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Characters / St. Elsewhere

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St. Eligius Staff

    Dr. Wendy Armstrong 

Actor: Kim Miyori

Tropes:

  • Big Eater: Revealed to be bulimic.
  • Driven to Suicide: Following the board exams within Season 2, Armstrong learns she was accepted into the second year of residency. It pushes her over the edge, and we next see her as the patient wheeled into the ER, dying minutes afterwards near the end of the season.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: She told Cathy she originally wanted to be a dancer, but was too fat. It plays a big factor into her disorder years later.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • What the Hell, Hero?: She's furious at Morrison for him continuing his friendship with Peter White, with her hatred bordering if not close to Tranquil Fury levels of rage.

    Dr. Daniel Auschlander 

Actor: Norman Lloyd

The hospital's avuncular Chief of Services, a liver specialist who has been diagnosed with liver cancer.

Tropes:

  • Cool Old Guy: More affable and mischievous than either Westphall or Craig.
  • Deadpan Snarker: One of the best St. Eligius has to offer in terms of snark, second next to Craig.
  • Mentor: To Luther Hawkins.

    Dr. Eliot Axelrod 

Actor: Stephen Furst

Nervous medical student introduced in season 2. He becomes a resident in the next season.

Tropes:

  • Adorkable: Has a huge amount of enthusiasm to spare, second only to both Fiscus and Morrison.
  • Big Eater: One small arc in season 4 has Eliot and his girlfriend go on a diet. She does better than he does.
  • Hollywood Pudgy: He's more cuddly than morbidly obese, but everyone treats him as if he were the latter. He even dies of a heart attack while still in his twenties and being only mildly overweight.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Morality Pet: He becomes this for Mrs. Hufnagel.
  • Nice Guy: Along with Luther, he's one of the more nicer characters, but even he has his limits.
  • Skilled, but Naive: During the beginning of season 2 in his first few appearances. He was able to treat a horse because his father is a veterinarian and knew the exact life-saving ingredients needed.
  • Took a Level in Cynic: Even admits it in Brand New Bag that his previous attempts to lose weight and the failure of not losing any in season 4 left him angry, bitter and cynical about it all.

    Dr. Hugh Beale 

Actor: G. W. Bailey

Tropes:

    Dr. Robert Caldwell 

Actor: Mark Harmon

Tropes:

  • Bus Crash: The characters learn of his ultimate fate in season 6's Heaven's Skate.
  • Byronic Hero: Particularly during season 4, when his impulsive and reckless side comes to the surface.
  • Dating Catwoman: In season 2, he's involved romantically with Joan Halloran, who begins as an antagonistic character that clashes with the doctors over the hospital's expenses.
  • Must Make Amends: He apologizes to Halloran in their last episode together in Family Affair as well as to the rest of the staff about his earlier attitude in season 4.
  • Porn Stache: In the first half of season 2, Mark Harmon had a very thick mustache. He gets rid of it in the episode "A Pig Too Far", but not before walking around with it half-shaved off.
  • Put on a Bus: He leaves to California to start work at an AIDS hospice after leaving St. Eligius near season 4's end.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the season 4 premiere by helping Chandler fight off some hecklers bothering him, Fiscus and Ehrlich. He takes another level later in season 4 by calling Craig out on his ignorance, calling him a little bastard when he learns Caldwell has AIDS and responds accordingly.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In season 4, he decides he's had enough of being the nice guy, and begins giving in to all his lower impulses, sleeping around, groping nurses and giving Victor a verbal thrashing he may not have entirely deserved. The fallout from his behavior included getting his face slashed by a crazed one-night-stand, nearly getting slapped with a sexual harassment suit from Lucy, a dressing-down from Auschlander and, late in the season, realizing he'd contracted AIDS.

    Dr. Annie Cavanero 

Actor: Cynthia Sikes

An OB-GYN who is just past her residency.

Tropes:

  • Berserk Button: Wayne Fiscus is one to her whenever he's around Cathy sometimes, since she doesn't like him very much.
  • Boomerang Bigot: She believes that her new doctor friend's sexuality is deviant and unnatural. Her friend proves her wrong and tells her her bigotry won't go away that quickly. Goes hand in hand with Values Dissonance as no doctor would possibly react the way that she did within the series.
  • Married to the Job: It seems like she's always been that way for the first three seasons.
  • Mistaken for Gay: She is actually offended when rumors spread that she's sleeping with a new doctor who is an out lesbian.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of season 3.

