Betty Draper

Elizabeth "Betty" Hofstadt Francis (formerly Draper) is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men, wife of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and mother of his three children. Blonde and beautiful but emotionally distant and immature, she spends the bulk of the series slowly growing as a person amid the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. The character's appearance is often compared to that of Grace Kelly, with the similarities between the two also drawn during the first season of the series. Jones received two Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance. She also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series twice along with the cast of Mad Men. Casting and character development The character of Betty Draper was not originally part of the pilot episode, though she did appear in the pilot. The script established that lead character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) was married, but only by a mention in dialogue, and there was no intention to show his home life. January Jones was instead initially considered, along with Elisabeth Moss, for the character Peggy Olson; Moss was ultimately cast as Peggy. Show creator Matthew Weiner then wrote two scenes featuring Betty, and Jones successfully auditioned for the part two days later. Although there were no full scripts or even plot ideas involving the character at the time, Weiner promised Jones that the character would be developed. Weiner has attributed Mad Mens visual style to the influence of film director Alfred Hitchcock, who featured a signature "icy blonde" female character in many of his films. Betty Draper's character has also been compared to that of Peyton Place's Constance MacKenzie: "cold, remote, and emotionally unavailable."