Margaret Hooper
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| Margaret Hooper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Pilot |
| Last appearance | Tomorrow |
| Created by | Aaron Sorkin |
| Portrayed by | NiCole Robinson |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Personal Assistant to the Chief of Staff (Seasons 1-7) |
| Children | One child (born, presumably, in late season 6) |
Margaret Hooper is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing, played by actress NiCole Robinson. She has appeared in over 100 episodes over the course of the series' seven seasons, and is one of the show's most prominent characters to have occupied an assistant position. Jed and Abbey Bartlet excepted, she is the only major character to retain her position throughout the entire series.
Very little is known about Margaret and her personal life. Even her last name was only revealed during the show's seventh season. According to her, she's from "upstate." Her mother is Canadian, which she says created tension within her family, as her parents engaged in a "north/south tug-of-war" to influence their children. Margaret apparently has siblings, but nothing more is known about them. In the sixth season, an unmarried Margaret was shown as pregnant, but the pregnancy, and any possible results of it, was never mentioned again after this season.
Margaret appears to have been a longstanding associate of Leo McGarry, previously having served on the Bartlet For America campaign, and then spending five and a half years as the office assistant to White House Chief of Staff McGarry. She once stated that she had worked for McGarry "for a very long time" prior to that. Her loyalty to Leo, "above all else", is consistent throughout the series. Following Leo's heart attack, she was convinced by incoming Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg to continue as her assistant, because, according to C.J. Cregg, no one else could run the Chief of Staff's office as efficiently as she does despite being "an odd woman" who she has never quite figured out. Also, Margaret is tall, which made Ms. Cregg feel more secure.
Margaret is considered by most of the White House staff to be a very eccentric person, known for paying obsessive attention to the smallest details of how things are done in the West Wing, as well as other odd habits. (She once mentioned to Leo that she was practicing The President's signature for fun.) She is also known for her ability to memorise lists of names and dates, conceding 'that's just how my brain works.' She is however, held in high esteem by the White House staff, for example, in one episode, when Sam asks Ginger: "Do we have some kind of condensed summary of all human knowledge?", Ginger replies "Usually we just use Margaret." She is also somewhat nosy, as evidenced by her pressing her ear against Leo's office door to hear his conversation with Ainsley Hayes in "In This White House."
One of the show's trademarks is Leo's way of shouting "Margaret!" when he needs something. NiCole Robinson has said she is used to being called on this way even in her private life.
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