    Dr. Philip Chandler 

Actor: Denzel Washington

Tropes:

  • Billing Displacement: Appears front and center on the DVD box despite him being just one part of an Ensemble Cast, arguably a more minor character than fellow residents Jack Morrison, Victor Ehrlich or Wayne Fiscus.
  • Dr. Jerk: Whether it's towards Luther at one point, at Morrison in another, a Vietnamese patient that he's throwing their history back at the poor man or even being a jerk in general at Novino for one-upping him when she re-joins St. Eligius at the near end of season 4, Chandler and his own mouth earned himself nothing but trouble afterwards. It's been in root even before he comes back from Ecumena's corporate training in the final season.
  • Fantastic Racism: He tells a Vietnamese patient that his entire nation got what they deserved in the Vietnam War.
  • Insufferable Genius: He likes to believe he's smarter than his colleagues or some of his patients due to his position within St. Eligius.
  • It's All About Me: It's hinted at by other characters that Chandler tends to talk to them as if it's all about him.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Chandler's privileged upbringing alienated him from other Black children when growing up, and he never fit in with the rich kids because of his race.
  • The Resenter: His targets included Luther for having Penny's heart, Morrison for his empathy... who doesn't he resent at times in the series?
    • It's revealed after he goes off on a Vietnamese patient that he resents the way that his brother died in the Vietnam War, as revealed in the beginning of season 4. He later reminisces that he loved his brother.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the season 4 premiere he punches a heckler with his bare hands.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: He once tried to woo Penny. Luther was the better of the two, earning him his ire due to his carefree attitude and being a nicer guy than Chandler is. It seems to be over with by the time season 4 rolls around with Chandler and Hawkins being friendly once again, with Hawkins also becoming a paramedic as well.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Chandler's main motivation for getting into medicine was to please his father.
  • Written-In Absence: Was off in Missouri for training when Denzel Washington was filming a movie.

    Warren Coolidge 

Actor: Byron Stewart

Tropes:

  • Gentle Giant: At 6' 8", he towers over patients and doctors. Used to moving effect in "Weigh In, Way Out", where he fulfills a dying man's request to be rocked like a baby.
  • Transplant: From The White Shadow.

    Dr. Mark Craig 

Actor: William Daniels

Ill-tempered Chief of Surgery at St. Eligius.

Tropes:

  • Break the Haughty: Over the course of the series, he suffers a number of personal and professional setbacks: his heart transplant patient dies, his son Stephen develops a drug problem and eventually dies in a car accident, he injures his hand in a fit of rage and faces the prospect of never being able to operate again, his marriage to Ellen falls apart, his artificial heart patient ends up regretting the procedure before dying and at one point he's mistaken for a homeless person.
  • Catchphrase: "Oh, for crying out loud!" To a lesser degree, "For the love of Mike..." and "This is your fault, Ellen!"
  • The Determinator
  • Dr. Jerk: Especially earlier in the series. In the second episode, after saving a man's life with a bypass operation, he comments to the patient's young, chubby son that his son's a doctor, and that maybe the younger Craig will operate on him someday.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Type 2/Type 4. He is very blunt to the point of rudeness. He is impatient, fussy, and arrogant. What drives him, though, is a deep conviction in the preciousness of life, and he will not tolerate any less of others than he does himself.
  • Mentor: A reluctant one to Dr. Ehrlich.
  • The Napoleon: His height's been mentioned before in previous episodes, with Caldwell in Family Affair calling him a little bastard at one point.
  • N-Word Privileges: After learning Caldwell has AIDS in "Family Affair", he says he didn't know Caldwell was a "fag". Caldwell is briefly incensed as a result.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After the events of "Cheek to Cheek" he scathingly blasts Westphall for his community-outreach program failure by citing Morrison's rape as proof of its failure.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Doctor: If "Time Heals" is any indication, he was much more like Ehrlich in his earlier years before going to Boston General and his return to St. Eligius.

    Nurse Shirley Daniels 

Actor: Ellen Bry

A younger nurse who usually associates with the residents.

