Pete Campbell
Encyclopedia
Peter "Pete" Campbell is a fictional character
on AMC's television series
Mad Men
. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser
.
to an upper class
WASP
family. In the show's pilot episode, he has just turned 26, which makes his birth year 1934. His mother, Dorothy Dyckman Campbell, is a member of the elite Dyckman family , owners of most of upper Manhattan
prior to 1929. Pete's great-grandfather was the Dutch immigrant Silas Dyckman. Pete's grandfather loses most of his property in the stock market crash of 1929, and his father Andrew Campbell eventually squanders the remainder of the family fortune before his death, yet Pete's upbringing is in line with many children of his social status. As a youth he attends The Buckley School (New York City)
and Deerfield Academy
and spends summers at his parents' estate on Fishers Island
, as well as at exclusive country club
s in the Hamptons
and Newport
. Pete is in the DKE fraternity during his college years at Dartmouth College
.
In the show Pete has a constantly strained relationship with his parents, who are emotionally distant and who disapprove of their son's decision to go into advertising. In Season Two, after his father dies in a plane crash
over Jamaica Bay
, Pete is unable to cry. Upon their father's death, Pete's older brother Bud examines their father's finances in relation to their inheritance from the family trust. Bud discovers that their father depleted the money put into the trust through years of a lavish lifestyle. When Bud tells Pete the news, they both seem unsurprised by their father's actions.
Later in Season Two Pete reveals that he hates his mother. Bud also resents his parents, but is treated and regarded by both parents as the favored son. Displaying a mutual resentment of their mother, Bud and Pete reminisce over Alfred Hitchcock
's film Rope
, loosely based on the story of Leopold and Loeb
. When Pete's mother suggests that any possibility of Pete and his wife adopting a child would be unacceptable and lead to his being disinherited, Pete retaliates by telling her that their life savings have been squandered by his father. This originally was intended as a secret that Pete and Bud meant to keep from her.
In the first season, Pete often expresses a desire to be treated seriously in business and displays a genuine knack for it but is unwilling to put in work and seems overly willing to get by on his family name. He can also appear spiteful and cold to people he feels have mistreated him in some way. Pete often shows little emotional maturity and is prone to impulsiveness.
's new firm. His position at Sterling Cooper entails not only arranging meetings with clients, but also wining and dining them (and occasionally, arranging meetings for them with prostitutes). Early in the show, he appears to be unsatisfied with his position and would rather work on the creative end. To this end, he attempts to undermine Draper several times by pitching his own copy to clients. One of these occurrences nearly gets him fired, but after it becomes clear that he was hired based solely on his family heritage, he is allowed to remain at his post.
His relationship with Draper is a confused one, as he seems to look upon his boss as both a mentor and an obstacle. Don is often the first person he comes to in the office for advice, but will not hesitate to betray or undermine Don in order to achieve his goals. During Season One, Pete is in Draper's office after Draper has left for the day when a package is delivered. Pete takes the package, which is from Draper's brother, Adam, and reveals that Don Draper is, in fact, not his real name. Pete uses this information to blackmail
Draper into giving him the position of Head of Accounts, but this fails when Draper calls his bluff, and, when informed of Draper's real identity, Bertram Cooper coldly replies that he doesn't care. In the following season, Pete appears to have grown much more loyal to Don, giving him prior warning of Duck Phillips' attempt to take over the firm.
At the beginning of Season Three, Pete is promoted to Head of Accounts by the new British management. He is overjoyed until he discovers that he is actually a "co-head" of the department, sharing the position with Ken Cosgrove. Pete becomes enraged and lashes out at Cosgrove, despite the fact that it is clear that the new management intends to play the two off each other.
Pete later joins the new agency formed by Draper, Roger Sterling
, Cooper, and Lane, with the understanding that he is to become a partner, bringing his clients with him to their new agency.
