There is an air about Jon Hamm that shows up in the characters he portrays — it’s as if you’re seeing bits of Hamm himself. His authentic mix of dark charm and vulnerability is apparent in the Apple TV+ series, Your Friends and Neighbors, where he plays Andrew Cooper. Coop, as he’s called, is the hedge fund guy who finds himself over his head in bills, unable to pay child support, alimony, and his mortgage after losing his job. He’s clever, resourceful — as suspected Hamm would be as well — and takes to a life of crime, stealing pricey gems and watches from his wealthy inner circle of pals. Hamm gives Coop a down-to-earth appeal despite being another fallen from the heights of wealth and privilege kind of guy.
Describing the show, Hamm told GQ, “It feels like we’re kind of having a moment in time where ‘rich people behaving badly’ is a bit of a genre. It’s a bedroom drama. It’s got funny elements to it. It’s dark, with a criminal element to it. It’s a little bit scary, a little bit sexy. But at the end of the day, it’s an hour-long drama about a guy whose life went sideways. Okay, that’s Breaking Bad. That’s kind of like Mad Men. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Perhaps that why Coop’s qualities were also seen in the character that made Hamm well known — Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men, which aired from 2007 to 2015. It was a breakout role that came when he was 36 years old, widely considered late in an actor’s career.
The often manipulative and selfish Don Draper had audiences rooting for him … sometimes, when his vulnerability peeked out. Hamm’s gift is in his delivery of charisma; his characters are likeable even when they prove to be unworthy of affections.
‘Mad Men’ • AMC.
To understand Hamm as an actor, and where he may draw inspiration, is to look to his upbringing. Hamm grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He has described his younger self as a nerdy, voracious reader who played football and baseball, and was on the swim team in high school. This checks out, as Hamm (and his characters) seem to be ever the contradiction, always complex, a bit mysterious.
When he was 10 years old, Hamm’s mother, Deborah, died of colon cancer. Ten years later, his father, Daniel, passed away. His dad was an inspiration for Hamm’s role as Don Draper.
“I’ve survived a lot in my life,” Hamm told People magazine. “Everyone’s got a sad story. I’ve had two good decades and two bad ones. No one was raised in Happyland. It doesn’t exist,” he added.
The actor attended The University of Texas in Austin, before transferring to The University of Missouri after his father’s death. Upon graduation, he became a theater teacher at John Burroughs School, his high school alma mater. It was there where he met Ellie Kemper. Kemper called him a “wonderful teacher” who was “not ugly.” Years later, Kemper starred in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Hamm was also cast.
His teaching career didn’t last. Hamm left for Hollywood to pursue acting. He struggled. “There were a couple of years when I was living on $5,000 a year,” he told People. He lived on the generosity of friends and ramen, while waiting tables and working a variety of odd jobs including on a soft-core porn movie as a set dresser. He described the time as “soul crushing.”
When he was 25, Hamm appeared on the USA Network’s dating show called The Big Date. With a Midwestern twang in his voice, Hamm described his perfect first date: “Well, start off with some fabulous food, some fabulous conversation. … a fabulous foot massage for an evening of total fabulosity.”
The 90s were a weird time, for sure. You can watch the clip here.
Hamm was over the lack of fabulosity in his bank account and needed to land a good role or give up the dream. So he set a deadline for himself. If he made it to 30 without his acting career paying his bills, he would quit.
Hamm’s girlfriend, actor and director Jennifer Westfeldt, cast him in the film she wrote and starred in — 2001’s indie darling, Kissing Jessica Stein. The notoriously private pair were together for 18 years, from 1997 until 2015. Upon their split they issued a joint statement saying, “We will continue to be supportive of each other in every way possible moving forward.”
‘Mad Men’ • AMC.
After that, came the break he was looking for. Hamm was 29 when he landed a role as Capt. Matt Dillon in We Were Soldiers, a film bursting with star-power featuring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, and Keri Russell. It came just ahead of his self-imposed deadline and just in time to renew his faith in his ability to be cast.
Many small roles followed, but it was Mad Men that truly showed us all Hamm could be — the star, with a curious mystery begging the question of Where have you been all this time? And why weren’t you discovered sooner?
Ever multi-faceted, Hamm isn’t just good at rich guy with an attitude roles. He’s proven his comedic talents in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a delicious part in Bridesmaids where he couldn’t have been more of a sexy but dolt-y loverboy named Ted to Kristen Wiig’s character Annie.
On his appeal, Hamm modestly told People, “Point me to 50 people online who think I’m super sexy, I’ll point you to 50 more who say, ‘He’s old and looks like my dad.’ It’s not universal. If you buy into that, you’re crazy.” Add humility to the list of Hamm’s positive attributes.
Now 54 years old, Hamm shared with GQ that therapy helps him to be in a good place. “I think that’s a big reason why I’m having this kind of moment now, too: whatever I’m putting out is coming from a place of feeling very good about myself and feeling very good about what I do.”
People feel good about him, too.
“You can go deep with Jon — like, we’ve shared some tears, in a good way,” Jennifer Aniston told The New York Times about her co-star in The Morning Show. “So he’s also a really good listener, and a great communicator.”
Amanda Peet, who plays Coop’s ex on Your Friends and Neighbors, told the newspaper that her real-life husband (writer and producer David Benioff) felt tinges of jealousy that she worked with Hamm daily. He is a man who exudes masculinity, and there’s a depth behind his green eyes.
Peet said that part of Hamm’s charm is showing her pics of his bulldog, Murphy, every chance he gets. “I see about 15 pictures of Murphy every day,” she shared with the outlet. “It’s like right on the line between endearing and psychotic.”
His Mad Men co-star John Slattery told The Independent that folks would lose their minds when Hamm stepped onto set in his perfectly tailored suit. “When Hamm walked into a room in that get-up, people would just go catatonic. Guest stars would sometimes walk up to him and their lines would go right out of their heads. They just wouldn’t know what to do. It happened on more than one occasion,” Slattery said.
It’s been 10 years since Mad Men and Hamm is having a revival, not only with Your Friends and Neighbors, but in love.
‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ • AppleTV+.
Hamm is celebrating two years of married life with actor Anna Osceola, who he first met when she had a small role in Mad Men’s finale. Osceola played the receptionist at the spiritual retreat Draper visited. Though the pair didn’t start dating until around 2020.
To Howard Stern, Hamm said that it took years of therapy to process the death of his mom, and in doing so, it opened him up to the idea of marriage and kids — something he often said he wouldn’t never do. “When you lose someone that’s so important to you, like a mother, so early, that creates a wound that blocks a lot of that emotional accessibility,” he said.
To Men’s Health, Hamm shared, “I’m 54 now, and I was 53 when I shot the first season of the show [Your Friends and Neighbors]. I’m probably in the best shape of my life, which is nice to be able to say at this advanced age.”
The best shape both physically, emotionally, and mentally, it seems.
His age may be advanced, but the wisps of grey in his hair only make him even more distinguished. He’s the guy to have a good laugh with, but one whose shoulder you can cry on. After all he went through in the first two decades of his life, his gratitude, steadfastness, and dedication to working on himself is clear. He’s still evolving, growing, open. And these may be his sexiest qualities yet.
