Line #80 Characters/BrothersAndSisters


1	!William Walker (deceased):
2	->Played by: Creator/TomSkerritt
3	Died of a heart attack in the first episode and was then discovered to have had a twenty-year affair, in which he fathered an illegitimate child, who turned out to not be the one we thought it was.
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5	* TheCasanova: Was apparently very successful with women, including married ones.
6	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: A mild version. But many of his business dealings cross the line into illegality and coping with the ramifications is a major issue for his children after his death.
7	* ThePatriarch: Was greatly respected by all of his children, despite some tensions (such as over Kevin's homosexuality). It is only after he dies that he falls from his pedestal.
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9	!Nora Walker (nee Holden):
10	->Played by: Creator/SallyField
11	Widow of William. Democratic ApronMatron, with a Republican fetish.
12	* BourgeoisBohemian: Basically what you get when you combine a 1950's upper-middle class housewife with a Hippie. Nora is extremely socially-liberal, drives a Prius and is devoted to works of charity. She also lives in a huge house which probably has an even huger carbon footprint and loves to throw extravagant parties.
13	* InformedJudaism: Nora is Jewish, but William wasn't. For her part Nora adores holidays like Christmas that provide an excuse for decorating and family parties, but otherwise does not identify with any particular religion.
14	* MyBelovedSmother: A major source of comedy on the show. Nora simply ''cannot'' maintain any kind of distance from her children's lives. Even though most of them are around 40.
15	* NeverMyFault: According to Kitty earlier in the show, Nora blames everything on everyone in the family and not herself.
16	* OpenMindedParent: Can handle just about anything except for Kitty's political conservatism.
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19	!Sarah Walker, formerly Whedon, later Laurent:
20	->Played by: Creator/RachelGriffiths
21	Oldest of the five children. Working mom supporting her husband Joe and two children, Paige and Cooper. She later gets a divorce and struggles with Joe over custody since he is considered the primary caregiver for the children. Ran the family business for a period of time after William's death, then ended up struggling with Holly and Tommy when Ojai was forced to merge with Walker Landing. Eventually remarries handsome Frenchman Luc.
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23	* CoolBigSis: Often offers advice and comfort to her siblings, and in a much less pushy way than [[MyBelovedSmother Nora]].
24	* FamilyVersusCareer: Sarah's constant struggle, especially with Ojai Foods being constantly on the brink of collapsing.
25	* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Nora and William had not yet married when Sarah was conceived, and it turns out that Nora's other boyfriend Nick was the actual father.
26	* StacysMom: There's even a [[HomePornMovie sex tape]].
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28	!Kitty [=McAllister Walker=]
29	->Played by: Creator/CalistaFlockhart
30	The next eldest Walker child. Republican political activist. Formerly a talk show host, but now wife and senior advisor to Senator Robert [=McAllister=] (R-CA). The Senator ran for President, but lost Super Tuesday and pulled out.
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32	* BlackSheep: Politically-conservative in a mostly liberal family, she also has no involvement with the family business and actually moved to New York for several years.
33	* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Imagine Ann Coulter, but with a soul.
34	* BrokenPedestal: More than the other kids, she looked up to her father a lot so finding out he was stealing from the company ''and'' cheating on their mother for decades hit her harder.
35	* CoolBigSis: Especially to Justin.
36	* FoxNewsLiberal: Despite being a popular conservative pundit, Kitty's views are very inconsistently depicted and also change a great deal over the course of the show. For example, she is initially opposed to same-sex marriage (preferring civil unions), but eventually becomes very much on the pro-marriage equality side. Could be seen as a case of TruthInTelevision, as a growing number of real-life Republicans have been moving this way.
37	* [[IAmNotMyFather I Am Not My Mother]]: Tries her best to be the anti-Nora.
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39	!Tommy Walker
40	->Played by: Creator/BalthazarGetty
41	The middle child who has worked at Ojai Foods for his entire career, only to be passed over for running it in favor of Sarah. Of all the Walker siblings he tried the hardest to emulate what he thought his father was. His wife had twins, but one died. The resulting post-natal depression resulted in his wife going to live with her parents and him cheating on her with his secretary. Then he stole money from the company in an attempt to oust Holly, which failed and led to him running away.
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43	* TheDutifulSon: Tried very hard to be a younger version of his father. May have succeeded more than he really wanted to.