Tropes:

  • Ax-Crazy: Saying that she visited her sister in Nantucket and frightening her about her crime? Turns out there's no sister in Nantucket. Knitting a few tiny ski masks for Peter White Jr. was probably the final straw in what little sanity she had left and gleefully denying any of it. Pulling a gun out on a patient and calling said patient "Peter"? Then pulling the gun on Morrison before it was revealed to be a prop gun? Woo boy howdy.
  • Death Glare: Pulls this on people throughout the series whenever she's pissed. Morrison returns one at her at some point in season 3.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She's reviled by how everyone in St. Eligius thinks of her in such pity in her final episode in season 5.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: She pulls what appears to be a gun on a patient waiting after the patient gets irate in Murder, She Wrote, but then afterwards turns the gun on Morrison, with it later revealing to be a "Bang!" Flag Gun. She even says if anyone can take a joke before leaving in disgust.
  • Evil Feels Good: Upon her return in Red, White, Black and Blue she justifies her newfound attitude with this, saying that she never used to see the good side of the craziness before and only the bad part until now and plans to enjoy it, both grossing out and equally horrifying Fiscus at the same time, although then there's that other part later on that she wanted Morrison dead...
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: In earlier seasons.
  • It's Personal: She deeply resents Rosenthal for transferring her out of ER after the incident that demotes Dr. White to morgue duty. Rosenthal doesn't feel the same way.
    • It's revealed later on that she had a deep-seeded hatred AND a grudge towards Boomer due to his earlier Those Two Guys relationship with Peter White. She even says to Morrison that she made a mistake... and that she should've splattered him all over the sidewalks of the hospital itself, earning a well-deserved death glare back from him.
  • Lack of Empathy: Upon Wayne mentioning Cathy Martin's return to the residential unit while they're both visiting at a local bar, she initially appears glad for Martin and then says it's proof that everyone gets better... if they want to. It deeply scares Fiscus just how nonchalantly she was about her former friend.
  • Sanity Slippage: Experiences it after murdering White. It's what makes her fall to darkness even harder.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She walks away from the hospital after the entire incident in Murder, She Wrote she caused in holding Morrison at gunpoint with the prop gun. Some of the staff lampshade it by saying Auschlander never officially hired her back.
  • Smug Snake: She develops this during the course of her leaving St. Eligius for awhile in season 3, to where she's no better than White.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Towards Morrison at one point before her vacation in season 3. Morrison directly says it to her that he thinks of their relationship as Just Friends.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Pulls this on Lucy Papandrao for working a surgery Ehrlich required her assistance on in season 3, feeling she betrayed the nurses' trust by "scabbing". She later tries this on Rosenthal due to a bitter resentment she has towards her as well as Rosenthal organizing the strike, which is a case of Hypocritical Humor when she tried to do that on Papandrao.

    Dr. Victor Ehrlich born Bernard Oseransky 

Actor: Ed Begley Jr.

Tall, blonde, bespectacled surgical resident from California, and usually on the receiving end of Dr. Craig's wrath.

Tropes:

  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Throughout season 5 with Lucy Papandrao.
  • Butt-Monkey: Nothing Ehrlich says or does is right, even if it's similar to something someone else just said or did.
  • Character Development: Matures both as a doctor and as a person to the point where he is Happily Married with Nurse Lucy Papandrao.
  • Dr. Jerk: A much milder case than Dr. Craig, though.
  • Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: He usually wears Hawaiian shirts with neckties as part of his hospital attire.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A non-sexual example: he is at least a foot taller than his fellow surgical intern Jackie Wade.
  • Innocently Insensitive: When Cathy Martin returns to work after her stay in the psych ward following her second rape in season 3, he manages to be even more insulting while apologizing for his past behavior.
  • No Social Skills
  • Phrase Catcher: Particularly through season 2, where every major character utters a variant of "You're a pig, Ehrlich."
  • Surfer Dude: Before coming to Boston, Ehrlich was one of these in California. His friend Dogger still is.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Ehrlich never means any harm, but he consistently finds the worst way to phrase things, often making things worse just by continuing to speak.

    Dr. Wayne Fiscus 

Actor: Howie Mandel

A sarcastic emergency medicine resident.

