List of Diagnosis: Murder characters
This is a list of characters in the drama/murder mystery television show, Diagnosis: Murder, which ran from 1993 to 2001. The characters are listed alphabetically by their last name or by the name which appears in the episode credits.
Tanis Archer
Tanis Archer, played by Susan Gibney, is Steve Sloan's 2nd partner.In the Diagnosis Murder Books it mentions she and Steve dated once but that it didn't work out.
She appears in seasons 5 and 6.
Amanda Bentley
Dr. Amanda Bentley is a medical examiner/pathologist. She appears in seasons 1-8 and is played by Victoria Rowell. However, in the first three TV Movies, Amanda is played by Cynthia Gibb. Victoria Rowell appeared in all the episodes of the series, with the exception of 15 on.In The first three TV movies Amanda Bentley had feelings for Jack Parker. But she denied these feelings for him for the first two TV movies. In The TV movies she was not adopted, and her father was a doctor who wanted her to leave Community General Hospital and open up a practice with him financing it.
Dr. Amanda Bentley is a colleague of Dr. Mark Sloan's, with her specialization being pathology. Fiercely intelligent, beautiful and loyal to her friends, Amanda is an orphan, taken to an orphanage when she was younger and soon adopted. Her adopted father was an owner of a yacht, and his sailors were always good friends with the family. When she was six, Amanda took up ballet. She stopped dancing for medical school but returns to it at the end of season eight. She once fainted during medical school at the sight of her first corpse. She is constantly kidded about it in the first two seasons. It was revealed in season 1 that she was considering changing her specialty. In the episode Reunion with Murder, Amanda got a Guard Dog named Yoda. And in the episode "Confession" she adopts a rabbit. In The Diagnosis Murder books written by Executive Producer and Writer Lee Goldberg, it takes place right after the end of season 6 right when he left the show, which means seasons 7-8 + the two reunion Telefilms are not considered canon by the books. In the last book "The Last Word" Amanda is framed for selling body parts out of her morgue. At the end of the book after she was proved innocent the hospital and the County Coroner's Office offer her job back, but she thinks she might not go back.
At one point during the show Amanda's character is married once to Mr. Colin Livingston, a military man. In later episodes it is made clear that she is separated from Colin; however, whether this is the result of his death in a plane crash or a divorce varies from one episode to the next.
Amanda's character has a child from her marriage with Colin, her son, CJ. CJ was delivered by Jesse, and Mark is chosen to be his godfather. Later in the series, Amanda adopts another boy, Deon, from his abusive parents.
Norman Briggs
Norman Briggs, played by Michael Tucci, is the Head of Administration for Community General Hospital.Norman attended Yale University. He graduated in 1978 and was voted "Most Popular". Before going to graduate school, he served in the Peace Corps and was sent to Nigeria.
He took his first job at Community General, two years before Dr. Jack Stewart or Dr. Amanda Bentley came.
In a lot of episodes Norman talks about his mother "Minnie Briggs". He's constantly worried about his mother and what his mother thinks. He also has a sister named "Marie Briggs".
Throughout the show, Norman shows measurable contempt for Dr. Mark Sloan's solving cases for the LAPD/his son Steve. Norman feels it takes Mark away from his patients, and thus is not giving them the attention, they deserve. To please Norman, Mark often lies to him about his involvement with cases.
Though not popular with the staff at Community General, he is still deeply committed to the work of the hospital, and his efforts at managing to balance the books allowing the Hospital to continue to function, and in fact prosper, are heroic in their own right.
He now volunteers at the Malone Foundation, a trust fund dedicated to giving money to charity or free clinics. Norman enjoys this job because he says it is good to give money, knowing it will help people, instead of "pinching pennies" as he does at Community General.
The character appears in the first four seasons only.
Cheryl Brooks
Cheryl Brooks, played by is Steve Sloan's second partner. She has feelings for Steve, and he has feelings for her. They thought about dating each other after she was divorced.She appears in seasons 7 and 8.
Kate Hamilton
Kate Hamilton, played by is the Head of Administration for Community General Hospital. She and Mark have feelings for each other.She appears in the first two TV movies only.
In the third Diagnosis Murder book "The Shooting Script" it says in a file that Noah Dent has about Past Administrators that Dr. Sloan defamed her, convincing her to quit her job, sell her home, and use the proceeds to establish a nonprofit food bank in the inner city of Los Angeles.
Susan Hillard
Nurse Susan Hillard, played by Kim Little, is Jesse Travis's girlfriend from the 5th to the 6th seasons.In one of the episodes, it is mentioned she's originally from Oklahoma.
In the 7th-season episode "Bringing Up Barbie," Susan Hillard dumps Jesse for a chiropractor, but in the Diagnosis Murder books which are written by Lee Goldberg, one of the Writers and executive producers of the show, seasons 7–8 and the two reunion telefilms never happened. Susan Hillard is in most of the eight books, and in the sixth book, The Dead Letter, she and Jesse get married. In the last book, The Last Word, Jesse and Susan Travis are framed for contaminating organs and murdering several people. Carter Sweeney is behind it, and by the end of the book, Mark proves them innocent. Community General Hospital offers both Jesse and Susan their jobs back, but they think that they are not really wanted and think they will find new jobs.
