Characters

Joan Harris Played by Christina Hendricks

Joan Harris
Joan Harris Quotes »

Joan Harris is the Director of Agency Operations at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency. Joan was the Office Manager at Sterling Cooper, where for a brief period she also worked as a script reader in the TV Department. Clients lauded Joan's contributions, but a male employee was hired when a full-time position opened up.

Joan is not above using her sexuality to achieve her goals, a strategy that causes friction when her colleague Peggy Olson fires freelancer Joey Baird for drawing an offensive picture of Joan and Lane Pryce. Joan tells Peggy that she would have handled the matter over dinner with a client who could request Joey's dismissal. All Peggy has done, Joan snaps, is prove "that I'm a meaningless secretary and you're another humorless bitch."

Joan had a lengthy romance with Roger Sterling that ceased after she married Dr. Greg Harris, a surgical resident. In anticipation of Greg's appointment as his hospital's chief resident, Joan resigns from Sterling Cooper. After he fails to get the position, she briefly works at a department store before Roger taps her to help with logistics at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Greg, meanwhile, joins the army to continue his surgical career. His impending deployment to Vietnam troubles Joan.

One night while Greg is away at boot camp, Joan and Roger have dinner and are robbed on the way home. After the mugger leaves, Joan kisses Roger and they have sex under a stairwell. Joan becomes pregnant and informs Roger he's the father. They decide to terminate the pregnancy, but Joan does not tell Roger that she does not go through with the procedure. A few weeks later, Greg asks Joan when she intends to reveal to her coworkers that she's carrying their first child.

Video: Joan Harris for Season 4 »

Joan Harris Quotes

“Go home, take a paper bag, cut some eyeholes out of it. Put it over your head, get undressed and look at yourself in the mirror. Really evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. And be honest.”
Season 1, Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
“He may act like he wants a secretary, but most of the time they’re looking for something between a mother and a waitress.”
Season 1, Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
“This is why I don’t allow crying in the break room. It erodes morale. There’s a place to do that, like you’re apartment.”
Season 2, Episode 1: “For Those Who Think Young”
“It’s so obvious why you’re going out with her.”
Season 2, Episode 2: “Flight 1″
“Your decolletage is distracting.”
Season 2, Episode 5, “The New Girl”
“What on God’s green earth are you doing here?”
Season 2, Episode 5, “The New Girl”
“Stop dressing like a little girl.”
Season 2, Episode 6, “Maidenform”
“Fun-loving girl, responsible sometimes. Likes to laugh, lives to love seeks size six for city living and general galavanting. No dull moments or dull men tolerated.”
Season 3, Episode 4: “The Arrangements”
“When you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what you forgot, don’t call me.”
Season 3, Episode 3: “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”
“That’s life. One minute, you’re on top of the world. The next, some secretary is running over your foot with a lawn motor.”
Season 3, Episode 3: “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”
“I thought American men were bad enough, but none of them has ever so consistently made me feel like a helpless, stupid little girl.”
Season 4, Episode 3: “The Good News”
“I’m not a solution to your problems. I’m another problem.”
Season 4, Episode 11: “Chinese Wall”
“I was just made Director of Agency Operations. A title, no money of course. And if they poured champagne, it must have been while I was pushing the mailcart.”
Season 4, Episode 13: “Tomorrowland”
“Yes, honey, they’re bigger.”
Season 4, Episode 13: “Tomorrowland”