Tropes:

  • All Love Is Unrequited: He's been pining for Cathy Martin since season 1, which didn't work out well for him afterwards. It gets much worse at the end of season 3 for him when she falls in love with Kochar.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: His mother's arrival interrupts one of his sexual trysts, and she tells his co-workers a particularly mortifying story about his childhood.
  • Arch-Enemy: Peter White serves as this to him after he saves Armstrong.
    • Even after White's death, it still sticks as of After Life, but eventually they come to a tentative peace between them.
  • Big Applesauce: He was born and raised in New York City.
  • Big Brother Mentor: To Dr. Axelrod, which also becomes Those Two Guys by extension of Axelrod tagging along with him from season 2 onwards.
  • Big Damn Heroes: He saves Armstrong from being raped by Peter White near the end of season 2 by using a fire extinguisher to bash him unconscious.
  • Dead Person Conversation: Has quite a few of em' in "After Life" ranging from Eve Leighton, Ralph Selover, Peter White and St. Eligius himself. He also has a funnier conversation with God too, as well, before being brought back to life.
  • Gallows Humor: Jackie Wade mentions he has it in Slice O'Life.
  • Jewish Mother: Frieda Fiscus.
  • Like Brother and Sister: With Dr. Wade in the final season.
  • Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
  • Manly Tears: When he, Shirley Daniels and Jackie Wade can't revive Wendy Armstrong after her suicide attempt.
    • Also happens right after he wakes up for the first time after being shot. When he sees his surgical scar on his chest, he weeps.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a pretty good one to Westphall in Sanctuary about responsibilities. Westphall gives him an equally epic one about his womanizing when he protests about his assigned elderly community outreach program.
  • The Stoner: From time to time, he mentions his drug experimentation while at Tulane.
  • Took a Level in Cynic: In season 4 onwards. It even shows in how he gets tired of Westphall's speech about responsibilities in Sanctuary after the death of one of his longtime friends.

    Dr. John Gideon 

    Dr. Seth Griffin 

Actor: Bruce Greenwood

Tropes:

  • Arch-Enemy: He seems to have one in Luther Hawkins, as he's the only one who doesn't like him and dismisses him as an orderly.
  • Deceptive Disciple: Rosenthal sees right through his "meek" nature in the first episode he's introduced in in season 5.
  • Heel–Faith Turn: After possibly contracting AIDS, Griffin becomes a born-again Christian when he meets the new hospital chaplain. It seems to be a genuine conversion, despite some snarky comments from his colleagues.
  • It's All About Me: If he's up to playing other first-year residents against each other and wants to look out for himself, woo boy howdy.
  • Playing Both Sides: Done this in season 4 with both Novino and Birch trying to pit them against each other.
  • Power Fist: After he tells Birch she shouldn't have killed his patient after she's let go from the residency in St. Eligius, Birch gives him an awesome hard punch to the face this way in Not My Type and promises to go after him when he least expects it for ruining her career. Griffin is horrified and retreats as a result.
  • Smug Snake: The very epitome of this in his first set of appearances.
  • The Stool Pigeon: He reports Luther to Westphall in Brand New Bag simply because he could and to simply be an obstacle in Luther's progress up St. Eligius.

    Joan Halloran 

Actor: Nancy Stafford

Tropes:

  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Her softer side starts showing up in season 3.
  • Girl Friday: To Auschlander during season 3.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Introduced as someone who would butt head with the doctors over the hospital's expenses.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of season 3, with one final appearance in season 4.

    Luther Hawkins 

Actor: Eric Laneuville

Tropes

  • I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Has an excellent one in "Sweet Dreams" with ZZ Top performing their hit Legs. It goes as well as you'd expect it, complete with Luther dressed up in white and accompanied by both the band and a trio of ladies following them throughout St. Eligius with Craig and Caldwell stunned by the ladies around them.
  • Nice Guy: One of the few within St. Eligius that tries to be nice to everyone around him.
  • Orderlies are Creeps: Averted. Luther is the one person any doctor, nurse or patient would be glad to have around. Even his crashing of the women's aerobic class in "Newheart" is laughed off.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery: Chandler calls Hawkins out on this in "Equinox", using his genius as an excuse and being an ass to him because he wanted to impress Penny, a girl they both fell in love with. It ends with Penny going with Luther anyways, to Chandler's dismay.

