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The ‘60s are over. The Mad Men have left Madison Avenue…but in our hearts, they’ll always be there.

On July 19, 2007, Mad Men premiered on AMC. The prestige drama followed the employees of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency in New York City, as they navigated campaigns, workplace romances, the turbulent ‘60s, and smoked lots of cigarettes. Week after week, viewers tuned into the series as relationships evolved, deals were made, people were fired, and ad slogans were created

On May 17, 2015, Mad Men ended after seven seasons. What has become of the Mad Men cast since the television drama ended? Let’s check in with the Sterling Cooper advertising team…

Jon Hamm (Don Draper)

Jon Hamm played Don Draper, the head of Creative at Sterling Cooper. Over the course of the series Draper becomes a junior partner and goes on to start his own firm after Sterling Cooper is sold to McCann Erickson. Draper was born as Richard Whitman and served under the real Don Draper during the Korean War. He assumed his commanding officer’s identity after he was killed in combat.

Since the end of Mad Men, Hamm has kept himself busy with various film and television roles. He had a role on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm playing an exaggerated version of himself. Hamm played Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson in Top Gun: Maverick and had a starring role in the 2022 comedy Confess, Fletch. Hamm has also done some animation roles, voicing characters in Minions, Transformers One, and Invincible. He’s currently starring in the Apple TV+ comedy Your Friends & Neighbors, where he also serves as executive producer.

January Jones (Betty Draper)

January Jones played Betty Draper, Don Draper’s long-suffering wife. She eventually divorces Don and marries Henry Francis. During the final season Betty is diagnosed with lung cancer and is given less than a year to live. Despite her terminal prognosis, Betty insists that her children live with her brother and his wife rather than Don, who she feels is an unfit father.

After Mad Men ended, Jones played one of the leads in the Fox television comedy The Last Man on Earth. Afterwards, she joined the cast of the Netflix skating drama Spinning Out. However, the series was cancelled after a single season. Jones went on to play Maureen Bacon in the 2023 film God is a Bullet.

Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson)

Elisabeth Moss played Peggy Olson, Don Draper’s secretary. Olson eventually works her way up to copywriter, a position which allows her to penetrate the ‘boys club’ at Sterling Cooper. Olson and Draper had an interesting mentor-mentee relationship, but their relationship deteriorates over the course of the series. Olson was so devoted to her job that she stayed late during her birthday rather than celebrating with her boyfriend and family.

Moss’s career has continued to rise since the end of Mad Men. Moss plays June Osborne in The Handmaid’s Tale, a role which has earned her numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Moss serves as a producer for the Hulu drama and she has also directed numerous episodes. Moss has appeared in numerous films, including Her Smell, The Invisible Man, and Shirley. She’s currently developing a drama series called Imperfect Women alongside Kerry Washington.

Christina Hendricks (Joan Holloway)

Christina Hendricks portrayed Joan Holloway, the head of Sterling Cooper’s secretarial pool. When Sterling Cooper was sold and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was formed, Holloway became office manager, and would later work her way up to partner. This was all complicated by her on-again off-again affair with Roger Sterling.

Since the end of Mad Men, Hendricks has kept herself busy with a variety of television roles. Christina Hendricks can be seen on Hap and Leonard, Good Girls, Small Town, Big Story, and Good American Family. She’s also starred in films like The Neon Demon, The Strangers: Prey at Night, and American Woman. If you have kids, then you might have recognized her as the voice of the villain Gabby Gabby in Toy Story 4.

Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell)

Vincent Kartheiser played Pete Campbell, an account executive at Sterling Cooper. Pete comes from an affluent family who once owned a stake in half of Manhattan’s real estate. His background has given him a bit of a smug attitude, but this softens as the series progresses.

After Mad Men, Kartheiser appeared in numerous film roles, including The Most Hated Woman in America, My Friend Dahmer, and The Social Dilemma. Kartheiser appeared as William Bradford in the television miniseries Saints & Strangers, which earned him a Critics’ Choice Television Awards nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. Kartheiser played the DC Comics villain Scarecrow in the HBO Max series Titans. As of this writing, Kartheiser has had no credited acting roles since 2021.

John Slattery (Roger Sterling)

John Slattery played Roger Sterling, a partner at Sterling Cooper. Roger is a hard-drinking womanizer who frequently belittled his staff. He isn’t above firing his workers to make a point, as Sal Romano learned. When Sterling Cooper is sold, Roger co-founds Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

After Mad Men ended, Slattery played journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. in the 2015 drama Spotlight. His guest-role as Claude Dumet in Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: The First Day of Camp earned him a nomination for Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. He appeared as Howard Stark in various Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. As of this writing, he’s currently filming for the movie Nuremberg, where he will play Col. Burton C. Andrus.

Robert Morse (Bert Cooper)

Robert Morse played Bert Cooper, a senior partner at Sterling Cooper. Bert is a sharp businessman, who uses his connections in Manhattan’s high society to network and strike deals. Bert loves Japanese culture, and his office is filled with Japanese art, literature, and artifacts.

After Mad Men, Morse portrayed Dominick Dunne in the critically acclaimed miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. He also had a recurring role as Santa Claus for the animated series Teen Titans Go!. In between his television and film roles, Morse played Mr. Pincus for Broadhurst Theatre’s production of The Front Page. After a long and celebrated career, Morse passed away at his Los Angeles, California home on April 20, 2022, at the age of 90.

Jared Harris (Lane Pryce)

Jared Harris played Lane Pryce, a representative from the British firm Putnam, Powell, & Lowe. When Pryce’s firm buys out Sterling Cooper, he is invited to become a partner at the new firm which would become Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Eager to leave his ruthless employers behind, Pryce accepts.

Since Mad Men has ended, Harris has continued to make a name for himself doing prestige television roles. His role as King George VI on Netflix’s The Crown earned him critical acclaim and numerous award nominations. Harris went on to play Captain Francis Crozier in AMC’s The Terror, a role which earned him a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Film. His role as Valery Legasov in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl earned him a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. Harris has also kept busy doing numerous theater projects, including a stint as Claudius in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Hamlet.

Did January Jones and Jon Hamm get along?

By all accounts, January Jones and Jon Hamm’s real-life relationship was much better than the drama-filled one between their Mad Men characters Don and Betty Draper. Multiple reports indicate that the actors are close friends who regularly hang out when they reunite at award shows or other Hollywood functions. In fact, their relationship was so close that some gossip rags started rumors that they were dating. However, it seems their relationship is strictly platonic.

Did they smoke real cigarettes in Mad Men?

To keep things authentic to the ‘60s Madison Avenue setting, many scenes in Mad Men involve the characters smoking. In fact, Don Draper smoked 74 cigarettes in the pilot episode alone. Smoking cigarettes was a lot more prevalent in that era, especially in business settings. However, the cigarettes on Mad Men weren’t real. The cast smoked herbal cigarettes.

 We now know more about the various health risks involved with smoking tobacco, and no showrunner or studio would force their actors to smoke as extensively as the characters did on Mad Men. However, some critics have raised concerns about possible health risks that come from herbal cigarettes.

Who did Jon Hamm marry from Mad Men?

In June 2023 Jon Hamm married actress Anna Osceola. The two met on the set of Mad Men, where Osceola played Clementine, a counselor at a spiritual retreat that Don Draper visits in the Mad Men series finale. Clementine encourages Don to stay at the spiritual retreat, where he has an emotional breakthrough. This leads to him getting the inspiration for the iconic 1971 ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ Coca-Cola ad.

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