Rex Van de Kamp
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| Dr. Rex Van de Kamp | |
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 Steven Culp as Dr. Rex Van de Kamp. |
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| First appearance | "Pilot" (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | "My Husband, the Pig" (episode 3.16) (voice) |
| Cause/reason | heart failure |
| Created by | Marc Cherry |
| Portrayed by | Steven Culp Michael Reilly Burke (unaired pilot) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 43 (at death) |
| Occupation | Surgeon |
| Title | Doctor |
| Family | Phyllis Van de Kamp (mother) |
| Spouse(s) | Bree Van de Kamp (widow) Maisy Gibbons (ex-mistress) |
| Children | Andrew Van de Kamp (son) Danielle Van de Kamp (daughter) |
| Relatives | Henry Mason (father-in-law) Eleanor Mason (step-mother-in-law) Aunt Fern (aunt-in-law) |
Dr. Rex Van de Kamp is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actor Steven Culp.
| “ | I used to hate cemeteries when I was alive. Now that I'm dead, I like them even less. | ” |
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— Rex Van de Kamp
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Contents |
[edit] Season 1
Rex Van de Kamp was the doctor husband of Bree, and the father of Danielle and Andrew. Rex asked Bree for a divorce while at a steakhouse they were eating at on one of the rare occurrences that the Van de Kamps did not eat Bree's cooking at home. He said that he could no longer "live in this detergent commercial," but the cause of their blase marriage was later revealed to be rooted in Rex's failing to ask his wife to dominate him. Due to Bree's inability to sexually satisfy him, he embarked on an affair with local homemaker/prostitute Maisy Gibbons. Rex suffered a near-fatal heart attack whilst sleeping with Maisy. Whilst Rex was in the hospital Bree threatened to eviscerate him, after discovering Rex's affair with Maisy by seeing that she had signed him in at the hospital. As a result of Rex having another heart attack, the couple came to realize that they should be nice to one another in the time they had left. However, the Van de Kamp's pharmacist, George Williams, fell obsessively in love with Bree and became jealous of their marriage, strengthened by Rex's rudeness toward George. George Williams' jealousy culminated in him tampering with Rex's prescriptions. As a result of Rex not receiving the proper medication to prevent further heart complications, he suffered another heart attack. Ultimately, the tampered medications resulted in Rex's death. He died thinking Bree had poisoned him after all that he had put her through, especially in the past year. In Rex's final moments, he wrote a letter to her saying that he understood why she had killed him and that he forgave her.
[edit] Season 2
Bree was informed of Rex's passing. Rex's mother, Phyllis Van de Kamp, arrived for his funeral. Her constant disapproval of Bree for how she treated Rex led to tensions in the preparations for his funeral. During Rex's funeral, Bree discovered that Phyllis had gone over her head and put Rex's school tie on him, which Bree detested. In front of the packed church's congregation, she removed Rex's school tie and replaced it with the one she demanded from Tom Scavo. Following his funeral, Rex was buried in that tie, much to Bree's approval. However, he was dug up during the police's investigation into his death after it was deemed suspicious. Shortly before a second memorial service Bree planned with Lynette, Susan, and Gabrielle, Bree was shown the note Rex wrote on his deathbed. Bree refused to be buried next to someone for eternity who thought she killed him. Rex was therefore buried in the pauper's section of the cemetery. It is unknown whether or not Bree tried to or managed to retrieve Rex's casket after discovering that George Williams was ultimately responsible for her husband's death.
Since his death, Rex has appeared in a coffin in the first episode of season 2 and in flashbacks in the season 2 finale Remember. The flashbacks included the Van de Kamps first moving to Wisteria Lane in 1994 and meeting Mary Alice Young. When Bree tried to pressure Mary Alice into punishing Andrew for stealing one of the Youngs' garden ornaments, Rex assured Mary Alice, "We're not weird, we just seem like we are." In another flashback, he was at the local drug store buying hair dye with Bree in 2001 to get rid of purple Danielle had put in her hair. This showed Rex and Bree's on-going debate on how to discipline their children, in which Rex was much more lax than his wife.
[edit] Season 3
For season 3, episode 16 (the 62nd episode of the entire series) My Husband, the Pig, which focused primarily on the men of Desperate Housewives: Carlos Solis, Tom Scavo, Mike Delfino, Orson Hodge, and Ian Hainsworth, Rex took over the role of narrating the episode from beyond the grave, the role that in every other episode was taken by Mary Alice Young. In his commentary on Orson "replacing" him as head of his family, Rex appeared hesitant but said that he had the Van de Kamp smile, meaning that no matter how bad a situation was, he could give a reassuring smile that made it appear that everything was perfect. It should be noted that despite it being unclear where Rex Van de Kamp is laid to rest, a tombstone featuring his name appeared at the beginning of the episode.
[edit] Political and Social Views
Rex and Bree were both Republicans, having met during a Young Republicans meeting during their college years. Despite being Republican himself, Rex was clearly more relaxed than Bree when it came to their children's choices and actions, no matter how liberal they might be or how much Bree disapproved of them. He was the one who told Bree that, "Even if we took (Andrew's) penis away from him, he'd still figure out a way to have sex." He also told Bree that "If you were my mother, I'd smoke marijuana too." Rex's views on homosexuality are also much more liberal than his wife's views. When their son Andrew announced that he was gay he only wanted to tell his father because he knew this was the case.
[edit] Quotes
- To Andrew: "The next time you touch your mother like that, I will throw you right through this wall! Do you understand me?!!"
- "I've never liked cemeteries. Now that I'm dead, I like them even less."
- "We're not weird. We just seem like we are."
- "Yes, I know, they are my kids and I love them, but I'm pretty relieved that I'm dead."
- To Bree: "If you were my mother I'd smoke pot, too."
- "Damn it Bree"
[edit] Trivia
- Steven Culp was Marc Cherry's first choice to play Rex. When Culp couldn't do the project, due to prior commitments, Cherry hired actor Michael Reilly Burke to play Rex. When Burke didn't test well with audiences, Cherry asked Culp again. Culp was now available and went on to play Rex.
- Rex and Bree Van de Kamp were both named after the overtly vain characters on two of Marc Cherry's previous failed sitcoms, The Five Mrs. Buchanans (Bree) and The Crew (Rex).
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