< Damages

Damages/Characters


A list of major and supporting characters on Damages. There will be spoilers.


Hewes & Associates

Patricia "Patty" Hewes

(Played by Glenn Close)

Lawyer: Patty if you were a man I'd beat the shit out of you.
Patty: *smiling* If you were a man I'd be worried.

Ellen Parsons

(Played by Rose Byrne)

Begins the series as a fresh out of law school intern to Hewes and Associates, personally hired by Patty, who dreams of becoming a corporate lawyer. Initially seeing Patty as a role model, she learns that there is a dark side to corporate litigation and that her new boss has no scruples when it comes to winning. Arguably the true protagonist of the series, the entirety of Season 1 shows her gradually learning the stakes and becoming a chess master in her own right.

Tom Shayes

(Played by Tate Donovan)

Patty's partner in her firm and one of the most moral members of the main cast. Unlike Patty, he doesn't get many of the high-profile cases because of his stern moral code.

Peter "Uncle Pete" Mc Kee

(Played by Tom Aldredge)

Patty's right hand man for several years. Though not blood-related, Patty refers to him as her uncle. When Ellen becomes a liability in Season 1, he is ordered by Patty to kill her. Luckily Ellen survives the attempt.

Season 1 Characters

Arthur Frobisher

(Played by Ted Danson)

A corrupt executive of a major company. Patty represents his former clients who were defrauded out of millions by his schemes.

Ray Fiske

(Played by Zeljko Ivanek)

Frobisher's lawyer and insider trader.


David Connor

(Played by Noah Bean)

Ellen's fiance. He is a doctor and initially disapproves of Ellen joining Patty Hewes' law firm.

Katie Connor

David's sister and Ellen's future sister-in-law.

(Played by Anastasia Griffith)

  • Advertised Extra: After becoming a main cast member in Season 2, she contributes a whole lot less to the plot than she did in Season 1.
  • Chekhov's Gunwoman: Had a one night stand with a witness Patty wanted to testify against Frobisher. To get closer to the witness, Patty hired Ellen, knowing that she was sister-in-law to be to Katie, and tried to get to the witness through her.
  • Dumb Blonde: Subverted.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 2.
  • Unwitting Pawn

Season 2 Characters

Daniel Purcell

(Played by William Hurt)

A respected scientist and former friend of Patty in the past. He becomes involved in Walter Kendrick's energy profiteering scam. He has his own secrets that he is trying to hide...

  • Corrupt the Cutie: In his backstory with Patty.
  • Happily Married: Subverted. He tried to kill his wife when she found out about his involvement with Kendrick. Unbeknownst to him, she was still alive when he left, only for a hitman hired by the Kendricks to come in and finish the job.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: He's the biological father of Patty's son Michael.
  • New Old Flame
  • Not So Stoic
  • The One That Got Away: For Patty.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: William Hurt didn't enjoy the fact that he frequently received only fractions of a script at a time which made it difficult for him to navigate his character's arc as he had never worked on a TV series before. This led to him being difficult to work with and caused his arc to be less prominent as well as the creation of the Walter Kendrick character to shoulder some of the screen time intended for Hurt. Its unclear if similar problems caused Marcia Gay Harden's arc to be shortened as well.
  • Smug Snake


Claire Maddox

(Played by Marcia Gay Harden)


Wes Kulick

(Played by Timothy Olyphant)

  • Aborted Arc: In the second season finale, when he saves Patty's life, it seems to hint at the beginning of some sort of storyline more directly involving the two of them. Unfortunately, the potential arc got shelved thanks to Olyphant becoming unavailable for the third season other than a couple brief scenes in the finale.
  • Anti-Villain: Starts out like this until his Heel Face Turn.
  • The Bus Came Back
  • The Mole: For Rick Messer.
  • The Power of Love: Facilitates his Heel Face Turn.
  • Put on a Bus
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Olyphant getting cast in Justified caused the producers to have to shelve any plans they had for the character beyond Season 2.


Walter Kendrick

(Played by John Doman)

David Pell

(Played by Clarke Peters)


Finn Garrity

A whiz-kid mathematician.

The Deacon

(Played by Darrell Hammond)

Season 3 Characters

Louis Tobin

(Played by Campbell Scott)

Marilyn Tobin

(Played by Lily Tomlin)

Leonard Winstone/Lester Wiggins

(Played by Martin Short)

Julian Decker

(Played by Keith Carradine)

Season 4 Characters

Howard T. Erikson

(Played by John Goodman)

Jerry Boorman

(Played by Dylan Baker)

Christopher Sanchez

Played by Chris Messina

Recurring Characters

Michael Hewes

Patty's teenage son with Daniel Purcell. He is the closest thing to a Morality Pet that Patty has, although she is not above manipulating him for her own ends.

Detective Rick Messer

(Played by David Costibale)

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