Topic: Pete Campbell

Peter "Pete" Campbell, sometimes known as Peter Dyckman-Campbell, is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser.

Pete Campbell was born in New York City to an upper class WASP family. In the show's pilot episode, he has just turned 26, which makes his birth year 1934. His mother, Dorothy Dyckman-Campbell, is a member of the elite Dyckman family, which owned most of upper Manhattan prior to 1929. Though Pete's father, Andrew Campbell, eventually loses most of the Dyckman property after 1929, Pete's upbringing is in league with many children of his social status. He attended Deerfield Academy and spent summers at his parents' estate on Fisher's Island, as well as at exclusive country clubs in the Hamptons and Newport. Pete was in a fraternity during his college years.

Pete has a strained relationship with his family members. Both of Pete's parents are emotionally absent and disapproving of their younger son's decision to go into advertising. In season two, after his father dies in a plane crash over Jamaica Bay, Pete is unable to cry. In real life, actor Christopher Allport, who played Pete's father, was killed in a freak avalanche at the Mountain High Ski Resort in Southern California on January 25, 2008. The Mad Men writers then decided to kill off his character as well.