This page is a comprehensive list and description of the various characters who appear, from time to time, in the television series House. The list is divided episode-wise, as w…
This page is a comprehensive list and description 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.
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This page is a comprehensive list and description 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).
Senior doctors
Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) – Department Head: Diagnostic Medicine. Dr. Gregory House is a rebellious diagnostician with a double specialty in infectious disease and nephrology. Dr. House utterly lacks a bedside manner and prefers to avoid direct contact with his patients however possible. Due to an infarction in his right thigh, House lost a substantial portion of the muscle in his upper leg and must use a cane to assist with walking (although, where most would hold the cane in the hand opposite the injured leg, House holds the cane on the same side as his injury). As a result, House is also forced to deal with constant physical pain, which he manages through a dependency on the prescription pain medication Vicodin. Although his behavior can border on antisocial, misanthropic or sociopathic, House is viewed as a genius physician whose unconventional thinking and excellent instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect and an unusual level of tolerance from his colleagues and the medical world. House is eventually replaced by Chase after he fakes his death in the series finale, "Everybody Dies."
Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) – Administration: Dean of Medicine, endocrinologist. Dr. Cuddy attended the University of Michigan for graduate studies, where she first met Gregory House. She has the distinction of being one of the few characters on the show (Dr. Wilson being the other) who can match wits with the silver-tongued Dr. House in conversation (and arguments) and be considered one of his "friends". She often is left to pick up the pieces of House's questionable medical practices. She is also one of the few people who can stand House's hostile manner, strange requests, and his many crude (sometimes nosy) habits. Although she frequently criticizes House's methods, she does trust his decisions to be in the best interest of his patients. Over the course of the show, it is seen that she is one of the few, if not only, people who would hire House at all, due to widespread disapproval of House's results-oriented methods and constant insubordination. A developing arc in season five indicates that she has (and may have always had) very strong feelings for House; in season five's "Saviors" she refuses to answer when asked if she is in love with House, dismissing it as "a ridiculous question." House has described her as a second rate doctor. In season seven, Cuddy and House start dating but she eventually breaks up with him when he starts using Vicodin again during her health scare. She leaves the hospital after House drives his car into her house and she is replaced by Dr. Foreman in the beginning of Season 8.
Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) – Department Head: Oncology. Dr. Wilson is House's best friend. Wilson is very popular and well-respected by both his colleagues and his patients, making his close friendship with the anti-social House especially puzzling to the other hospital employees. Wilson claims that his job and his "stupid, screwed up friendship" with House are the two most important things to him. He, along with Cuddy, usually finds himself aiding and abetting House's Vicodin addiction and his very eccentric methods. In Season 8, Wilson is diagnosed with cancer. Wilson is said to have 5 months to live. Wilson is one of the few people to know that House faked his death and, along with House, quits his job as a doctor.
Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) – Assistant Department Head: Diagnostic Medicine, neurologist; attended Johns Hopkins Medical School. Of all the members of House's staff, it is strongly implied that Foreman performed better than the other fellows academically throughout college and medical school. However, during the pilot, House tells Foreman that a major factor in his hiring was the fact that he was a former juvenile delinquent who once stole cars and had 'street smarts'. As a result, he frequently voices his disapproval of House's rebellious methods and bold decisions. Foreman resigned at the end of Season 3, feeling that the more time he spent with House, the more he became like him. Foreman then took a position as Head of Diagnostic Medicine at New York Mercy Hospital. During that time, he saved a patient's life by going against their protocols, something that House frequently does. Foreman is then told that while he may have saved the patient's life, he cannot be there if he cannot be trusted to obey his senior medical officers. Foreman is then fired. Although he applied at other medical facilities, no one would hire him because of the incident, attributing it to his past association with House. He later returned to Princeton-Plainsboro because Cuddy was the only person willing to hire him after his actions. At the beginning of season 6 he was made Department Head of Diagnostic Medicine after House briefly quit but was back to being a fellow when House got his medical license reinstated. He becomes the Dean of Medicine after the departure of Cuddy in the beginning of season 8.
Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) – Department Head: Emergency Medicine, immunologist. Cameron was written as an eager and honest character and the most empathetic of the team. Her character history reveals an early marriage to a victim of thyroid cancer, whose subsequent death had a lasting impact on her. In the first season, she has a flirtatious relationship with House, but eventually embarks upon an on-again, off-again relationship affair with Robert Chase. Cameron resigned at the end of Season 3, but returned in Season 4 as a member of the Princeton-Plainsboro Emergency Room staff. She does