Warning: only spoilers from the final season are whited out.
Deadwood Camp Visitors
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The Anderson Siblings
In General
Flora & Miles Anderson
Portrayed By: Kristen Bell & Greg Cipes
A seemingly innocent pair of siblings who pass through the camp.
- Alas, Poor Villain: They might have been thieves and killers, but their fate is so drawn-out it's impossible not to feel some sympathy for them.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Flora moreso than Miles. It's clear who the brains of the operation is.
- Boom, Headshot!: Both of them. Cy shoots Miles, then forces Joanie to shoot Flora.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: It's hard to think of a nastier end on Deadwood. Cy could easily kill them, but he lets them linger. He taunts them in the cruelest ways he can think of with a big sadistic grin, practically feeding off their agony.
- Meaningful Name: They are named Flora and Miles like the siblings in The Turn of the Screw. Considering that David Milch names Henry James as one of his favorite authors this is probably not a coincidence.
- Siblings in Crime: They seem to move from town to town, conning establishments with their innocent act.
- Too Dumb to Live: Waltzing into one of the roughest places in the West, with one road in and out, and then plotting to rob two of the toughest, least scrupulous men in the town, right after they've arrived and are still a novelty, is not a route to a long, happy life.
Flora
Flora Anderson
Portrayed By: Kristen Bell
Miles' cunning sister.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Flora is beaten bloody by Cy.
- Femme Fatale: She halfway seduces Joanie with her 'innocent girl' act and beauty, igniting both Joanie's protective instincts and lustful desires.
- For the Evulz: Flora tells Miles they need to work quickly because Cy is getting suspicious, but Miles says she probably wants to rush the job just so she has to hurt someone (though Cy is, indeed, getting suspicious).
- Mercy Kill: Although she was forced to do it, Joanie's shooting of Flora comes across as this more than outright murder. She wouldn't condemn Flora to one more second in the company of a wrathful Cy Tolliver.
- Psycho Knife Nut: She enjoys her knife a great deal.
- Underestimating Badassery: Flora seems to believe she can quit Tolliver's business, steal Joanie's jewelry, and make a clean get-away. This ends badly for the siblings.
- The Vamp: Flora knows she's beautiful, and knows how to use that beauty to manipulate the likes of Joanie.
Miles
Miles Anderson
Portrayed By: Greg Cipes
Flora's less bloody-minded brother.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He's nowhere near as ruthless or manipulative as Flora.
The Earp Brothers
Wyatt
Wyatt Earp
Portrayed By: Gale Harold
Wyatt Earp rides into town a hero beside his brother Morgan, claiming to have saved the arriving stage coach from some road agents attempting to hold up the stage. The brothers have secured a timber claim in Deadwood and claim they intend to settle down to work, giving up their past as law men in Dodge City and Witchita. But will Wyatt be able to keep Morgan in line?
- Aloof Big Brother: To Morgan.
- Engineered Heroics: He and his brother ride into town proclaiming that they stopped a stagecoach robbery that they themselves faked. Al discovers it, but allows them to keep the masquerade.
- Historical Domain Character: He's the will-be-famous Wyatt Earp.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Averted. Wyatt Earp is almost always rendered in fiction as an honorable, dedicated lawman, but Deadwood portrays him as simply an opportunist, neither particularly good nor particularly bad, which is closer to the historical record.
- Red Herring: Looks like a possible recruit for the coming battle against Hearst but ends leaving the town before it takes place.
- Responsible Sibling: Wyatt is a thinker who cleans up his brother's messes.
- The Rival: Briefly, to Bullock, but then they become somewhat tentative allies.
- Young Future Famous People: Wyatt will be a big deal in the near future, but not in Deadwood.
Morgan
Morgan Earp
Portrayed By: Austin Nichols
Morgan Earp, the younger and more hotheaded brother of Wyatt, tries to capitalize on the goodwill that the Earp brothers acquire when they ride into town as heroes, having apparently saved the stage coach from road agents. He spends his goodwill scamming a whore at the Gem for free services, claiming her sister owes him $11, while his brother Wyatt attempts to keep him in line. They are in Deadwood to work a newly acquired timber claim, vowing a simpler life than previous - as law men in Dodge City and Witchita.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Wyatt.
- Blatant Lies: Oh, you have a sister you had not mentioned before? What a coincidence! She owes me money! Seriously!
- Foolish Sibling: Morgan is a basic idiot, out to satisfy whatever impulse strikes him without thinking a minute ahead.
- Historical Domain Character: Well, of course.
- Hot-Blooded: Morgan is talented at finding a fight.
- The Load: For his brother, who spends much of his time cleaning up Morgan's messes.