    Dr. Paulette Kiem 

Actor: France Nuyen

Tropes:

    Dr. Virindakumar Jutswahtla “VJ” Kochar 

Actor: Kavi Raz

Tropes:

    Dr. Cathy Martin 

Actor: Barbara Whinnery

Pathology resident with a spacey demeanor, heightened sexuality, and a tendency to dress in black.

Tropes:

  • Adaptational Self-Defense: She knocks someone out who roughed up Fiscus near the end of season 3. She revealed to Fiscus that she started taking up self-defense classes after her rapes.
  • Broken Bird: Especially after being raped. Twice.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: It is revealed in Rough Cut that she had the highest score out of the first-year residents' board certification exams. A brief scene with her after she switches to psychology indicates she's particularly skilled with younger patients.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: At one point, after Ehrlich comments "Is there an echo in here", she says "I don't know. Is there? Hello?"
  • Creepy Mortician: A mild case. Outgrows this after Season 2's end.
  • Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: She does this with White after her anger cools at the end of season 2.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of season 3, but only returns once for the episode E.R. at the end of season 4, spotted only by Chandler before she departs.
  • Rescue Romance: In her final episode in season 3 she falls in love with Kochar, who equally returns the feelings. Sadly things didn't last for them.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a few to Peter White after he rapes her.
  • Trauma Conga Line: After being raped, Martin is not quite as spacey; she suddenly switches her residency to psychology after her trauma leaves her unable to handle being in the morgue and stops dressing in black. After her second rape, it takes her awhile to recover while taking self-defense classes and she soon leaves St. Eligius altogether.

    Dr. John Steinbeck "Jack" Morrison 

Actor: David Morse

Compassionate resident who often has trouble with trusting his own judgement and remaining objective about his patients.

Tropes:

  • Butt-Monkey: Very much so. Some of it IS pinpointed, of course.
  • Dead Person Conversation: In "Sweet Dreams", due to a visit in-dream with Peter White from beyond the grave, who confesses to Morrison that maybe he deserved to be killed.
  • Designated Victim: Starting in season 2, something bad would usually happen to Morrison.
    • Season 2: His wife Nina dies after slipping and hitting her head in the bathroom. He is cut from the residency program. Is only reinstated because a slot opened up after Wendy Armstrong's suicide.
    • Season 3: Faces the end of his career over a Worthless Foreign Degree.
    • Season 4: Injures himself while running to make rounds and slipping on vomit. Son Pete is kidnapped. Raped while doing a Westphall-mandated community outreach service in a local prison.
    • Season 5: Suffers from PTSD as a result of his rape. His attacker escapes from prison and stalks his family. Son Pete inadvertently shoots his attacker dead.
    • Season 6: Second wife Joanne moves back to Seattle after her first husband sues for custody following the death of Morrison's attacker.
  • Dumb, but Diligent: One of the most dedicated residents in the program, and it is that dedication alone that gains him any favor with Westphall or Auschlander. Unfortunately, he's also not very knowledgeable or skilled, and frequently makes poor diagnoses. He does get better over time, though.
  • Heroic BSoD: He suffers this as a result of the prison rape at the end of season 4.
  • It's Personal: He immediately holds a grudge against Turner as a result of how she tears into him regarding a baby Chandler had cared for and decides to operate on the baby behind their backs. His earlier guess on the baby's appendix problems are proven correct.
  • Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: He feels this way in season 3 with his then-girlfriend when she doesn't want kids regardless of if he marries her or not.
  • The Empath: It's a trait of his, which has both hindered but blessed him in the series... though it also doesn't make him well-liked by Chandler, Craig or Caldwell, as he does not espouse to their politics, either.
  • The Heart: He cares for his patients and their families. It's even lampshaded in season 2 how much he cares for people in particular.
  • The Lost Lenore: Nina. Much of Morrison's arc in season 2 is him dealing with her sudden death.
  • Those Two Guys: With Peter White in the first two seasons at times, up until White's death.
  • Trauma Conga Line: And how.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He gets a pretty nasty one from Roxanne Turner in You Beta Your Life regarding a baby under Chandler's care, which he later reverses on Chandler himself after the baby's appendix had burst. Chandler is immediately crestfallen about the baby's status as a result.
  • Worthless Foreign Degree: In the pilot episode, Morrison tells a patient that he had to go to medical school in Mexico because his grades were not good enough for American universities. In season 3, it is revealed that the school was a shady "accelerated" program that counted experience instead of giving a full medical training, and Morrison has to fight to keep his job.
  • You Should Have Died Instead: Shirley Daniels directly says it in a way to him in Murder, She Wrote by saying she should've splattered him all over the sidewalk, revealing her truly murderous grudge towards him.

