Betty Draper

Biography

Elizabeth "Betty" Draper Francis (formerly Draper, née Hofstadt) is a fictional character played by January Jones on AMC's television series Mad Men. She begins the show married to protagonist Don Draper (Jon Hamm); following a separation in the third season, the two remain divorced for the remainder of the series, but continue to share custody of their three children. Blonde, beautiful, emotionally distant and immature, Betty spends the bulk of Mad Men slowly growing as a person amid the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. The character's appearance is often compared to that of Grace Kelly, with the similarities between the two also drawn during the first season of the series. Jones received two Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance. She also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series twice along with the cast of Mad Men.

== Casting and character development == The character of Betty Draper was not originally part of the pilot, though she did ultimately appear in the broadcast episode. The script established that lead character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) was married, but only through dialogue, with no intention to show his home life. January Jones was instead initially considered, along with Elisabeth Moss, for the character Peggy Olson; Moss was ultimately cast as Peggy. Show creator Matthew Weiner then wrote two scenes featuring Betty, and Jones successfully auditioned for the part two days later. Although there were no full scripts or even plot ideas involving the character at the time, Weiner promised Jones that the character would be developed. Weiner has attributed Mad Men's visual style to the influence of film director Alfred Hitchcock, who featured a signature "icy blonde" female character in many of his films. Betty Draper's character has also been compared to that of Peyton Place's Constance MacKenzie: "cold, remote, and emotionally unavailable."

== Fictional character biography ==

=== Backstory === Betty was born Elizabeth Hofstadt in 1932. According to her son's birth certificate, she was born in Cape May, New Jersey, where her wealthy family summered. In season two the character is said to have been raised in the home rural Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, in Cheltenham Township. Betty is of German ancestry. Betty attended Bryn Mawr College, an exclusive Seven Sister college majoring in anthropology, after which she briefly modeled in Italy before moving to Manhattan. It was during this time that she met Don Draper: he was writing ad copy for a fur company, and she was one of their models. He began courting her by buying her the fur coat she wore at a shoot. Betty and Don were married in May 1953. Betty's mother Ruth died early in 1960, three months before the events of the episode "Ladies Room". Her father, Gene (Ryan Cutrona), has a girlfriend named Gloria (Darcy Shean), whom Betty dislikes and whom her father marries sometime in the 18 months between seasons 1 and 2; Gloria leaves Gene when he begins showing signs of mental deterioration in Season 3. He moved in with the Drapers during season 3 and later died in that season, set in 1963. Betty has a brother, William (Eric Ladin), who is married to Judy (Megan Henning) and whose daughters Don and Betty consider to be "rowdy." Betty's confidantes have included her neighbor Francine Hanson (Anne Dudek) and Glen Bishop (Marten Holden Weiner), the young son of divorcée Helen Bishop (Darby Stanchfield). Ill-suited for parenting, Betty has a strained relationship with her children, particularly with her daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka).

=== Season one === Betty and Don Draper live in a large house in suburban Ossining, New York, with their children Sally and Bobby (Maxwell Huckabee). In the second episode, set in the spring of 1960, Betty starts to see a psychiatrist to address repeated spells of numbness in her hands, which medical doctors have indicated are psychosomatic. It was during these meetings that, after having discovered the psychiatrist was giving reports of her sessions to Don, she voiced her suspicion that her husband was unfaithful. By the start of the second season, set in February 1962, she had discontinued the consultations.

=== Season two === During the second-season episode "A Night to Remember", Betty and Don seem to have reached an agreement, but after a dinner party where Betty is embarrassed to be considered a "demographic" by Don and his associates, she confronts her husband for the first time about his adultery, specifically with Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw). Don, however, denies having an affair. The next day, with a glass of wine in hand, Betty searches through Don's belongings for proof of his indiscretions but does not find any. Betty awakens Don - who is sleeping on the couch - that night and explains that she doesn't want things to "be like this." He repeats that he did not do anything, and when she asks if he hates her, he insists that he loves her and doesn't want to "lose this." When preparing dinner the next day, an Utz commercial featuring Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fischler) airs on television, reminding Betty of Don's infidelity. After seeing this, Betty calls Don at work and tells him she doesn't want him to come home. Betty does turn to Don when she learns her father has suffered a stroke. She and Don leave the children with a neighbor and drive to visit Gene. Betty is visibly impatient with Gloria and William, but she and Don are careful to present a united front. At the end of a stressful day, Betty makes Don sleep on the floor of the guestroom, but later joins him on the floor, where they have sex. The next morning, Gene mistakes Betty for her late mother Ruth, suggesting they "go upstairs." Betty is shocked and frightened, but tries to pretend that everything is all right. When she and Don return to New York, Betty surprises Don by asking him to leave again. In the Season 2 finale, Betty discovers she is pregnant. Although she brings up the subject of abortion with her doctor and has sex with a random man she picks up at a bar at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the end of the episode she asks Don to return home, and tells him she is pregnant.