Persimmon Phil's Gang
In General
Persimmon Phil, Ned Mason & Tom Mason
- Too Dumb to Live: They embark on a very poorly planned scheme that relies on deception, which they are very bad at. Wild Bill and Al see through Ned and Phil like wet toilet paper, respectively.
- Would Hurt a Child: They think nothing of murdering a defenseless family, including the children. The youngest child survives, but only due to their incompetence rather than their non-existent morality.
Persimmon Phil
Persimmon Phil
Portrayed By: Joe Chrest
- Too Dumb to Live: Aside from his aforementioned joint idiocy with his gang, he tests Al's patience with lie after lie despite it being patently obvious that Al already has him rumbled.
Ned
Ned Mason
Portrayed By: Jamie McShane
- Eye Scream: He's killed by a bullet to the head, which enters through his eye.
Tom
Tom Mason
Portrayed By: Nick Offerman
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He might be a remorseless killer of women and children, but he does love his brother and is distraught by Ned's death.
- Male Frontal Nudity: If you ever wanted to see Nick Offerman's cock, this is your chance. He hilariously bursts in on a confrontation between Al and Phil, inadvertently defusing the tension by swinging his penis around gleefully.
- Unwitting Pawn: Tom is easily manipulated by Al into meeting a sticky end.
Other Characters
Miss Isringhausen
Miss Alice Isringhausen
"For who do you take me then? For who do you mistake me?"
Portrayed By: Sarah Paulson
Alice Isringhausen is hired from back East by Alma Garret to tutor Sofia. Isringhausen remains unobtrusively in the background with Sofia throughout most of the drama between Alma and Seth.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, she seems to be no less or more than she appears to be: a prim, strict but coolly obedient tutor for Sofia hired at Alma's behest. Later, she even seems bashful and innocent around Silas Adams. She manages to shock Alma, Silas and even Al with her true nature and mercenary turn of mind.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Subverted. Her relationship with Adams seems to mellow her, but it's soon revealed she's actually a highly skilled manipulator whose icy exterior conceals an even icier interior.
- Hot Teacher: She's played by the very attractive Sarah Paulson, and Silas quickly becomes rather smitten with her. Subverted when it's revealed she's a Pinkerton posing as a teacher.
- Ice Queen: Even before her true nature is revealed, Miss Isringhausen is rather cold and aloof. Alma notices how frosty her manner is.Alma: My beliefs about you have to do with your soul, which I feel is cold and ungenerous, unless you are a counterfeit. And if you are a counterfeit, the deception comes so naturally, I'd credit its source in such a soul... meaning, cold and ungenerous, and as capable of counterfeit... manipulative and treacherous as well.
- Manipulative Bitch: She successfully plays Alma, Silas and even Al who is forced to concede to her. Of course, she has to get out of town pretty fast, but that's just a wise move in general.
- No Name Given: When Al sees her signing a paper (off screen) he comments that she didn't use her name, Isringhausen. She replies then that she didn't book at Farnum's hotel under her real name. In other occasion Silas asks her her given name and she answers that it is Alice, but it is unknown if she was telling the truth.
- Pinkerton Detective: Her true identity is that of a Pinkerton agent, sent to investigate Alma's possible culpability in Brom's death.
- Stern Teacher: To Sofia, with whom she is fairly strict.
Andy
Andy Cramed
"God is not mocked, Cy."
Portrayed By: Zach Grenier
A conman and old associate of Cy, Andy arrives at Deadwood some days after Cy while suffering from smallpox. Rather than seeking treatment for him, Cy leaves Andy in the woods to die but he is discovered in time by Jane and survives. The experience convinces him to leave his old life behind and devote himself to help others. When he returns in the second season he has been ordained a minister.
- The Atoner: After surviving a nigh-fatal bout of smallpox, he changes his ways. He becomes a repentant man of God seeking to right the wrongs of his past, although he doesn't find the path easy when Cy is tempting him to wrath.
- Berserk Button: Mocking his newfound religious path, moreso if it is Cy doing it. Andy clearly has some unresolved feelings of anger toward Cy for abandoning him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a pretty pleasant guy after his plague experience, but whether during his conman days or stabbing Cy in a rage for mocking his newfound faith, Cy brings out the worst of Andy's behavior.
- Conman: He was a con artist who associated with Cy Tolliver, and seemingly a skilled one. He abandons this life to become a minister.
- Madness Mantra: During his smallpox, he repeats 'I apologize' over and over in the delirium of fever.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Prior to his smallpox infection and subsequent religious conversion, Andy was an old friend of Cy Tolliver's. He was a professional con man and considering the type of person Cy is, probably did a few things worse.
