List of House characters

This page is a comprehensive listing and detailing of the various characters who appear, from time to time, in the television series House. The list is divided episode-wise, as well as character-wise, and includes recurring characters, such as Rachel Taub, and Dominika, as well as characters who appear in only a few episodes, such as Juan Alvarez (House) and Steve McQueen (the rat).

Main characters

Senior doctors

Diagnostic team

Seasons 1–3

The original diagnostic team consisted of Dr. Cameron, Dr. Chase and Dr. Foreman. While both of their tenures had brief interruptions, Chase and Cameron still appeared semi-regularly on the show. They advise the newer fellows in the Diagnostic Department in seasons 4–5, or participate in cases directly when appropriate.

Seasons 4–5

Following the events of the season 3 finale, House began a long-running competition to select a new diagnostic team, progressively eliminating "contestants" from an original pool of 40 applicants. This story arc ran throughout the first half of season 4, from "The Right Stuff" through "Games". His final team consists of Dr. Foreman and the three successful "contestants": Dr. Taub, Dr. Kutner, and "Thirteen".

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Recurring characters

Edward Vogler

Chi McBride

Edward Vogler (Chi McBride) is the billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical firm and, in a season 1 story arc, became the new chairman of the board of PPTH, a position he gained through a $100 million donation to the hospital. Vogler sought to reshape PPTH into a testing facility for his firm's new drugs and saw House's maverick ways and blatant disregard for rules and authority figures as a substantial legal and financial liability. When House refused to kowtow, so to speak, to Vogler's increasingly capricious demands (including an order for House to fire one of his fellows) and made a mockery of Vogler's company at a press banquet, Vogler gave the board an ultimatum: fire House, or lose Vogler's grant. After an impassioned motion from Cuddy for the board members to put the hospital's independence ahead of Vogler's donation, the board voted to retain House, as well as voting Vogler off the board of directors and therefore losing his $100 million.

Fox demanded a bad guy to be added to the show, a few months before House went on a Christmas hiatus.[2] Shore opposed Fox's request, because he thought adding such a character would be a bad idea.[2] Although Shore thought he managed to convince the producers not to add the character, during his vacation in Israel, he was contacted by Jacobs(?), who informed him that Jeff Zucker, the head of the Universal studio, threatened to cut the season short by six episodes unless the character was added.[2] To prevent this from happening, Shore created the character.[2] McBride was hired to film five episodes.[3] However the producers decided not to extend the character's story arc.[2] In a video David Shore said: "Chi McBride is so larger than life. He’s literally just a physically imposing person, and we just wanted someone who could really clash with House, somebody who could be emotionally and physically and psychologically imposing as he is and could go head to head with him."[4]

Stacy Warner

Sela Ward
Main article: Stacy Warner

Stacy Warner (Sela Ward) was Dr. House's former live-in girlfriend (for five years), a Constitutional lawyer and Duke University graduate. Two years after their breakup, she married Mark Warner. She appears in 9 episodes during the run of season 2, taking a job at PPTH (after asking Cuddy to make sure it was okay with Gregory House) to be close to her husband during his recovery.

House and Stacy's relationship has been strained due to his relentless attempts to prove she still has feelings for him. Mark aided House's cause by driving a wedge between himself and his wife when he suspects a brewing affair. Mark was eventually proven correct, as Stacy fell for House all over again and they slept together. As Stacy prepared to leave her husband for House, he then rejected her (stating that he could not make her happy, because he could not change). She quit her job at the hospital and went back home to Short Hills with Mark. An enraged Wilson believed House broke her heart not out of guilt for Mark (which is not his modus), but as a last-ditch resort to ensure that House does not allow himself happiness. The aftermath of this botched affair left House in a stark depression. Stacy did not appear on the show again, until the series finale "Everybody Dies".

In the episode "Son of Coma Guy", when playing a questions game with a patient to make a diagnosis, House admitted that he had been in love once. He said they met when she shot him in a game of paintball, Doctors vs Lawyers. Presumably, House was talking about Stacy. When the patient asked if that was the only time he'd ever been in love, House avoided answering and changed the subject.

Stacy made her final appearance, her first in six seasons, in the series finale "Everybody Dies" as both a hallucination of House and an attendee of his funeral. Here, Stacy revealed that she had "never stopped loving" House.