    Dr. Carol Novino 

Actor: Cindy Pickett

Tropes:

  • Office Romance: She and Westphall begin a romantic relationship while she is finishing med school. They continue to do so after she begins her residency at St. Eligius. Oddly enough, this conflict of interest is not what breaks them up. She later starts a forbidden romance with married Dr. Morrison.
  • Remember the New Guy?: She's introduced halfway through Season Four, but due to the fact that she was once a nurse at St. Eligius, plus a close friend of the Westphall family, she is treated by them, as well as Craig, Auschlander and Rosenthal, as if she's always been a core part of the cast. Somewhat understandable, as her absence from the first few seasons can be explained by her being away at med school, but she was never even mentioned at all by any of the Westphalls until she starts working at St. Eligius again, at which point it's made clear that she's considered an honorary member of Westphall's family. That being the case, it's odd she never would have visited them during her school career.
  • Unequal Pairing: She and Westphall begin dating shortly after she starts her final med school rotation at St. Eligius, and they continue seeing each other once she starts her residency. This is despite his being the director of the residency program and one of the senior administrators, meaning she's literally sleeping with the boss, which causes no small amount of jealousy and rumors among the other residents. This is to say nothing of the fact that there is an 18-year age difference between them. Ultimately none of this is what breaks them up.

    Nurse Lucy Papandrao 

Actor: Jennifer Savidge

Tropes:

  • Alpha Bitch: Her attitude at first starts like this, endearing her to no one in particular.
  • Ascended Extra: Goes from an uncredited Bit Character in the pilot to a more prominent Recurring Character in season 3, then a Promotion to Opening Titles in season 6.
  • At Least I Admit It: Says it as much to Daniels when accused of "scabbing" to help Ehrlich, which only further enrages her.
  • Bitch Slap: She receives an epic one from Helen Rosenthal when she pushes her Berserk Button about her family problems too far in Watch the Skies.
  • Conflict Killer: She originally sues Rosenthal for the slap that resulted from her pushing Rosenthal's buttons, but later decides to kill the lawsuit, makes peace with Rosenthal and goes on vacation. Later on she and Helen get along once more near the end of season 4.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: It begins in Sanctuary with her finally admitting her aloofness and tough attitude to Jackie Wade in confidence while crying, though it takes a drunken liaison with Victor Ehrlich in season 5 to result in a serious relationship and both are Happily Married by the end of the series.
  • Hates Everyone Equally: Always more than willing to denigrate the doctors if given an inch, as she's repeatedly done with Fiscus, Ehrlich, Morrison, Axelrod and even extending to Luther, Chandler, Craig, Caldwell and Auschlander... but is NOT above denigrating Shirley Daniels at one point and later Helen Rosenthal after her transfer back to her original post. She even overlaps this with N-Word Privileges at one point by calling every male doctor 'retarded' at one point.
  • The Snark Knight: She gives as good as she gets if her heated interaction with Shirley Daniels for working a surgery Ehrlich needed her help on in the beginning of season 3 is any indication. Daniels' seething rage is barely contained as a result, accusing Papandrao of "scabbing" and betraying the nurses' trust.

    Dr. Michael Ridley 

Actor: Paul Sand

Tropes:

    Nurse Helen Rosenthal 

Actor: Christina Pickles

Tropes:

  • Berserk Button: Do NOT mention her family problems. Lucy Papandrao learned this the hard way.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: Five children from four different marriages, ranging from adulthood to preteen. The kids call each other by their last names and run roughshod over her.
  • Drugs Are Bad: After her breast implants are infected she learns of Bobby Caldwell's death in season 6, which combined with her family issues, she becomes addicted to prescription drugs and ends up in rehab thanks to her family's intervention.
  • Serial Spouse: Already on husband number four at the beginning of the series. Her affair with Richard Clarendon doesn't end in marriage, but develops into a long-term cohabitation.
  • Team Mom: For a majority of the series, she's the "mother" of the hospital compared to Westphall's "father".

