

Equally complex is Draper’s relationship with Peggy Olson, who began as his naive and "earnest" secretary, but with his support, eventually becomes a talented and confident copywriter. In the show's second season, the relationship between Peggy and Don is revealed to be more complex than it first appears, each having helped the other while in trouble.

Later in the series when Duck Phillips attempts to become the new President of Sterling Cooper, Pete warns Don of Duck's power play, validating Bert Cooper's Season One statement to Don that he should not fire Pete as "one never knows how loyalty is born."

Personality

In many respects Draper is typical of an American middle class male who existed in Post-World War II America. It becomes clear during the second season that many of Draper's less admirable actions (infidelity, etc.) are his way of dealing with his internal conflict (Dick Whitman vs. Don Draper). More specifically, he feels that he is still Dick Whitman and thus Don Draper's "life" is not really his. This conflict comes to a head when Betty forces him out of the house after learning about his affair with Bobbie Barrett. While on business in California he reunites with the real Mrs. Draper who helps him realize that he is not alone and that regardless of his name, 'Don Draper's' life and family are indeed his. Draper, having resolved his identity crisis and "cleansed his soul" in the Pacific Ocean, then returns to New York to attempt to make amends with Betty. The Second Season ends with Betty asking Don to come home. Draper believes that Betty is going to inform him that she wants a divorce. Instead she reveals a surprise. In this final scene, he reaches across the kitchen table and, after a brief pause, she takes his hand.

Draper appears to be one of the very few males (perhaps the only male) at Sterling Cooper that does not engage in conversations that are about sex and conquests. Even the secretly gay Salvatore talks about sexy girls and sexy models, beginning in the first episode. Salvatore tells Draper that he does not really want to go to Pete's bachelor party in a group because he'd "rather be alone (with a girl) so he could do something." In fact, Draper keeps his extramarital affairs to himself in order to protect his wife's honor.

Draper, from the start, is almost always willing to defend a person's honor.

He warns Pete Campbell, in the first episode ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"), about his rude remarks to and about Peggy Olson, whom he has just met.

In the first episode of the Second Season ("For Those Who Think Young"), Draper is in an elevator listening to two younger men having a crude, sexual conversation about panties and their conquests. Draper is disgusted, and when an older woman enters the elevator, and they continue their graphic, sexual conversation, Draper tells the man twice to remove his hat (which up until the late 1960s, was a sign of respect when a woman was around). This man seems to be clueless, and Draper is forced to intervene, defending the woman's "honor." He removes the man's hat himself, and then stuffs it on the man's chest, thereby ending the men's conversation and sparing the woman further embarrassment.

Another example would be during the episode "Six Month Leave" where he lambasts several of his coworkers for mocking Freddy Rumsen's episode of urinary incontinence which was the result of an absence seizure and drinking. The coworkers defend themselves by saying that they are simply having some harmless fun. Draper responds sardonically saying "Sure. It's just a man's name, right?" The viewer needs to make the connection that Draper's response may be linked to Freddy wetting his pants and ruining his advertising career, and when Draper (really Dick Whitman) wet his pants during the Korean War and accidentially killed the real Don Draper.

We are also shown other facets of his loyal and honorable side, most obviously when he is forced to tell the head of Mohawk Airlines they're being dropped in favor of trying to land American Airlines. We see the difficulty he faces in telling a loyal client they're being cast-off in favor of someone newer, not unlike his step-mother treating him as a poor second after his half-brother is born.

Trivia

Don Draper existed as the name of a fictional character long before the creation of Mad Men. Don and Dougie Draper ran a dry cleaners on BBC1's Saturday morning show "Live and Kicking" in the mid 1990's. They had a catchphrase- "We don't do duvets." This Don Draper was played by Trev Neal, one half of the comedy double act Trev and Simon.

On the April 23, 2009 episode of 30 Rock, "The Ones," NBC page Kenneth, while suffering from an allergic reaction to strawberries and believing he was about to die, exclaimed that his true name is really "Dick Whitman." This is an "inside joke" as Jon Hamm, who plays Dick Whitman/Don Draper on AMC's Mad Men, guest starred on NBC's 30 Rock as Tina Fey's perfect boyfriend earlier in 2009.