), a young woman from a nouveau riche
family, in March 1960. It is implied that Pete does not know her very well before he marries her; after their honeymoon, he tells his coworkers that she is much funnier than he imagined her to be. The two purchase an apartment on Park Avenue in New York City's Upper East Side
. Pete's parents refuse to help the couple pay for the apartment, but Trudy's parents eventually pitch in, much to Pete's discomfort. Trudy's parents also begin to pressure the couple to begin trying to have a baby, something Pete is reluctant to do.
After 18 months of trying to conceive, the two attend a fertility clinic, where it is discovered that Trudy has fertility problems. Trudy and her parents pressure Pete to look into adoption. Pete is at first uncomfortable with the idea, but agrees to think about it, and mentions this to his brother. Bud tells their mother, who disapproves completely, stating that people of Pete's social status should not be picking from "discards." When Pete finds out that Trudy has put their name on a list to meet with a prominent local adoption agency, he shouts at her, throws the dinner she cooked off their balcony, and declares that they are absolutely not going to adopt. This leads to a rift in the marriage. Trudy decides to stay at her parents' house during the Cuban Missile Crisis
, and Pete refuses to go with her, stating that if he is going to die, he wants to die in Manhattan
.
What Pete and his mother did not know is that Pete has already fathered a child with his co-worker Peggy Olson
(portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss
). Pete initially met Peggy on her first day as Don Draper
's new secretary, in March 1960. A lower middle class
Catholic from Brooklyn
, Peggy tells Pete that she has just graduated from Miss Deaver's Secretarial School. Pete makes rude comments about her dowdy appearance, for which Draper scolds him. Later that night, however, after his bachelor party, Pete shows up at Peggy's apartment drunk. Despite his offensive remarks earlier that day, the two sleep together. Months later, Peggy and Pete again have a sexual encounter on Pete's office couch, early in the morning before the other employees arrive. Though Peggy begins to arrive early for work regularly, the two have no further sexual liaisons. During the Season One finale, it is revealed that Peggy — who has put on a considerable amount of weight over the course of the season — is in labor with Pete's child. She gives birth to a boy.
Early in Season 2 (episode 6, "Maidenform") Peter meets Susie (portrayed by actress Sarah Wright) after a casting call for Playtex and they talk in the elevator. To much of Pete's surprise, she lives with her mother but that doesn't stop them from sleeping together. Peter then goes home and seems to feel very accomplished. During the Season Two finale, when everyone in the office has left for the day, Pete asks Peggy to come sit down with him. Pete tells Peggy that he thinks she is "perfect," and then confesses that he is in love with her and wishes that he had married her. This declaration prompts Peggy to finally admit that she had his baby and gave it away two years before. After Peggy reveals this, Pete sits in shock. Pete is last seen sitting alone in his dark office, holding a rifle on his lap. It is the same rifle he bought on store credit in Season One, when he returned a ceramic chip-and-dip he and Trudy received as a wedding gift.
At the start of Season Three, which takes place about six months later, Pete and Trudy seem much closer: he immediately calls her when he discovers he is to be promoted, and there is no mention of adoption. They seem like a very happy couple doing the Charleston dance at Roger Sterling
's garden party, and Harry Crane's wife is jealous of them. When Trudy goes out of town weeks later, though, Pete feels very lonely and pressures his neighbor's young German nanny into sleeping with him, despite the young woman's unwillingness. The man she works for comes over to confront Pete in their apartment. When Trudy kisses Pete after returning home, Pete is noticeably distraught, and he later tells Trudy, "I don't want you to go away anymore without me."
By the end of Season Three, it is apparent that some form of fence-mending has taken place between Pete and his father-in-law (revealed in Season Four to be Trudy's doing) as he is able to bring the Clearasil account to the newly-formed firm of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Pryce. This is an account Pete had previously lost for Sterling Cooper due to his refusing to consider adoption upsetting his wife and angering his father-in-law. In Season Four, Clearasil is dropped by the agency because of a conflict with another account, but Pete is able to manipulate his father-in-law into giving him several larger accounts from that company.