    Dr. Ben Samuels 

Actor: David Birney

Tropes:

  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: While billed second only to Ed Flanders, his character becomes less prominent over the course of the first season. He is neither seen nor heard from again after the 20th episode of the season, and no explanation is given.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Early in the first season he drunkenly confesses to a stranger that his wife left him after their son shot himself to death after finding her gun, which she bought in a panic due to living in LA during the Manson murders. For some reason, she decided it was his fault.
  • Really Gets Around: A subplot of the pilot episode involves Samuels telling all his sexual conquests that he's contracted a venereal disease.

    Dr. Roxanne Turner 

Actor: Alfre Woodard

Tropes:

    Dr. Jacqueline Wade 

Actor: Sagan Lewis

Mature and capable surgical resident from Lewiston, ME; a friendly rival to Dr. Ehrlich.

Tropes:

    Dr. Donald Westphall 

Actor: Ed Flanders

Chief of Medicine of St. Eligius, widower and father of Elizabeth and Tommy.

Tropes::

  • Benevolent Boss
  • The Chains of Commanding: Seems to bear the weight of both his staff and patients, especially when his community outreach programs have disastrous consequences
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Survived an apartment fire that killed most of his family when he was six years old.
  • Empty Nest: His arc in the second half of season 3 is about dealing with this after daughter Lizzie goes away to college and son Tommy is placed in a group home.
  • A Father to His Men: He looks out for the residents under his wing and tries to help with their problems.
  • The Fettered
  • Mentor: To Dr. Jack Morrison in particular.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure
  • Southies: Westphall grew up in South Boston.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: Following its takeover by an HMO, Westphal resigns from St. Eligius by dropping trou and telling new boss John Gideon "You can kiss my ass, pal".
  • Tranquil Fury: After White is found not guilty of rape, Westphall makes him aware that he not only is disappointed in him, but now he has no respect and utter contempt for him as a human being.
    • Craig gave him a very scathing taste of this after the events of Cheek to Cheek which infuriated Westphall enough to leave the room after Craig cited Morrison's prison rape as proof of his community outreach program failures.
  • Verbal Tic: Has a tendency to address people as "pal" or "lady".

    Dr. Simon Weiss 

Actor: Philip Sterling

Tropes:

  • The Shrink: The longest lasting psychiatrist character, although less prominent than Beale or Ridley.

    Dr. Peter White 

Actor: Terence Knox

A resident with trouble juggling his work and family responsibilities. He begins a long mental and emotional slide in season 1 that only gets worse as the show goes on.

Tropes:

  • Arch-Enemy: Wayne Fiscus was definitely one to him near the end. Saving Armstrong from his plot didn't help.
  • Dead Person Conversation: He has one with Morrison from within his part of the other side, saying he saw Wendy Armstrong and Nina and reassures Morrison that he's doing his best as a person... but also mentions that maybe he deserved to be killed after refusing to answer him on who killed him, complete with Jump Scare images of him in his ski masks.
    • He later has one with Fiscus as well in Hell, which at first descends into a full-blown argument before he tosses him off his boat. Later on after Fiscus returns to his boat, they both reach a tentative peace between each other, but not before talking Fiscus into skiing and the resulting Heel–Face Door-Slam afterwards explodes White's boat, making White Deader than Dead.
  • Dr. Jerk: Well before his slide into complete darkness, he is shown to have barely-controlled anger management issues, which he takes out on whoever is nearby; other doctors, support staff, patients and even his wife. He tries managing it with drugs and affairs. It doesn't work.
  • Drugs Are Bad
  • Face–Heel Turn: Irredeemably so after he begins raping women at the hospital, including fellow resident Cathy Martin and nearly raping both Wendy Armstrong and Annie Cavanero.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: His ultimate fate on the other side, which he laments to Fiscus on in After Life that he hasn't seen human contact in a long time there.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Coupled with Asshole Victim.
    • When Daniels guns him down in the morgue following his rape of several women, including Cathy Martin, her first shot is right in the crotch. "Goodbye, Peter."
  • Sanity Slippage: He undergoes this following the results of the hearing and being demoted to morgue duty.
  • Smug Snake: After he is found not guilty of the rapes, for which he is as guilty as sin, he develops this attitude, basically acting as if he’s untouchable.
  • Those Two Guys: With Jack Morrison during the first two seasons before his death.

