Bertram Cooper is a Partner at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency. As a founding member of the original Sterling Cooper, Cooper expressed misgivings about selling it to the London-based Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe, but eventually agreed to the merger. When PPL is itself sold to McCann Erickson, however, Cooper realizes that he will likely be forced to retire if he stays, and becomes an SCDP partner.

Cooper's eccentricity occasionally masks his business instincts. When Pete Campbell attempts to blackmail Don Draper about his past, Cooper defuses the situation by claiming that he doesn’t care. But when Conrad Hilton 's  lawyers insist that Don be under contract as a prerequisite for doing business, Cooper plays the card. "Would you say I know something about you, Don?" he asks. "I would," Don agrees. "Then sign," Cooper says.

At SCDP, Cooper is equally tough after Don flubs an interview with Advertising Age. "Turning creative success into business is your work," says Cooper. "And you've failed." Don redeems himself with a Wall Street Journal reporter, but Cooper becomes livid over Don's ploy to deflect attention away from SCDP's loss of Lucky Strike. After reading Don's anti-tobacco screed in the New York Times, Cooper resigns from the agency. Pointing at Don, he says, "We've created a monster."

In a recording for his memoirs, Roger Sterling reveals that Cooper had an affair with the young Ida Blankenship, whom Roger dubs "the queen of perversions."

Bertram Cooper Quotes