A Retrospective of Pete's Hairline on 'Mad Men'

By Genevieve Burgess | Mad Men | April 4, 2015 |

By Genevieve Burgess | Mad Men | April 4, 2015 |

Pete Campbell of Mad Men will never be considered one of the great villains of television, he’s far too subtle for that. But his particular brand of weasly, arrogant yet impotent deviancy is so familiar and fully realized that he produces almost a visceral reaction at this point in the series. One of the more subtle characterizations at play with Pete is the degradation of his physical appearance, which manifests in his facial expressions, posture, and his hairline. The last of these aspects has been helpfully documented in this video by Slate:

The truly bizarre part of this is that Vincent Kartheiser is not follicularly challenged in the same way as Pete, so I’m sure he’s thrilled to be finished with the character so he doesn’t have to show up at events looking like this anymore:

Mind you, that’s nothing compared to Conleth Hill on Game of Thrones:


But the grow out does seem to be far more awkward in Kartheiser’s case.