In the Season Four episode, "The Rejected," Pete finds out that Trudy is pregnant, much to his delight. Trudy gives birth in the eleventh episode of the season to a baby girl, which is later revealed to be named Tammy.
In the early years of their marriage, Pete had trouble reconciling his own ambitions with his wife's more forceful personality. Trudy usually seemed to get her way in their marriage and showed considerably more talent for understanding the power dynamics of the office than Pete did. Pete engaged in at least three extramarital affairs in the first years of their marriage. However, after being caught by a neighbor, Pete confesses his infidelity to Trudy. After a short period of tension their marriage seemed to improve, something which aligned with a corresponding improvement in Pete's work status.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on AMC's television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser
Vincent Kartheiser
Vincent Paul Kartheiser is an American actor known for playing Connor in Angel and Pete Campbell in Mad Men.-Early life:Kartheiser was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Janet Marie and James Ralph Kartheiser...
.
Biography
In the show's backstory, Pete Campbell was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to an upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
family. In the show's pilot episode, he has just turned 26, which makes his birth year 1934. His mother, Dorothy Dyckman Campbell, is a member of the elite Dyckman family , owners of most of upper Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
prior to 1929. Pete's great-grandfather was the Dutch immigrant Silas Dyckman. Pete's grandfather loses most of his property in the stock market crash of 1929, and his father Andrew Campbell eventually squanders the remainder of the family fortune before his death, yet Pete's upbringing is in line with many children of his social status. As a youth he attends The Buckley School (New York City)
The Buckley School (New York City)
The Buckley School is a K-9 all-boys' private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The school's motto is "Honor et Veritas" and its official seal is a shield. Above the shield is a sword handle and below it is the nib of a pen, signifying that the pen is mightier than the...
and Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
and spends summers at his parents' estate on Fishers Island
Fishers Island
Fishers Island, approximately 9 miles long and 1 mile wide, is located at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, 2 miles off the southeastern coast of Connecticut across Fishers Island Sound...
, as well as at exclusive country club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
s in the Hamptons
Hamptons
The Hamptons may refer to several villages and hamlets in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on the far east end of Suffolk County in Long Island, New York. These townships occupy the South Fork of Long Island, stretching into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hamptons form a popular seaside resort,...
and Newport
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
. Pete is in the DKE fraternity during his college years at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
.
In the show Pete has a constantly strained relationship with his parents, who are emotionally distant and who disapprove of their son's decision to go into advertising. In Season Two, after his father dies in a plane crash
American Airlines Flight 1
American Airlines Flight 1 was a domestic, scheduled passenger flight from New York International Airport , New York to Los Angeles International Airport, California that crashed shortly after take-off on 1 March 1962. All 87 passengers and eight crew died in the crash...
over Jamaica Bay
Jamaica Bay
Jamaica Bay is located on the southwestern tip of Long Island in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, and the town of Hempstead, New York/hamlet of Inwood...
, Pete is unable to cry. Upon their father's death, Pete's older brother Bud examines their father's finances in relation to their inheritance from the family trust. Bud discovers that their father depleted the money put into the trust through years of a lavish lifestyle. When Bud tells Pete the news, they both seem unsurprised by their father's actions.
Later in Season Two Pete reveals that he hates his mother. Bud also resents his parents, but is treated and regarded by both parents as the favored son. Displaying a mutual resentment of their mother, Bud and Pete reminisce over Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's film Rope
Rope (film)
Rope is a 1948 American thriller film based on the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by Sidney Bernstein and Hitchcock as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions...
, loosely based on the story of Leopold and Loeb
Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. and Richard Albert Loeb , more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb", were two wealthy University of Michigan alumni and University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks in 1924 and were sentenced to life imprisonment.The duo were...
. When Pete's mother suggests that any possibility of Pete and his wife adopting a child would be unacceptable and lead to his being disinherited, Pete retaliates by telling her that their life savings have been squandered by his father. This originally was intended as a secret that Pete and Bud meant to keep from her.
