Spoiler warning: We’re about to discuss the fates of several Mad Men minor characters.
Mad Men wouldn’t have become an instant TV classic without its stellar lead cast and richly developed main characters. But the show has also benefited from its deep bench of supporting characters, many of whom showed up for one or two seasons, made a huge impact, then bounced off into parts unknown. So where can you see some of those faces again? We took to the internet to find out what the actors who played some of Mad Men‘s most unforgettable peripheral characters have been up to.
Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett)
Insult comic and potato-chip pitchman Jimmy Barrett became a nemesis for Don Draper in season 2, after discovering that Don was having an affair with his wife, Bobbie. Jimmy coldly relays this information to Betty at a party, then blasts Don with one of the best insults in the entire series: “You’re garbage. And you know it.” He eventually gets punched for his troubles.
Before he was Jimmy Barrett, Patrick Fischler was probably best known as the guy who got scared to death in Mulholland Drive. Since his time on Mad Men, Fischler has had recurring roles on Lost, Southland, and Californication, and he appeared on ABC’s Once Upon a Time this year. You can currently catch him on HBO’s tech-world comedy Silicon Valley, and he’ll be on the big screen next February in the upcoming Coen Brothers movie Hail, Caesar!
Cara Buono (Dr. Faye Miller)
The fiercely independent psychologist developed a romance with Don in season 4 while she was working at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as a market research consultant. Her intelligence and confidence seemingly made her a good match for Don — until he proposed to his young secretary Megan on a whim. “I hope she knows you only like the beginnings of things,” Faye tells him, boiling down his questionable character to its essence.
Cara Buono’s work on Mad Men netted her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She has been a fixture on CBS dramas since then. Buono just capped off a run on season 4 of Person of Interest, which followed guest-appearances on Hawaii Five-O, The Good Wife and Elementary. See? You should start watching CBS once in a while!
Crista Flanagan (Lois Sadler)
Following a stint on Mad TV, comic actress Crista Flanagan showed up as Lois the receptionist/secretary on Mad Men, appearing in seasons 1-3 and famously running over a dude’s foot with a lawn mower. Flanagan parlayed her new cult-fame into a 2010 Playboy appearance and has had bit roles on comedy series like 2 Broke Girls, Key and Peele, and Hello Ladies. Her next recurring role will be on the TBS sitcom Clipped, which premieres on June 16th.
Chelcie Ross (Conrad “Connie” Hilton)
Before Chelcie Ross was in Mad Men, he was in everything. (To us, he’ll always be Eddie Harris from Major League.) Ross’s acting output has slowed down since his frantic heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, but he keeps popping up around the television dial, adding some old-pro gravitas to Grey’s Anatomy, CSI: Miami, Scandal, and NCIS in recent years. He also appeared in the 2012 Clint Eastwood flick Trouble With the Curve.
Linda Cardellini (Sylvia Rosen)
Don Draper’s dangerous liaison with married neighbor Sylvia Rosen culminated with Don keeping her locked up in a hotel room, in a Christian Grey-style game of psychological dominance. (There was also that awkward moment when Don and Sylvia were caught in the act by Sally; Don’s relationship with his daughter has been chilly ever since.)
Linda Cardellini was already well-known for her starring role as Lindsay Weir in the short-lived NBC series Freaks and Geeks. This year, she appeared in the critically acclaimed Netflix original series Bloodline, and in the blockbuster superhero flick Avengers: Age of Ultron as Hawkeye’s wife, Laura Barton. Cardellini recently wrapped shooting on the upcoming Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy, Daddy’s Home.
Bryan Batt (Sal Romano)
As a closeted gay man in the hyper-masculine world of New York advertising, Sterling Cooper art director Sal Romano had to walk a thin line to avoid suspicion. But despite his efforts, Sal was forced out of the firm after rejecting the advances of Lucky Strike exec Lee Garner Jr. during season 3, and hasn’t been back since. Bryan Batt’s film career after Mad Men has bounced between the serious (12 Years a Slave) and the not-so-serious (Wiener Dog Nationals?). You’ll be able to see him next on MTV’s Scream: The TV Series — which premieres June 30th — and in the Nicolas Cage film The Runner later this year.
Randee Heller (Ida Blankenship)
Don’s mythical, ancient, and totally incompetent secretary was a former “hellcat” who was allegedly one of Roger Sterling’s earliest sexual conquests. Her unceremonious death at her desk prompted the following poetic eulogy from Bert Cooper: “She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the thirty-seventh floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.”
Luckily, Randee Heller is still alive. The veteran actress — who played Daniel LaRusso’s mom in The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid, Part III — most recently appeared in seasons 3 and 4 of Wilfred, that FX show where Elijah Wood talks to a dog or whatever.
Melinda Page Hamilton (Anna Draper)
The widow of the real Don Draper — before Dick Whitman nicked his identity in Korea — Anna Draper became a dear friend and confidant to Don #2, and her death from cancer in season 4 left him emotionally devastated. Melinda Page Hamilton’s next steady gig post-Mad Men was on the campy Lifetime series Devious Maids, and she currently appears in the role of Sandra in the USA drama Dig, about an FBI agent who discovers a 2,000-year-old conspiracy in Jerusalem.
Michael Gladis (Paul Kinsey)
Though he was a regular presence in the first two seasons of Mad Men, Paul Kinsey has been completely M.I.A. since season 5, when the pretentious ex-copywriter/civil rights activist returned as a down-on-his-luck Hare Krishna hawking a Star Trek script. We can assume that Kinsey never made it as a Hollywood screenwriter, but Michael Gladis has been staying busy. The actor starred in the CBS legal drama Reckless last year, and was on season 4 of Showtime’s House of Lies this year. You can see him fighting off robots in Terminator Genisys, which hits theaters on July 1st.
Charlie Hofheimer (Abe Drexler)
The relationship between Peggy Olson and Abe Drexler was doomed from the start. He was a rabble-rousing leftist journalist who railed against The Man. She was a cog in the soulless machine of capitalism. When Peggy stabbed him in the stomach, it was the last straw. “Your activities are offensive to my every waking moment,” Abe tells her afterwards, with his guts leaking. “I’m sorry, but you’ll always be the enemy.” Eh, who needs him. Charlie Hofheimer returned to AMC this year, appearing in two episodes of Turn: Washington’s Spies.
Maggie Siff (Rachel Menken)
We’ll call this one an “honorable mention,” since nobody who watched the last half-season of Mad Men has actually forgotten about Rachel Menken. News of Rachel’s untimely death from leukemia spurs Don into another round of soul-searching, which eventually leads him to drop out of his life entirely. But the department store boss and Draper-paramour hasn’t really been a part of the show since season 2, and Maggie Siff is awesome, so we figured we’d let you know what she’s been doing. The former Sons of Anarchy star took some time off after giving birth to her first child last April, but she’s currently filming Billions, a Showtime drama about “power politics in the New York world of high finance” starring Homeland‘s Damian Lewis. Billions will debut sometime next year.
