Why Jon Hamm is a character actor trapped in movie star's skin

From ensemble work to leading man material, the St. Louis native can do it all.

Early in his career, Jon Hamm shouted out that line as a weary ad executive mentoring a young woman into 1960s high-stakes advertising. He reminded her that a pat on the back or a special token of appreciation wasn’t always coming. Words to live by from a guy who wasn’t raised by his parents, and spent many nights on friend’s couches before auditioning for the top part in Mad Men, a show that HBO bypassed for AMC to create their creative goldmine around for years to come.

Don Draper was only the beginning, though. Hamm turned that hot start into a steady career of meaty supporting roles in mainstream movies (chasing Ben Affleck’s crew in The Town) to top-billing work (Million Dollar Arm and Beirut), creating people on screen who were cool and never trying too hard to present in the moment. But he wasn’t just effective as an anti-hero; Hamm could play bad guys who personified evil. He was a deadly bank robber in Baby Driver, and then a crooked-to-the-heavens sheriff in the latest season of Fargo.

The guy can also play a hard ass/part-time asshole like he did in Top Gun: Maverick, making things hard for Tom Cruise’s renegade pilot. According to the actor, he told his agents that if they screwed those negotiations up, they would be fired. Again, that’s what the money’s for!

Don’t sleep on his comedy skills either, because Hamm could make you laugh out loud in buddy comedies like Tag, the ultimate sleaze bag in Bridesmaids, and verbally sparring with Tina Fey on 30 Rock. He looks like a guy who was the stud in high school and managed to hang onto that title throughout the next few decades of his life. At 54, he isn’t losing any steam on either front.

Hamm’s most significant dent remains on television, though. While most actors would take that as a slight, 2025 paints a different picture. While cinema carried the top horse for many years, the lead in a television show carries as much weight these days with the downfall in overall box office and the pop culture reliance on home viewing. He made the television star persona as sexy as James Gandolfini and Bryan Cranston ever could, creating the runway for the small screen to become as big of a destination down the road as the big screen.

Hamm’s work on Apple TV Plus’s Your Friends and Neighbors this spring leans on all his screen attributes: Comedy, drama, some action, and a mixture of weary adult contempt. Andy Cooper is a hedge fund master who loses his job and dives into the burglary of his wealthy neighbors’ high-priced assets. “Coop” is reeling from a divorce that manifested when his wife (Amanda Peet) was caught sleeping with his best friend, feeding into a soullessness that craters when his job is lost and his idea of money-making falls on the crooked side. While an ensemble cast elevates already sharp writing from Jonathan Tropper, Hamm enlivens the series with his effortless charm and gravitas.

He makes it look easy, but not too easy, so that the effect is less and doesn’t leave you wanting more. In the opening scene, we find Coop in a house next to a corpse, a fateful occurrence that comes back to haunt him later in the season. Falling into a pool while escaping bloody evidence, Hamm recounts his downfall to the audience in narration that begins with, “This is what happens.”

Jon Hamm is what happens when a young actor with a chip on his shoulder recovers from a troubled childhood, powered by the family one chooses, paving the way to a key audition for a significant role on a new television show that reshapes the landscape by making advertising executives sexy for the first time in ages. He leaps off that pedestal into a steady diet of supporting and leading work, camouflaging his character actor talent in a reliable leading man body and face that can do just about any role and temperament.

The man may be one of the most popular actors on the planet in real life. The other night, he made headlines for being next to a Sony Motion Pictures executive who caught an errant basketball during a Knicks game. When the St. Louis Blues play, he’s always on the news supporting his favorite hockey team. Whenever I drive by John Burroughs, aka the House of Hamm, I nod to an actor who built his career on hard work and significant opportunity.

While Draper would say that’s what the money’s for, Hamm would tell you that’s what a past is for: Building something that millions can enjoy.

Your Friends and Neighbors ends its first season next Friday. Give it a look.