Characters

Don Draper Played by Jon Hamm

Mad Men Season 5 Jon Hamm Don Draper
Don Draper Quotes »

Don Draper is a Partner and the Creative Director of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency. He was formerly the Creative Director of the Sterling Cooper. Don, who is married to his former secretary Megan, has three children with his ex-wife Betty Francis: Sally, Bobby, and Gene.

Don and Betty divorced after she learned that he was born Dick Whitman, the child of a prostitute who died in childbirth. During the Korean War, he assumed the identity of Donald Draper, a deceased officer he served under. Don divorced the real Donald Draper's wife, Anna, shortly before Don and Betty's own marriage, though Don provides Anna financial assistance until she dies of cancer.

Before Betty learns the truth, Pete Campbell discovers Don's lie and tries to blackmail him, but Bertram Cooper declares the matter insignificant. The company founder later uses the knowledge, however, to compel Don to sign an employment contract with Sterling Cooper.

Don has had affairs with numerous women, among them Bobbie Barrett, the wife and manager of a comedian who starred in a Sterling Cooper campaign; and Suzanne Farrell, Sally's former teacher. A drunken tryst with his secretary Allison ends with her resigning in tears, and he begins a relationship with Megan while seeing SCDP's consumer researcher, Faye Miller.

At work, Don's achievements include a Glo Coat floor wax commercial that wins a Clio Award. When Don leaves his award statuette at a bar, Roger Sterling, who hired him years earlier, refuses to return it until acknowledged for his part in Don's success. Peggy Olson, a former secretary whom Don promotes to copywriter, feels similarly slighted. One day after he harshly criticizes her and several colleagues, she makes clear his pivotal place in their lives. "All we want to do is please you," she announces.

Read the Ad Age interview with Don Draper »
View Don Draper's three-year contract for Sterling Cooper from Season 3 »
Video: Don Draper for Season 4 »

 

 

Don Draper Quotes

“Advertising is based on happiness. We make the lie, we invent want.”
Season 1, Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
“I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.”
Season 1, Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
“It wasn’t a lie, it was ineptitude with insufficient cover.”
Season 1, Episode 3: “Marriage of Figaro”
“Mourning is just extended self-pity.”
Season 1, Episode 6: “Babylon”
“I hate to break it to you but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.”
Season 1, Episode 7: “The Hobo Code”
“The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them.’”
Season 1, Episode 10: “Long Weekend”
“Just think about it deeply, then forget it…then an idea will jump up in your face.”
Season 1, Episode 11: “Indian Summer”
“You don’t cover for me. You manage people’s expectations.”
Season 2, Episode 3: “The Benefactor”
“Get out of here and move forward. This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.”
Season 2, Episode 5: “The New Girl”
“You want to be on vacation Pete? Because I can make that happen.”
Season 2, Episode 11: “The Jet Set”
“There will be fat years and there will be lean years, but it is going to rain.”
Season 3, Episode 1: “Out of Town”
“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
Season 3, Episode 2: “Love Among the Ruins”
“Change isn’t good or bad. It just is.”
Season 3, Episode 2: “Love Among the Ruins”
“Maybe I’m late because I was spending time with my family reading the Bible.”
Season 3, Episode 7: “Seven Twenty Three”
“Believe me, Henry, everybody thinks this is temporary.”
Season 4, Episode 1: “Public Relations”
“I don’t hate Christmas, I just hate this Christmas.”
Season 4, Episode 2: “Christmas Comes But Once a Year”
“Why does everybody need to talk about everything?”
Season 4, Episode 5: “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”
“Peggy, I’m glad this is an environment where you feel free to fail.”
Season 4, Episode 7: “The Suitcase”
“Ida was a hellcat?… Cooper lost his balls?… Roger’s writing a book?”
Season 4, Episode 7: “The Suitcase”
“I should’ve finished high school. Everything could’ve been different.”
Season 4, Episode 8: “The Summer Man”
“You want some respect? Go out and get it for yourself.”
Season 4, Episode 8: “The Summer Man”
“People tell you who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.”
Season 4, Episode 8: “The Summer Man”
“We’re flawed because we want so much more. We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.”
Season 4, Episode 8: “The Summer Man”
“I would have my secretary do it, but she’s dead.”
Season 4, Episode 9: “The Beautiful Girls”
“We’re gonna sit at our desks typing while the walls fall down around us. Because we’re the least important, most important thing there is.”
Season 4, Episode 12: “Blowing Smoke”