- Preacher Man: Becomes this after his brush with death.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Andy unintentionally brings smallpox to Deadwood; the illness didn't manifest until he was already situated, by which time it's too late. As a result several people succumb to the plague.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye
Portrayed By: Monty Hawkeye Henson
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Since Dan is unable to attack Adams straight-on, he instead goes for Hawkeye and lays a decisive smackdown. It's a miracle Hawkeye came out alive.
- Persona Non Grata: Swearengen does not want to even hear his name after he ran off with a Native-American woman.
Maddie
Maddie
"Only way to guarantee an outcome, honey, is contracting to be fucked."
Portrayed By: Alice Krige
Maddie, an aging but still attractive former prostitute, has been imported by Joanie Stubbs to serve as Madame for a new brothel. Cy Tolliver, realizing that he's not only losing Joanie but now facing stiff competition, is enraged. "Suck some pr*cks if you like," he tells Maddie, "and keep whatever they give you. My way of saying welcome." "Any blind ones out there?" Maddie shoots back with self-deprecating humor. In Maddie, Tolliver has encountered a formidable foe.
- Bad Boss: Maddie gives up her own prostitutes to Wolcott for him to murder, just so she can blackmail him later.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She might not be the nicest person, but she's much more ruthless than her initial shrewdness suggests.
- Blackmail: Her plan for Wolcott. She knows of his murderous desires and plans to blackmail him after handing her own girls over to be killed.
- Getting Old Sucks: Maddie is not happy to be aging; she's well-aware of her position in life, the end of her 'glory days' as a prostitute and has made dark plans for retirement.
- Famed In-Story: Not to the extent of Hearst or Wild Bill, but she's reasonably well-known.
- First-Name Basis: Her last name (if she has one) is never mentioned.
- Hoist by her own Petard: She hoped to use Wolcott to secure her retirement, but ends up dead as his hands.
- Karmic Death: Maddie is willing to 'sacrifice' the girls who trust her to Wolcott, so she can blackmail him. It's fitting that she loses control of him and meets the same fate as those girls she sent to the slaughter.
- Slashed Throat: At Wolcott's hand.
- Tempting Fate: You shouldn't speak so much about your retirement, Maddie. In fiction that means you will not live to enjoy it.
- Too Dumb to Live: It didn't occur to her that threatening a Serial Killer of prostitutes wasn't a good idea. Sure, she had a gun pointed at Wolcott, but then she had to get within stretched-arm-with-razor distance from him...
Brom
Brom Garret
"If I'm stooped when next you see me, Alma, it won't be worry weighing me down, but bags of our recovered gold."
Portrayed By: Timothy Omundson
Alma's husband, a clueless, upper class businessman from New York City that tries his luck in the Gold Rush.
- Arranged Marriage: To Alma, at her father's behest.
- City Mouse: He's a New Yorker through-and-through, entirely unprepared to deal with the world outside his upper-class city life.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Believing that he has been conned, Brom announces that he will threaten Al with an investigation. Wild Bill points that the man that sold Brom his gold concession under Al's auspices has been missing since that night and that there is a blood stain in his former hotel room, then asks Brom again if he believes that threatening Al is the smart thing to do. He does.
- Dramatic Irony: After not finding gold for days, Brom believes he has been conned and threatens Al with an investigation. Al orders Dan to throw Brom off a cliff to Make It Look Like an Accident... and Brom lands his face on a gold streak that turns out to be connected to the biggest mine in the Black Hills.
- Nice Guy: He's a pompous fool, but not a bad man by any stretch. He's perhaps too nice for Deadwood.
- Too Dumb to Live: His constant warring with Swearengen results in his swift death.
Magistrate Claggett
Magistrate Claggett
Portrayed By: Marshall Bell
- Bait the Dog: He's introduced as a relatively Reasonable Authority Figure who helps skew Jack McCall's trial in the way Al desires because it'll be better for Deadwood in the long-term. Subsequent appearances make it clear this temporary alliance with Al was in the aim of swindling Al out of some money.
- Jerkass: Besides being corrupt as hell, he's a rude, condescending jackass.
- Slashed Throat: Via Silas on Al's orders.
Otis
Otis Russell
"Must the pretense of my behavior generating from parental concern be abandoned so quickly?"
Portrayed By: William Russ
Alma's father, who turns up in town for less-than-noble reasons.
- Abusive Parent: He is financially and psychologically abusive toward his own daughter, Alma. He practically tries to pimp her out to Bullock.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When he first appears, he seems like a pleasant and genial man. This is just a mask for the greedy opportunistic sociopath he is; Otis even admits it."Must the pretense of my behavior generating from parental concern be abandoned so quickly?"
- Blackmail: He attempts to blackmail his own daughter, an act which even EB Farnum finds disgusting.