44	* {{Jerkass}}: Has a really hard time caring about anyone but himself, and doesn't hide it well. He sides with Holly in taking control of Ojai because he feels he will finally be able to shine now that he is not working under Sarah, only to discover that Holly is a far more autocratic manager who is even less likely to take his opinions into account. At which point he launches an illegal scheme to oust her, and when it goes sour and he faces prosecution he leaves his wife and daughter and runs away.
45	* MiddleChildSyndrome: Suffers from some angst in that while he is the eldest Walker ''son'', he is the middle child. The fact that William seems to have more [[ParentalFavoritism confidence in Sarah's business skills than in Tommy's]] is a source of constant tension.
46	* SiblingRivalry: Feels this way towards Sarah, although she does not reciprocate.
47	* WellDoneSonGuy: Dutifully worked at Ojai Foods for years and was furious when his father put Sarah in charge instead of him. Holly would later frequently manipulate Tommy by telling him that things she wanted were what his father had wanted.
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49	!Kevin Walker
50	->Played by: Creator/MatthewRhys
51	The second youngest Walker child and a corporate lawyer, later communications director for Robert. He is frequently called upon for legal help and advice, and was the lawyer for Ojai Foods until Tommy and Holly fired him. Kevin is openly gay and dates several men over the course of the show, eventually marrying his first season love interest Scotty.
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53	* CoolUncle: Especially in later seasons. Paige in particular loves him and Scotty and works to prevent them from breaking up in season five.
54	* ProperlyParanoid: Being a lawyer, Kevin dislikes informal agreements based on personal relationships and trust. Thus he often seems extremely demanding in wanting things to be done legally. For example, he wanted a DaddyDNATest done on Rebecca when she was first presented as William's illegitimate daughter, and he wanted Scotty's friend Michelle to sign a standard surrogacy contract before carrying his and Scotty's baby. The other characters often react as if he is being mean and disrespectful. But he is often absolutely right, as was the case with Rebecca and Michelle.
55	* TheReliableOne: Though he grumbles about it a great deal, Kevin is by far the most dependable of the Walker siblings when it comes to helping the family.
56	* StraightGay: Initially taunted about this by Scotty, who was at the time a CampGay. However, Kevin was not in the closet and did rather excessively enjoy ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' to the point of seeing it multiple times (and dating one of the flying monkeys).
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58	!Justin Walker
59	->Played by: Creator/DaveAnnable
60	Formerly with a drug habit, he had signed up for the American Armed Forces just after 9/11 and served in Afghanistan. When he was called back for active duty in Iraq, the family attempted to get him out of it until Justin decided he would go. There he got an unspecified leg injury via IED and picked up the drug habit again during recovery. The habit has now mostly gone after a stint of home rehab- he's a recovering addict.
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62	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: An adult version. Justin's emotional issues and self-destructive behavior are a source of never-ending frustration to his older siblings.
63	* CoolUncle: To Paige and Cooper, especially when they were young.
64	* DrowningMySorrows: Justin is an alcoholic, as well as suffering from addiction to various drugs.
65	* {{Mangst}}: Has a lot of emotional problems left over from the wars, and can be very resistant to talking about them, which fuels his addictions.
66	* TroubledButCute: Has drug and alcohol addictions, as well as a lot of angst. But women find him irresistible.
67	* WellDoneSonGuy: It is implied that trying to win his father's approval played a big role in him enlisting in the Army after 9/11.
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69	!!Rebecca Walker (nee Harper)
70	->Played by: Creator/EmilyVanCamp
71	The aforementioned illegitimate child. Till it turned out she wasn't. Now married to Justin, who she'd earlier thought was her half brother.
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73	* [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling The Old Woman Out]]: With her mother Holly, especially the fact that she kept who Rebecca's father was a secret until after his death, at which time she used it as part of her claim to some of his money and business. Again when it is revealed that William was not her father. For a while Rebecca even lived at Nora's house.
74	* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: After William's death, Holly was adamant that Rebecca was William's daughter, largely for selfish reasons. William himself appears to have known that she wasn't his though. In actuality Holly's other boyfriend David was the real father.
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76	!!Saul Holden
77	->Played by: Creator/RonRifkin
78	Nora's brother and the Chief Financial Officer of Ojai Foods. Came out as gay in season two. Signed off on an ill-considered business deal that Sarah wanted to pass on, which led to the near bankruptcy of Ojai and Holly stepping in to bail it out and gain control of the company. [[spoiler:Discovered he was HIV-positive in the Season Four finale]].
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80	* TheConfidant: Knew about William's affairs, as well as some of the details of his questionable business dealings. He helped conceal both from Nora and the rest of the family.
81	* InformedJudaism: Much like Nora, it only comes up a couple of times.
