Vincent Kartheiser from ‘Angel’ to ‘Mad Men’

Celebrity Q&A, Featured Article
on March 13, 2013
Mad Men (Season 5)
Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) - Mad Men - Season 5 - Gallery - Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC
https://americanprofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/vincent-kartheiser-150x150.jpg

My sister and I have a bet. I say that the actor who plays Pete Campbell on “Mad Men” was also on “Angel.” She says no way. Who wins?
—Paul Eigner, Annapolis, Md.

Vincent Kartheiser, 33, had a much different look—especially his hair—when he played Connor on the TV series “Angel,” but it is definitely the same actor in both roles. Another big difference is Connor was an angry teen; Pete is a grown-up who walked away from his family’s fortune to try to make it on his own in the advertising business.

Interestingly enough, Kartheiser began his acting career working in commercials, so it is a business with which he has a great deal of familiarity. “I made good money when I was a young man doing that sort of thing,” he says. “I think I was 9 years old when I did 65 radio commercials. And I would do some print.”

Born in Minneapolis, Minn., Kartheiser began acting in the Children’s Theatre Company. His first feature film was “Untamed Heart,” followed by “The Indian in the Cupboard,” “Masterminds,” “Another Day in Paradise,” “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia,” “Dandelion” and most recently “In Time.”

Landing the role of Pete Campbell on “Mad Men” marked his transition from teen roles to adult parts.

Single, Kartheiser is a UCLA graduate with a history degree who lives in Los Angeles, where he maintains a minimalist lifestyle.

“I’m a minimalist not because I think it’s terrible to own a lot of things, but because I find it more convenient not to own a lot of things. It never strikes me to go out and buy things,” says the actor, who ironically plays an ad exec whose job is to make people want to go out and buy things.