Michael Tritter

David Morse
Main article: Michael Tritter

Detective Michael Tritter (David Morse) is one of House's clinic patients. After House refuses to run tests at Tritter's request and insults him, Tritter trips House. House agrees to the tests and tells Tritter he has to check his temperature to rule out infection. House proceeds to use a rectal thermometer, and his supposed reason for using the rectal thermometer over a normal mouth thermometer is Tritter's chewing of nicotine gum, since oral readings can be affected by food and drink. House then leaves the room on a pretense with the thermometer still inserted in Tritter's rectum; House intentionally never returns and Tritter endures the rectal thermometer for two hours.

Afterwards, Tritter demands an apology from House for deliberately leaving the thermometer in him. House refuses, apparently spurred on by the patient's attitude, which is as bad as House's. Caught speeding and arrested for possession of allegedly unprescribed medication, House is thrown in jail overnight by Tritter, who searches his house the next week and finds a large amount of Vicodin. He also interviews House's staff looking for inconsistencies in their stories. He proceeds to tighten his vise grip on Wilson by freezing Wilson's bank account, towing his car, and revoking his drug prescription rights because he wants Wilson to testify against House in court.

After Tritter discovers that Wilson refuses to betray House, he turns on to House's assistants, freezing Foreman and Cameron's accounts, before talking to each one of them in turn. Foreman and Cameron refuse to testify in court about House, but when Tritter talks to Chase, he makes it appear to the hospital staff as though they had had a pleasant lunch together. Chase is concerned that this makes Foreman and Cameron think that Chase has told Tritter something, although he had refused to, his only stated reason being that he would lose his job.

Tritter finally succeeds in his goal when Wilson comes to him, requesting "thirty pieces of silver" in a symbolic statement of his decision to betray House, whom he has come to see as spiraling out of control. In the final days leading up to House's trial, House enters rehab. Tritter confronts him in rehab to see if he was really going through with it. When the charges against House were dropped at the trial, because Cuddy fabricated evidence that acquitted House, Tritter wished House good luck and said that he hoped he was wrong about him. Tritter did not appear on the show again.

Amber Volakis

Anne Dudek in 2011

Dr. Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek) is an interventional radiologist featured in the 4th and 5th seasons as House's main antagonist. In House's competition to hire a new team, she is #24. Volakis is willing to do anything to get the job, including acts of dishonesty. This is first seen when she apparently quits the competition and convinces a group of applicants to imitate her, rather than be humiliated by House; she returns moments later admitting it was a ruse to thin the herd. She is subsequently referred to as "Cutthroat Bitch" and "Bitch" by House throughout the season, and is even referred to as such on House's caller I.D. After the characters stop using this nickname, she is still almost always called by her first name, unlike the rest of the characters. She sometimes coerces Chase and Cameron, now reassigned to different departments of the hospital, into helping her. Her persistence and unorthodox approaches initially win her praise, but she is ultimately eliminated because House feels she cannot accept being wrong, something he says she would need to be able to accept on a regular basis if she were to work for him.

Amber returns in "Frozen", when House discovers that she is Wilson's new girlfriend, a fact Wilson had been trying to conceal from House. House and Amber quickly develop an adversarial relationship, bickering over "shared custody" of Wilson. In the two-part season 4 finale (episodes "House's Head" and "Wilson's Heart"), Amber is involved in a bus crash alongside House, who noticed symptoms of an unknown disease in her immediately before the crash. House later realizes that she is suffering from poisoning from her use of flu pills containing amantadine, along with the kidney failure caused by the crash. She dies in Wilson's arms due to multiple organ failure. Amber is absent from only two episodes in the fourth season.

Amber re-appears as House's hallucinated helper at the end of the episode "Saviors," and in the succeeding episode "House Divided," where House continues to see her. She is revealed to have become a part of his unconscious, now risen from his insomnia and his guilt over failing to foresee Kutner's suicide and over her death earlier. House first seeks to shut out his hallucinated friend with sleeping pills, but later engages proactively with her to figure out a case. A misdiagnosis is almost fatal to the patient; as is Chase's case of anaphylactic shock at the bachelor party House throws for him, when Chase, strawberry allergic, licks a stripper covered in strawberry flavored body butter. House imagines "Amber" may have been trying to murder Chase, he takes the sleeping pill at the end of the episode, but he finds he is still seeing her, and in the next episode "Under My Skin" it appears his hallucinations are due to his use of Vicodin and he must detox. In the season finale, after it is exposed that House hallucinated his detoxification, Amber re-appears.

