Don Draper

"For the man whose identity he assumed, please see Donald Draper (Lieutenant)"Donald Francis Draper, born Richard "Dick" Whitman, was an American advertising executive and copywriter, best known as the co-founder of the firms Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Sterling Cooper & Partners.

In 1926, Richard Whitman was born to Archibald Whitman in rural Illinois. Following his father's death, Whitman moved with his step-mother to a brothel in Pennsylvania, where he was repeatedly physically and sexually abused. Joining the Army in 1950, Whitman served in Korea under the command of Lieutenant Donald Draper. Following Draper's death in an accidental explosion, Whitman stole Draper's dog tags and assumed his identities. Under the newly formed identity of "Don Draper", Draper began working as a car salesman and a copywriter for a coat shop, all while working himself through city college. Eventually working himself to a advertising agency Sterling Cooper in the 1950s, Draper rapidly proved himself to be a star copywriter. Draper married Betty Hofstadt in 1953, and the couple would have three children together.

Becoming Sterling Cooper's creative director by 1960, Draper would help establish the new firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) alongside Roger Sterling, Bert Cooper, and Lane Pryce in 1963. His marriage with Betty would dissolve in the same year in the light of his numerous infidelities and his true identity coming to light. Draper would marry his much younger secretary, Megan Calvet, in 1965. SCDP would merge with rival firm Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough (CGC) to firm Sterling Cooper & Partners (SC&P) in 1968 as part of a scheme to acquire the Chevrolet account. Draper would separate from Calvet in 1970, and would leave his job following SC&P's full merger with firm McCann Erickson, developing a nomadic existence across the naton.