Played by Colin Hanks
Father Gill is a visiting priest at the Catholic church which Peggy’s family attends. Upon hearing that Peggy is in advertising, the priest solicits public speaking tips to improve his delivery. Father Gill learns about Peggy’s baby when her sister, Anita, confesses that she hates her sister for seducing a man, having his child, and acting like nothing happened.
Played by Maggie Siff
Rachel Menken is the head of Menken’s, a major Jewish department store. Raised by an older sister and her hard-working father (her mother died during labor), she claims to have had a lonely childhood. She meets Don Draper while searching for an advertising agency to take her company to the next level. Shortly after she enlists Sterling Cooper’s services, she becomes a sort of advisor of all things Jewish to Don and gets romantically involved with him despite knowing he is married. Their relationship ends shortly after Don invites her to run away with him. (She refuses the offer). Her store no longer a Sterling Cooper client, Rachel runs into Don a year-plus later and introduces him to her new husband, Tilden Katz.
Played by Peyton List
Jane Sterling is Roger Sterling’s wife. A college graduate hired as Don Draper’s secretary, she quickly catches the eye of Roger, who smooths things over when office manager Joan Holloway fires her for flouting company protocol. Rehired, she begins an affair with Roger that culminates with him instigating divorce proceedings with his wife.
Played by Robert Morse
A nattily bow-tied iconoclast, Bertram Cooper is a Founding Partner of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. His office is decorated in a Japanese theme and all who enter, excepting his sister Alice, follow his example by removing their shoes. Although Bert expressed misgivings about relinquishing control of his agency, he eventually voted in favor of a merger with the London-based Puttnam, Powell and Lowe. (The British firm wants to establish a foothold in the U.S. market via Sterling Cooper.) He collects modern art — such as the Rothko painting in his office — because it gives him pleasure… and a possible return on his investment.
Played by Aaron Staton
Ken Cosgrove is the Senior Vice President in Charge of Accounts at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. He spends much of his time at work with Pete Campbell, Paul Kinsey, and Harry Crane. A bachelor who likes to flirt, Ken has written two unpublished novels and became the focus of office attention when his short story, “Tapping a Maple on a Cold Vermont Morning,” was published in the Atlantic Monthly. Though he made frequent jokes about Peggy Olson’s weight gain during her unwitting pregnancy, he is supportive of her copywriting efforts and success. Indeed, the two have worked on a number of campaigns together, including one for Popsicle which Peggy was responsible for landing.
Ken lives in the Murray Hill area of New York City and continues to write in his off-hours.
Played by Christina Hendricks
Joan Harris is the former Office Manager at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. Although Joan was in charge of the support staff, she has been overruled on occasion: When she fired secretary Jane Siegel for going into Bertram Cooper’s office after hours, Roger Sterling had Jane reinstated. For a brief period, Joan worked as a script reader with Harry Crane in the TV Department. Although clients gave positive feedback to Joan in that role, the position was given to a new male employee when Harry’s budget was expanded to bring on full time help.
Joan was once involved romantically with Roger Sterling. She is now married to Dr. Greg Harris.
Played by John Slattery
Roger Sterling is the witty drinker that everyone loves because he’s fun to be around. You can tell he came from wealth because of his tongue and the way he handles work. He wants things done in the easiest way possible so that he can get back to doing whatever he does in his office all day. When the show started he was good friends with Don. In the episode where Don was being courted by other agencies, Roger Sterling won Don’s trust because he didn’t dip into Don’s personal life. But then this season he lost that respect when they were trying to get Don to sign the contract. Roger called Don’s house and tried to convince Betty to push Don in the right direction. That proved to be a bad idea and Don wants nothing to do with him now.
Roger Sterling is a Partner at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. A World War II veteran, Roger has suffered two heart attacks: one while seducing a model in the office after hours; the other after returning to work before fully recovering. Although he briefly tried to change his ways, Roger is now not only smoking and drinking again, but he has also proposed marriage to Jane Siegel, a much younger woman who briefly worked as Don’s secretary. (Earlier, Roger had carried on a long-standing affair with Joan Holloway, Sterling Cooper’s Office Manager.) Anticipating a costly divorce from his wife Mona, Roger encouraged the Puttnam Powell and Lowe takeover of Sterling Cooper. He has a daughter named Margaret who is currently engaged.
Played by Darby Stanchfield
Helen Bishop is the single mother of two children. She works in a jewelry store and volunteered for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Her status as a divorcee as well as her habit of taking long walks has made her the subject of gossip for women in the neighborhood. A further rift developed between Helen and Betty Draper when the former discovered that Betty had given Helen’s son Glen a lock of hair while babysitting him one evening. When Helen confronted Betty at the grocery store, Betty slapped her in the face. Helen’s ex-husband works in the insurance industry.
Played by Anne Dudek
Francine Hanson lives with her husband Carlton and their children in suburban Ossining, New York, in the same neighborhood as the Draper family. Because her husband makes secret phone calls to Manhattan and sleeps at the Waldorf two nights a week, Francine suspects her own husband of having an affair. She is one of Betty’s closest friends.
Pete Campbell
Played by Vincent Kartheiser
Pete Campbell is a very interesting character that can relate to a lot of people. It’s strange because at times he comes across as weak, other times strong, and other times still completely psychotic. His family came from wealth having owned the majority of real estate in Manhattan — however the family fortune was lost and his family comes across and burdened by once having wealth and losing it. He is married to a very pretty girl but he had an affair with Peggy in the beginning of the show. His wife is really supportive and wants to have a kid but he doesn’t want to — the irony is that he had one with Peggy and doesn’t know it.
Pete Campbell is Head of Account Management at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. A descendent of the venerable Dykeman family and a graduate of Deerfield Academy prep school, he lives with his wife Trudy in a Park Avenue apartment (financed in part by Trudy’s parents). While angling for a promotion, Pete discovered that Don Draper is living under an alias. His attempt to blackmail Don failed, so Pete got back to business by landing the Clearasil account — courtesy of his father-in-law, a top salesman at Vicks Chemical. Pete went on to lose the account when he refused to consider adopting despite Trudy’s desire to have a baby and her problems getting pregnant. More recently, Pete discovered that he already has a son — the result of his affair with co-worker Peggy Olson, who gave the baby away. Pete’s father died in the crash of an American Airlines jetliner; he has a very strained relationship with his mother.