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83	!! Holly Harper
84	->Played by: Creator/PatriciaWettig
85	William's longtime bit on the side, whom he kept up in a house and paid her bills. After his death she is left a large sum of money. She deeply resents the Walker's, especially Nora, and makes a point of trying to take over Ojai Foods because she wants what she never had due to not having been William's actual wife.
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87	* FriendlyEnemy: With the Walker's, especially Nora.
88	* LaserGuidedKarma: Ryan Lafferty is the beam.
89	* TheMistress: William's, for more than 20 years.
90	* {{Schemer}}: Engages in a lot of plots against the Walker's, with varying degrees of success, while still being on cordial enough terms with them that they (often inexplicably) allow her to hang around. Tries to be a [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]], but is nowhere near as good at it as she thinks she is and her plans often backfire or have negative consequences for her because she is more opportunistic than strategic.
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93	!! Julia Walker (nee Ridge)
94	->Played by: Creator/SarahJaneMorris
95	Tommy's wife, who desperately wants to have children and tries everything possible, ultimately using sperm donated by Kevin and Justin to conceive as Tommy is sterile. She gives birth prematurely and one of her twin children dies soon after. This causes her to suffer severe depression and she leaves Tommy for a while, having an affair while living with her parents. She and Tommy get back together for a while, but then split up again.
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97	* BrokenBird: Julia is a sweet, loving {{Housewife}} to traditionalist breadwinner Tommy, with whom he hopes to emulate his parents [[HappyMarriageCharade seemingly idyllic marriage]]. But Tommy has fertility problems. One of the children they have via artificial insemination dies, she has post-partum depression, Tommy breaks the law and runs away... She is almost TheWoobie.
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99	!! Joe Whedon
100	->Played by: Creator/JohnPyperFerguson
101	Sarah's first husband and the father of her two children. Had been previously married and also had a teenage son by his first wife. A musician who was a stay-at-home dad because Sarah had much greater earning potential, Joe had many problems with Sarah's hectic schedule and his place in life. Eventually he and Sarah divorce and he remarries his first wife.
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103	* HouseHusband: Joe raises the kids while Sarah works.
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105	!!Senator Robert [=McAllister=] (R-CA)
106	->Played by: Creator/RobLowe
107	The junior Senator from California and a Republican. Is lauded as a hero from the first Iraq War, but the details are a matter of debate. He hires Kitty as his communications director and later becomes her husband. Makes unsuccessful attempts to run for president and later governor of California. His career is hindered by heart problems. [[spoiler: Died in a car accident]].
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109	* {{Hypocrite}}: Takes a high moral stance about restoring honor and decency to politics, but engages in a lot of backroom deals and frequently lies to Kitty about his political plans.
110	* InformedAttribute: Robert is supposed to be a Republican, but his onscreen political views often sound more like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama than George Bush or Mitt Romney.
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112	!!Scotty Wandell
113	->Played by: Creator/LukeMacfarlane
114	A twentysomething guy that Kevin initially meets because he was a temp worker at a company that Kevin was involved in suing and was a witness to malfeasance. Scotty also works as a cater-waiter while attending cooking school and working as an apprentice chef. The two would have an on[=/=]off relationship for a while before Scotty finally ended up becoming Kevin's husband. Scotty is greatly loved by the Walker's and probably the favorite out of all the spouses.
115	* CampGay: But only in the first season. He subsequently tones it down as he matures and becomes a StraightGay.
116	* CoolUncle: Paige in particular really likes Scotty.
117	* SupremeChef: The only character on the show who can cook better than Nora. Of course, he ''is'' a professional.
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119	!!Luc Laurent
120	->Played by: Creator/GillesMarini
121	Sarah's new French artist boyfriend, and later second husband.
122	* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: A simple swim in Nora's pool turns into a spectator sport for all the straight female and gay male members of the family.
123	* TallDarkAndHandsome: And how!
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125	!!Paige Whedon
126	->Played by: Creator/KerrisDorsey
127	Sarah's daughter.
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129	!!Cooper Whedon
130	->Played by: Creator/MaxwellPerryCotton
131	Sarah's son.
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133	!!Ryan
134	->Played by: Creator/LukeGrimes
135	The new sibling introduced when it was revealed that Rebecca was not William's daughter. He thinks his mother killed herself when William tried to pay her off.
136	* ItsPersonal: Let's just say that Holly bringing him into Ojai Foods, the company once owned by the man he blames for the death of his mother, was not a good idea.
137	* PrettyBoy: Almost waifish.

Context Characters / BrothersAndSisters