- The Bully: A subtle one. He bullies others through sly insinuations and instilling a sense of insecurity, all the while bending them to his will.
- Faux Affably Evil: Initially, Otis can be pretty personable. He's witty, polite and even throws in a spot of self-deprecation. He'll still take you for all you're worth and sleep well that night.
- Hate Sink: When he asks Alma to pay off his debts (as she had done once before) with her newfound wealth, she asks for his promise that he won't ask such a thing of her again. He tells her he won't promise and she'll do it anyway, then physically menaces both her and Sofia and suggests he will lie to help Brom's family see her prosecuted for Brom's murder. His own daughter. Even on this show, filled with morally gray heroes and outright villains, Russell stands out as one of the most contemptible characters.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On the receiving end of a highly deserved one from Bullock.
- Only in It for the Money: The singular reason that Otis even sets foot in Deadwood is to seize Alma's claim.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Bullock... but it doesn't work out in his favour.Bullock: I will beat you here in the street.
Otis: First-rate thinking. My daughter's agent beats her father in the street, how better to condemn Alma to deepened suspicion as to her role in her husband's violent death and widen suspicion to include yourself? Shoot craps, Mr. Bullock? Were you bullied, Mr. Bullock, when young and incapable? Now you see wrongs everywhere and bullying you feel called to remedy. The bully who oppressed your youth isn't at the table with us, perhaps he's long dead. If you will view the present with more clarity, perhaps you'd recognize that I'm not victimizing my daughter, but merely asking for a small portion of the ample proceeds from her veins. Alma is hurt only in your particular view of things. And while I'll sign no guarantee not to return, or against any future claim on her compassion, realize I do hate it here. And if you inhale and expel pure righteousness, my olfactories are keen to the smell of shit. Having heard all that and knowing, as you must, the injudiciousness of making an enemy of a man who could testify truthfully that, five minutes before her marriage, he heard his daughter wish her prospective husband dead, and who won't shrink from lying as to what she admitted to him on his arrival in this cesspool, as to her complicity in her husband's murder, I suppose you'd best take your swing. - Smug Snake: Otis is deeply confident and assured with himself. Even after numerous threats and warnings, he still opens his mouth to insult a man who can beat the hell out of him. And that man does just that.
- The Sociopath: Remorselessly attempts to destroy his daughter's life just go gain her money.
Odell
Odell Marchbanks
"Fond as you are of my mother, without that gold I showed you, I don’t expect we’d be out here talking."
Portrayed By: Omar Gooding
Aunt Lou's son, a church deacon and missionary working in Liberia with more interest in finding new gold deposits than in saving souls.
- Aborted Arc: It seems like he's going to be a big deal for a bunch of episodes; he turns up in camp to strike a deal with Hearst, but he then leaves camp and dies off-screen.
- Bus Crash: Odell dies off-screen shortly after his first appearance.
- Preacher Man: He's a deacon, but he doesn't do much preaching.
- Sinister Minister: Odell is quick to throw any morals he may have had out the window in favour of securing gold with Hearst's backing.
General Crook
General George R. Crook
"We all have bloody thoughts."
Portrayed By: Peter Coyote
A military general passing through the camp.
- Cool Old Guy: Despite being in his elder years, Crook blows through town in one episode, proves himself to be a genuinely good man and correctly asserts that Bullock would make a good sheriff.Crook: Well, while we're here, I will hold Mr. Russell under protection as a gesture to your brother's sacrifice.Bullock: Thank you, sir.
Crook: I would add, in a camp, where the sheriff can be bought for bacon grease, a man, a former marshal, who understands the danger of his own temperament, might consider serving his fellows. We all have bloody thoughts. - Historical Domain Character: General George R. Crook was a real person, and a very interesting guy.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: He tells Cy in no uncertain terms what he thinks of him."If I were sheriff, I'd have you hanged."
Carrie
Carrie
Portrayed By: Izabella Miko
An out-of-town prostitute favored by Wolcott.
- Deadpan Snarker: She is delightfully bitchy from the moment she sets foot in camp. Every other line is a sharp retort or a cutting put-down.
- Defiant to the End: As understandably terrified as she is when Wolcott prepares to kill her, she still manages to call him "fucking crazy" which is a very honest assessment of Wolcott.
- Jerkass: Carrie is an utter asshole to pretty much everyone, from Maddie to Wolcott. She makes no secret of the fact that she hates Deadwood, she hates the people in it, and she hates being there in the first place.
- Slashed Throat: Wolcatt cuts her throat.
- Unwitting Pawn: Maddie arranges for her to meet a nasty end at Wolcott's hand, a fact of which Carrie is blissfully unaware.