Amber made her final appearance, her first in three seasons, in the series finale "Everybody Dies", as a hallucination of House and not able to participate in the team.

Critic Kelly Woo, from TV Squad, placed her on #3 on her list of "Seven new characters that worked" just below Lost's Benjamin Linus and Desmond Hume.[5]

Lucas Douglas

Michael Weston

Lucas Douglas (Michael Weston) is a private investigator. He is hired by House in the fifth season episode "Not Cancer" to spy on House's team and gain information about them. Among other things, he finds out about a secret bank account started up by Taub's wife of which Taub is unaware. Impressed by his thorough efforts, House decides to put Lucas "on retainer."

Next, in "Adverse Events", House uses Lucas to gain information about Cuddy's personal life. Lucas, though, had also begun to take a romantic interest in Cuddy. In "Lucky Thirteen", House uses him to spy on Wilson because he suspects he was lying about where he was one morning. Lucas finds out that he's dating a hooker and that he's doing drugs. House then figures out Wilson was trying to throw him off because he knew Lucas was following him. It is also revealed that Lucas got the keys to all of his fellows' houses. House also used him to dig up info about Foreman, but could not find anything interesting.

Michael Weston reprises the role of Lucas during season six in the episode "Known Unknowns".[6] Lucas had begun dating Cuddy. In the season 6 finale, Cuddy breaks off her engagement with him and ends their relationship so that she can be with House.

Rachel Taub

Rachel Taub (Jennifer Crystal Foley) is Chris Taub's wife and has appeared in several episodes, mostly dealing with her husband's infidelity. She reveals to Chris that she is pregnant in the seventh season. In season eight, she wants to move across country with her new boyfriend and her and Taub's daughter, but Taub tries to stop them.

Sam Carr

Sam Carr (Cynthia Watros) is Wilson's first wife, whom he starts dating again in season six. They break up in season seven.

Dominika Petrova

Dominika Petrova (Karolina Wydra) and House get married so that she can be allowed to live in the U.S. Dominika first appeared in the season 7 episode "Fall from Grace", where in an effort to make Lisa Cuddy jealous, House announces that he will be marrying Dominika, in order for her to get her green card. Their marriage ceremony takes place in House's apartment, with James Wilson and Lisa Cuddy as witnesses. Although this ceremony causes Cuddy to break down, their ceremony is a success, prompting Dominika to reveal to House that she actually does like him, to which House replies that he doesn't sleep with married women.

Dominika is not seen for almost a season, however she returns in season 8's "Man of the House", due to her upcoming marriage status interview. In order to successfully appear to be a married couple, House and Dominika spend more time together, learning information about each other's lives. Although they are successful, a slip-up involving Wilson results in their getting caught. However, they make a deal resulting in Dominika being legally obligated to live in House's apartment.

For the next four episodes, House and Dominika grow close and it appears that both of them share some level of romantic affection for one another. Dominika aids House in his efforts to find out more information about his favorite prostitute in "We Need the Eggs" and their relationship only grows stronger, leading House to throw away the letter informing her that she has been approved for U.S. citizenship.

In the following episode, "Body & Soul", before Dominika discovers House's deception, she seduces House, revealing the magnitude of her feelings for him. After she learns of his deception, she leaves him, in tears.

Dominika makes her final appearances in the series finale, "Everybody Dies". Here, a hallucination of House reveals his desires regarding love. It is revealed through House's subconscious that it was his desire to enter a true romantic relationship with Dominika, although House never reveals his true feelings to her. She is last seen at House's funeral, delivering a eulogy.

Unsuccessful applicants for fellowship

Edi Gathegi

Minor characters

Family members

R. Lee Ermey

Hospital workers and patients

Leighton Meester

References

  1. Ausiello, Michael. "'House' exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death" Entertainment Weekly, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Carter, Bill (2007-01-30). "House, Already Strong, Gets a Boost". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
  3. Roberts, Kimberly C. (2005-01-28). "Chi McBride is in the House". The Philadelphia Tribune.
  4. "House creator, David Shore, talks about Chi McBride's guest star role.". Hulu. Retrieved 10-5-2009. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. Woo, Kelly (2008-09-30). "Seven new characters that worked". TV Squad. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  6. "'House' exclusive: Look who's returning! - Ausiello - EW.com". Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  7. "House Q/A 411". Fox Television. Archived from the original on 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
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