Donald Francis Draper, born Richard “Dick” Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series Mad Men (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. At the beginning of the series, Draper is the charismatic yet enigmatic creative director at the fictional Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper. In spite of his success, he is plagued by several personal problems, including the issues of identity and social alienation, in part due to his difficult past. His personal and professional developments in the show are frequently situated against the larger social, political, and economic events of the 1960s.
The character of Don Draper is partially inspired by Draper Daniels, a creative director at Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago in the 1950s, who worked on the Marlboro Man campaign; and by Bill Backer, an advertising executive at McCann Erickson who created the "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" ad in 1971. Don Draper is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most iconic characters in television history and Jon Hamm received universal acclaim for his performance.
Character biography
Early life
Donald Francis Draper is revealed through flashbacks to be the assumed identity of Richard "Dick" Whitman, born in Bunbury, Illinois, at some point between late 1925 and early 1926 to Evangeline (Kelly Huddleston), a prostitute, and an abusive, alcoholic farmer, Archibald "Archie" Whitman (Joseph Culp). His mother died in labor, and his father was kicked to death by a spooked horse, which the 10-year-old Dick witnessed.
Dick was raised primarily by a stepmother, Archie's wife Abigail (Brynn Horrocks), who treated him cruelly because she saw him as a reminder of her husband's infidelity. At the time of his father's death, she was pregnant and posthumously gave birth to Dick's half-brother, naming him Adam. The one person to show him any kindness as a child was his stepfather, "Uncle Mack" (Morgan Rusler), who taught him how to survive in the real world. Mack was "with" Abigail's sister Ernestine (Julie Alexander) and ran the brothel in Pennsylvania Coal County where Dick and Adam grew up. When Dick was around 15 years old, his "aunt" died and Dick was a pallbearer for the first time at her funeral.
Many years later, one of the prostitutes at the brothel had Dick pickpocket valuables from trousers while she was turning tricks, for which he would be paid Hershey bars. Don recalls eating these as the closest he ever got to a normal childhood. One of his few exposures to the outside world was the story of Milton Hershey and his school for orphaned children, and he wondered why he failed to qualify for such a place, considering both his parents were deceased, which made him think he was forgotten.
During this period of his life, he began to suffer from croup and was left under the care of a prostitute named Aimée (Megan Ferguson). She took his virginity in a way that creator Matthew Weiner stated concerned "his relationship to sex and molestation", and reviewer Abigail Rine described more directly as rape.
Korean War and change in identity
Whitman never finished high school, and in his early 20s he ran away to enlist in the United States Army during the Korean War in 1950. Once deployed, he served under the command of Lieutenant Donald Francis Draper (Troy Ruptash), a combat engineer under orders to build a field hospital with only Whitman and shovels to assist him; all of Draper's previous subordinates either deserted, or were captured or killed.
During an enemy artillery attack, Whitman caused an explosion by accident, killing Draper instantly. A seriously wounded Whitman switched Draper's dog tags with his own before passing out. He later awakened in a U.S. Army field hospital, presumed to be Draper, and was subsequently awarded the Purple Heart. He was sent home on a train with Draper's coffin (believed to be Whitman's) to offer the Army's regrets to Whitman's survivors. He avoided meeting the Whitmans at the train station but was spotted by Adam (Jay Paulson), whose parents failed to recognize him. Years later in 1960, Adam tracks his half-brother down in New York, but "Draper" insists on leaving the past behind and coldly rejects him, paying him off with $5,000 in cash to keep the identity theft secret. Months later, Dick learns Adam took this so hard he hanged himself.