Pete Campbell

Lore & Background

Pete is said to have attended the Buckley School, Deerfield Academy and Dartmouth College. He and Bert Cooper are the only main characters who do not smoke cigarettes. Kartheiser twice shared the Screen Actors Guild ensemble award with the Mad Men cast.

Reader's Guide

Pete's mother descends from an old Dutch family of New Amsterdam, and his parents are distant and disapprove of his choice of advertising. When his father dies on American Airlines Flight 1 in Season 2, Pete cannot cry, and he and his brother Bud learn that their father has spent the family trust.

At Sterling Cooper Pete brings in clients and acts as the link between them and the creative department, but he wants to be taken seriously and tries to undercut Don Draper by pitching his own copy. He tries to blackmail Don over his stolen identity and takes the secret to Bert Cooper, who does not care. Under the new British management in Season 3 he is made co-head of accounts with Ken Cosgrove. In December 1963 he leaves to join the new agency of Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Lane Pryce as a junior partner, bringing his clients with him.

Pete marries Trudy Vogel in March 1960. After SC&P is absorbed into McCann he does well there, and in the penultimate episode Duck Phillips offers him a job with Lear Jet in Wichita, which he turns down at first and later accepts.