In the first season, Pete often expresses a desire to be treated seriously in business and displays a genuine knack for it but is unwilling to put in work and seems overly willing to get by on his family name. He can also appear spiteful and cold to people he feels have mistreated him in some way. Pete often shows little emotional maturity and is prone to impulsiveness.
At Sterling Cooper
Pete is an account executive at Sterling Cooper until December 1963, when he leaves to join Don DraperDon Draper
Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...
's new firm. His position at Sterling Cooper entails not only arranging meetings with clients, but also wining and dining them (and occasionally, arranging meetings for them with prostitutes). Early in the show, he appears to be unsatisfied with his position and would rather work on the creative end. To this end, he attempts to undermine Draper several times by pitching his own copy to clients. One of these occurrences nearly gets him fired, but after it becomes clear that he was hired based solely on his family heritage, he is allowed to remain at his post.
His relationship with Draper is a confused one, as he seems to look upon his boss as both a mentor and an obstacle. Don is often the first person he comes to in the office for advice, but will not hesitate to betray or undermine Don in order to achieve his goals. During Season One, Pete is in Draper's office after Draper has left for the day when a package is delivered. Pete takes the package, which is from Draper's brother, Adam, and reveals that Don Draper is, in fact, not his real name. Pete uses this information to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
Draper into giving him the position of Head of Accounts, but this fails when Draper calls his bluff, and, when informed of Draper's real identity, Bertram Cooper coldly replies that he doesn't care. In the following season, Pete appears to have grown much more loyal to Don, giving him prior warning of Duck Phillips' attempt to take over the firm.
At the beginning of Season Three, Pete is promoted to Head of Accounts by the new British management. He is overjoyed until he discovers that he is actually a "co-head" of the department, sharing the position with Ken Cosgrove. Pete becomes enraged and lashes out at Cosgrove, despite the fact that it is clear that the new management intends to play the two off each other.
Pete later joins the new agency formed by Draper, Roger Sterling
Roger Sterling
Roger Sterling, Jr., played by John Slattery, is a fictional character on the AMC TV series Mad Men. He formerly worked for Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency his father co-founded in 1923, before he became a founding partner at the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in late...
, Cooper, and Lane, with the understanding that he is to become a partner, bringing his clients with him to their new agency.
Marriage and Relationships
Pete marries Trudy Vogel (portrayed by actress Alison BrieAlison Brie
-External links:...
), a young woman from a nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
family, in March 1960. It is implied that Pete does not know her very well before he marries her; after their honeymoon, he tells his coworkers that she is much funnier than he imagined her to be. The two purchase an apartment on Park Avenue in New York City's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. Pete's parents refuse to help the couple pay for the apartment, but Trudy's parents eventually pitch in, much to Pete's discomfort. Trudy's parents also begin to pressure the couple to begin trying to have a baby, something Pete is reluctant to do.
After 18 months of trying to conceive, the two attend a fertility clinic, where it is discovered that Trudy has fertility problems. Trudy and her parents pressure Pete to look into adoption. Pete is at first uncomfortable with the idea, but agrees to think about it, and mentions this to his brother. Bud tells their mother, who disapproves completely, stating that people of Pete's social status should not be picking from "discards." When Pete finds out that Trudy has put their name on a list to meet with a prominent local adoption agency, he shouts at her, throws the dinner she cooked off their balcony, and declares that they are absolutely not going to adopt. This leads to a rift in the marriage. Trudy decides to stay at her parents' house during the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, and Pete refuses to go with her, stating that if he is going to die, he wants to die in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
What Pete and his mother did not know is that Pete has already fathered a child with his co-worker Peggy Olson
Peggy Olson
Margaret "Peggy" Olson is a fictional character in the AMC television series Mad Men, and is portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss. Initially, Peggy is secretary to Don Draper , creative director of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Later, she is promoted to copywriter, the first female writer...
(portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor. Her notable roles include that of Zoey Bartlet, the third and youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on the NBC television series The West Wing , and secretary turned copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC original series Mad Men .-Early life and...
). Pete initially met Peggy on her first day as Don Draper
Don Draper
Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...
's new secretary, in March 1960. A lower middle class
Lower middle class
In developed nations across the world, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class. Universally the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle...
Catholic from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, Peggy tells Pete that she has just graduated from Miss Deaver's Secretarial School. Pete makes rude comments about her dowdy appearance, for which Draper scolds him. Later that night, however, after his bachelor party, Pete shows up at Peggy's apartment drunk. Despite his offensive remarks earlier that day, the two sleep together. Months later, Peggy and Pete again have a sexual encounter on Pete's office couch, early in the morning before the other employees arrive. Though Peggy begins to arrive early for work regularly, the two have no further sexual liaisons. During the Season One finale, it is revealed that Peggy — who has put on a considerable amount of weight over the course of the season — is in labor with Pete's child. She gives birth to a boy.
Early in Season 2 (episode 6, "Maidenform") Peter meets Susie (portrayed by actress Sarah Wright) after a casting call for Playtex and they talk in the elevator. To much of Pete's surprise, she lives with her mother but that doesn't stop them from sleeping together. Peter then goes home and seems to feel very accomplished. During the Season Two finale, when everyone in the office has left for the day, Pete asks Peggy to come sit down with him. Pete tells Peggy that he thinks she is "perfect," and then confesses that he is in love with her and wishes that he had married her. This declaration prompts Peggy to finally admit that she had his baby and gave it away two years before. After Peggy reveals this, Pete sits in shock. Pete is last seen sitting alone in his dark office, holding a rifle on his lap. It is the same rifle he bought on store credit in Season One, when he returned a ceramic chip-and-dip he and Trudy received as a wedding gift.
At the start of Season Three, which takes place about six months later, Pete and Trudy seem much closer: he immediately calls her when he discovers he is to be promoted, and there is no mention of adoption. They seem like a very happy couple doing the Charleston dance at Roger Sterling
Roger Sterling
Roger Sterling, Jr., played by John Slattery, is a fictional character on the AMC TV series Mad Men. He formerly worked for Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency his father co-founded in 1923, before he became a founding partner at the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in late...
's garden party, and Harry Crane's wife is jealous of them. When Trudy goes out of town weeks later, though, Pete feels very lonely and pressures his neighbor's young German nanny into sleeping with him, despite the young woman's unwillingness. The man she works for comes over to confront Pete in their apartment. When Trudy kisses Pete after returning home, Pete is noticeably distraught, and he later tells Trudy, "I don't want you to go away anymore without me."
By the end of Season Three, it is apparent that some form of fence-mending has taken place between Pete and his father-in-law (revealed in Season Four to be Trudy's doing) as he is able to bring the Clearasil account to the newly-formed firm of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Pryce. This is an account Pete had previously lost for Sterling Cooper due to his refusing to consider adoption upsetting his wife and angering his father-in-law. In Season Four, Clearasil is dropped by the agency because of a conflict with another account, but Pete is able to manipulate his father-in-law into giving him several larger accounts from that company.
In the Season Four episode, "The Rejected," Pete finds out that Trudy is pregnant, much to his delight. Trudy gives birth in the eleventh episode of the season to a baby girl, which is later revealed to be named Tammy.
In the early years of their marriage, Pete had trouble reconciling his own ambitions with his wife's more forceful personality. Trudy usually seemed to get her way in their marriage and showed considerably more talent for understanding the power dynamics of the office than Pete did. Pete engaged in at least three extramarital affairs in the first years of their marriage. However, after being caught by a neighbor, Pete confesses his infidelity to Trudy. After a short period of tension their marriage seemed to improve, something which aligned with a corresponding improvement in Pete's work status.