Patients and Families

    Stephen McAllister  

Actor: Jack Bannon

Tropes:

    Ralph "The Birdman" Selover 

Actor: Richard Marcus

Tropes:

  • Dead Person Conversation: In the other side in After Life he initially appears downtrodden while talking with Fiscus in Purgatory, but then afterwards Fiscus's positivity inspires him to pilot a helicopter for the first time, finally earning his own happier ending in helping Fiscus talk to God.
  • Ditzy Genius
  • Driven to Suicide
  • Sanity Slippage

    John Doe # 12 

Actor: Tom Hulce

Tropes:

    Eve Leighton 

Actor: Marian Mercer

Dr. Craig's heart transplant patient in early season 2.

Tropes:

    Florence Hufnagel 

Actor: Florence Halop

A frequent patient in season 3.

Tropes:

  • Jerkass: Mrs. Hufnagel gets passed around from doctor to doctor because of this. Even kindly Dr. Westphall pawns her off on Dr. Craig.
  • Pet the Dog: She had a few moments like this with Axelrod, who, out of all the doctors she exasperated, did actually care for her.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!
  • Shout-Out: At one point, she mentioned she and her husband used to have a diner together, Flo & Eddie's.

    John Doe # 6 

Actor: Oliver Clark

Amnesiac patient in season 4 and 5.

Tropes:

  • Amnesiacs are Innocent: While he was obviously still very smart, he often exhibited the mentality of a child, deciding on a whim that he was Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and those around him were Rhoda, Murray, Ted, Mr. Grant, etc., as well as his various hair-brained methods of discovering his identity.
  • Mistaken Identity: In his first appearance, he's mistaken for a visiting doctor here to evaluate the residency program. He decides to go along with it, mainly because for all he knows he is a doctor, and hopes the charade will spur a memory. It doesn't, but he fakes it so well it fools Auschlander.

    Murray Robbin 

Actor: Murray Rubin

Tropes

    Augusta Endicott 

Actor: Dorothy McGuire

Tropes:

  • Expy: For Rose Kennedy.

    Brett Johnson 

Actor: Kyle Secor

Tropes:

    Andrew Reinhardt 

Actor: Tim Robbins

Tropes:

Family and other outsiders

    Aunt Charisse 

Actor: Louise Lasser

Dr. Ehrlich's aunt, who raised him after his parents died.

Tropes:

    Ellen Craig, nee Harper 

Actor: Bonnie Bartlett

Tropes:

    Stephen Craig 

Actor: Scott Paulin

Tropes:

  • Drugs Are Bad: Stephen's drug addiction causes friction with his father. His drug use is also a factor in the car accident that kills him.
  • Generation Xerox: Following in his dad's footsteps by becoming a doctor.

    Elizabeth "Lizzie" Westphall 

Actor: Dana Short

Tropes:

  • Bratty Teenage Daughter: An aversion.
  • The Caretaker: She is this for her autistic brother Tommy, to the point where she feels guilty for going to Vassar and ends up transferring to a local school.
  • Dead Guy Junior: Named for Dr. Westphall's mother, who died in a fire when he was young.

    Tommy Westphall 

Actor: Chad Allen

Autistic son of Donald Westphall

Tropes:

    Richard Clarendon 

Actor: Herbert Edelman

Union negotiator who begins a relationship with Helen Rosenthal in season 3.

Tropes:

    Marcy Eisenberg 

Actor: Jeannie Elias

Helen Rosenthal's eldest child.

Tropes:

    Jeff Rosenthal 

Actor: Ian Fried

Helen Rosenthal's youngest child.

Tropes:

    Myra White 

Actor: Karen Landry

Long-suffering wife of Dr. Peter White

Tropes:

    Nina Morrison 

Actor: Deborah White

Tropes:

    Roberta Sloan 

Actor: Jean Bruce Scott

Dr. Victor Ehrlich's first wife.

Tropes:

    Katherine Auschlander 

Actor: Jane Wyatt

Tropes:

    Judge Farnham 

Actor: Jack Dodson

Tropes:

    Alex Corey 

Actor: Jeff Allin

Tropes:

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