=== Season three === Season 3 begins with Betty in her third trimester, seemingly reconciled with Don. In Episode 5, she gives birth to Eugene Scott Draper, whom she names after her father. After giving birth, Betty comes to the quick realization that her dream of everything being perfect will never come true. During Episode 3, Betty and Don attend a country club party hosted by Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and his new wife, Jane Siegel Sterling (Peyton List), where Betty meets Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), who is later revealed to be an advisor to then-New York governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. She later calls on behalf of the Junior League of Tarrytown to ask if he will stop the destruction of the Pleasantville Road Reservoir. Henry is infatuated with Betty, and though she seems reluctant to return his feelings at first, as the season progresses, their affair intensifies. Betty eventually ends it, feeling guilty. In Episode 11, Betty corners Don, after getting into a locked drawer in the desk in his home office that contains pictures and documents of Don's past life. (Don had inadvertently left his keys in his clothes, and Betty heard them jingling in the dryer). She forces him to give her an explanation, and he haltingly tells her about his life as Dick Whitman, how he came to exchange dog tags with Lieutenant Don Draper, and his half-brother Adam's (Jay Paulson) suicide. While apparently sympathetic to his feelings of guilt about Adam's death, Betty is conflicted about Don's having hidden this aspect of his life from her. After President John F. Kennedy's assassination and Margaret Sterling's (Elizabeth Rice) wedding the following day, Betty meets with Henry, who confesses his desire to marry her. They passionately kiss, and after the encounter, Betty returns home to tell Don she no longer loves him, leaving him stunned. This culminates in her seeing a divorce lawyer in the season 3 finale. During the same episode, Roger, whose daughter is friends with Henry's daughter, unintentionally reveals to Don that Betty and Henry are involved. An incensed Don confronts Betty. After calling her a whore, he assures her that she "won't get a nickel" in the ensuing divorce, and he intends to seek sole custody of the children. The next morning, Don and Betty inform the children they are separating, and both older children react badly. After moving into Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's new office, Don calls Betty and tells her he will not fight her, and he wishes her the best. She tells him he'll always be their children's father. The season ends with Betty taking a plane to Reno with baby Gene and Henry.

=== Season four === Betty's presence in season four is diminished compared to the previous seasons. Season 4 opens with Betty, Henry, and the children still living in the former Draper residence (which Don owns) following Betty's marriage to Henry. The residence is a point of contention for Don and Betty, as Don is still paying the mortgage, and Betty is required by their divorce agreement to move out but has not. Throughout Season 4, Betty finds her marriage to Henry strained by tensions with Don and by deteriorating relations with Sally. When she discovers Sally has become friends with her old confidant, Glen Bishop, Betty forces them to end the friendship. Glen's reappearance is the catalyst for Betty to finally insist to Henry that it's time for them to move because of the "low-caliber people" taking over the neighborhood, much to Sally's distress. In the season finale "Tomorrowland", Betty and Francis are packing to move out of the Ossining house and into a new home in nearby Rye, New York. When the children's nanny, Carla (Deborah Lacey), lets Glen into the house to say goodbye to Sally, Betty becomes upset and fires her, refusing to give her a reference. This angers Henry, with whom Betty feels increasingly dissatisfied. At the end of the episode Betty waits for Don at the now-empty Ossining house, telling him she is unhappy with her new life. Don senses her desire to try to repair things between them, but instead informs her of his engagement to Megan Calvet (Jessica Paré). Betty congratulates him, but is visibly disheartened and angry that he has moved on. They leave the house through opposite doors.