Josie
Josie, played by is a medical student at Clairemont Hospital and a close friend of Dr. Mark Sloan's.When Dr. Mark Sloan was accused of murdering Clairemont Hospital Administrator Russell Havilland, Josie, Richard, and Thad help Mark find the real murderer.
Delores Mitchell
Delores Mitchell, played by Delores Hall is Dr. Mark Sloan's secretary at Community General Hospital for the first two seasons.In the episode it is mentioned that Delores Mitchell had an ex-husband. It remains unknown what became of Delores after the second season.
Jack Parker
Dr. Jack Parker, played by Stephen Caffrey is a Resident at Community General Hospital and a good friend of Dr. Mark Sloan's. Jack is in love with Amanda Bentley and he tries desperately to get a date with her. He changed his last name to his mother's maiden Name because he didn't want anyone to realize he was the son of gangster Mr. Foss. He tried to get out of the shadow of his father's bad image. Jack Parker has a relative named Uncle Lester.Details
Dr. Jack Parker was later replaced by Jack Stewart for the weekly series.Richard
Richard, played by Steven Eckholdt is a medical student at Clairemont Hospital and a good friend of Dr. Mark Sloan's.When Dr. Mark Sloan was accused of murdering Clairemont Hospital Administrator Russell Havilland, Richard Josie, and Thad help Mark find the real murderer.
Mark Sloan
Dr. Mark Sloan, played by Dick Van Dyke, has been in medicine for over 40 years and is chief of internal medicine at Community General Hospital, well as being a consultant to the LAPD and a former army vet who served in a MASH unit. As a doctor, he is the black sheep of the family, coming from "a long line of cops". He thought his dad left him and his siblings when he was ten years old but in fact his dad was murdered by his dad's partner, Danny McNamara. In 1963 Mark was going to become a cardiac surgeon but his mentor Gregory Nordhoff disappeared and it looked like he had embezzled $50,000. However, 34 years later his body was found where the hospital was being worked on back in 1963 and at the end of the episode his murderer was found. Dick Van Dyke was one of two actors to appear in all the episodes of the series, during its eight-season run on CBS.Mark Sloan is the son of James Sloan, and his wife Henrietta Sloan. Mark also has an older sister, Dora, who owns a travel agency. He also has a younger brother, Stacey, who owns a malt shop in Arkansas and has a tendency to sleepwalk. In the episode "The 13 Million Dollar Man", Mark is given a Pot bellied Pig named "Miss Piggy". He probably finds her a good home. He also takes care of a basset hound named "Bob" for a while and gives him to a couple of girls who live on the beach where he lives. He also has a sister in-law named Edna and a brother in-law named Earl.
Mark is a widower, since his wife Katherine died of cancer a little over 10 years ago. In "Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of My Life" it is revealed that she was in so much pain at the end of her life that he actually considered performing assisted suicide but didn't follow through for both ethical and personal reasons. This has left him with a conflicted view of the practice – although morally against it, he understands the reasons for it. Their son Steve Sloan was unaware of his father's conflict until it came up during the trial of a doctor who ended the lives of several terminally ill patients at their request.
With Katherine, he had two children. His son Steve is a lieutenant and police detective for the LAPD. Mark and Steve mentioned in an episode that they once had a dog and it died ten years ago. Mark also has an estranged daughter, Carol Sloan 'Hilton, a nurse, who lives in Northern California. She later married Yvette Fahd and she changed her last name, so her new name is Carol Sloan Fahd. She and her husband were murdered in the Diagnosis Murder TV movie "A Town Without Pity". But her father and brother, Steve, help bring their murderers to justice.
Before Mark and his wife, Katherine, had a house they had an apartment at Armacost Avenue, in West Los Angeles. In the Diagnosis Murder book "The Silent Partner" it is mentioned that Mark and Katherine lived for many years in a ranch style house in Brentwood, California. His home in the first two seasons was a small house at 6544 Colorado Drive, Los Angeles. Sometime later, he buys a beach house located at 3231 Beach Drive, Malibu'.
To pay for medical school, Mark served in the Army during the Korean War.
Mark likes jazz and Glenn Miller, enjoys dancing. He can play a number of instruments including the clarinet and keyboards. He is good at chess and can often be found rollerblading when his car breaks down. His party piece is magic tricks.
In the final book, "The Last Word", Mark Sloan's life turned upside down when Carter Sweeney has his son Steve framed for murdering D.A. Neil Burnside, and Jesse and Susan Travis for murdering people on the operating table with contaminated organs. Mark ends up getting fired by new Head Administrator Janet Dorcott, who blames him for causing a scandal around the hospital. Mark asks Jack Stewart to pretend to get murdered to incite the wrath of his Uncle Elias Stewart. Uncle Elias helps Mark prove that they were framed by Carter Sweeney.