Mad Men: How Old Don Draper Is At The Beginning & End
Don Draper is at the center of Mad Men across all seven seasons, which span the entire 1960s decade, but how old is he at the beginning and end?
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Mad Men’s Don Draper is a man of mystery, and his age is no exception – so how old is he at the beginning and end of the show? The AMC drama follows Don’s life as a secretive ad man in the 1960s and periodically flashes back to his turbulent past. The period between his childhood in an Illinois brothel and his career as a creative director on Madison Avenue is especially murky, but as the show goes on, the opaque protagonist reveals himself – and his age – in pieces.
Don Draper has two ages and two birthdays to contend with. In the Mad Men season 1 episode “Indian Summer,” Pete Campbell steals a shoebox from Don’s late brother Adam Whitman, which contains dog tags, letters, and photographs that reveal Don’s true identity. In the following episode, “Nixon vs. Kennedy,” Pete uncovers that Don was born Richard “Dick” Whitman, and that he stole his later identity from fallen soldier Lieutenant Don Draper during the Korean War. The contents of the box also reveal that the real Don Draper would have been 43 years old at the time. The Nixon vs. Kennedy election was held on November 8, 1960, meaning the real Don would have been born in 1917.
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The new Don changes his identity to sever ties with his gloomy past and build a brighter life. Viewers first find him in the Knick Knack Bar in March 1960. “Alone in a red corner booth is DON DRAPER, early 30s, handsome, conservative, and despite his third seven and seven, he is apparently sober,” the original pilot script reads. In the Mad Men season 2 premiere, “For Those Who Think Young,” Don gets an insurance physical and his doctor advises him to adjust his current daily diet of two packs of cigarettes and five Old-Fashioned cocktails due to his 36 years of age. Ten episodes later, in “The Jet Set,” Don confirms his age of 36 to a 21-year-old bohemian named Joy before embarking on an affair with her. “The Jet Set” takes place two years after the pilot, meaning Don was around the age of 34 in the pilot and is therefore eight or nine years younger than his namesake.
In the Mad Men season 3 premiere, “Out of Town,” which takes place in March 1963, Don whispers to a stewardess named Shelly that it is his birthday. She asks to see his driver’s license, but he says that will not help prove it, indicating that he – Dick Whitman – was born in March. He contradicts himself in the season 5 premiere, “A Little Kiss,” in which he celebrates his 40th birthday and tells his wife Megan that he has really been 40 for six months. The episode takes place immediately after Memorial Day weekend in 1966, which would pin his real birthday in the previous December or January.
The Mad Men series finale, “Person to Person,” finds Don at a spiritual retreat beside the Pacific Ocean. The episode takes place in November 1970, exactly 10 years and eight months after the pilot, which would pin Don’s real age at 44 at the end of the series. The series’ seven seasons span a decade in Draper’s life, from his mid-30s in 1960 to his mid-40s in 1970, revealing lingering pieces of his past along the way.
When his story began, Don had just left the straight-laced 1950s, a decade in which he fought more wars than one, abandoned his former life and his former self, and started over. When Mad Men ends, he has entered a new decade with a newfound freedom from the shadows that used to follow him. Meditating in the sun in lotus position and offering a rare half-smile, Don Draper lets go of his past and finds peace in the present.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mad-men-don-start-ending-age-how-old/