This is a list of characters in the classic drama/murder mystery television show, Diagnosis: Murder, which ran from 1993-2001. The characters are listed alphabetically by their last name or by the name which appears in the episode credits.
Contents |
| Amanda Bentley | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Diagnosis of Murder |
| Last appearance | Without Warning |
| Portrayed by | Victoria Rowell |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Medical examiner/pathologist for Community General Hospital Chief of Pathology |
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 (Diagnosis of Murder, The House on Sycamore Street and A Twist of the Knife), Amanda is played by Cynthia Gibb. Victoria Rowell appeared in all the episodes of the series, with the exception of 11 (both sporadically and during the last season) on (CBS).
Dr. Amanda Bentley is Dr. Mark Sloan's faithful young woman and beautiful medical partner, specializing in pathology. It is revealed in the series that the character of Amanda is an orphan (just as Victoria Rowell is), 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.
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 (Colin Jesse). CJ was delivered by the character of Jesse and Mark is chosen to be his godfather. Later in the series, she adopts another boy, named Deon, from his abusive parents.
| Norman Briggs | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Miracle Cure |
| Last appearance | The Murder Of Mark Sloan |
| Portrayed by | Michael Tucci |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Head of Administration for Community General Hospital |
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.
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.
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 characters appears in the four first seasons only.
| Dr. Mark Sloan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis Murder | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Dick Van Dyke | ||||||||
| First appearance | Diagnosis of Murder | ||||||||
| Last appearance | Without Warning | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation | Head of Internal Medicine, Community General Hospital Silent partner, BBQ Bob's |
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| Residence | Malibu, California | ||||||||
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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 as well as being a consultant to the LAPD. As a doctor, he is the black sheep of the family, coming from "a long line of cops" (his father was a police detective). He refers to himself as an amateur sleuth. Dick Van Dyke was one of the 2 actors (next to his son) to appear in all the episodes of the series, during its eight season run on (CBS).
Mark has an older sister, Dora (Betty White), who owns a travel agency. He also has a younger brother, Stacey (Jerry Van Dyke), who owns a malt shop in Arkansas and has a tendency to sleepwalk.
Mark is a widower, since his wife Katherine died of cancer a little over 10 years ago. With Katherine, he had two children. His son Steve (with whom Mark shares his Malibu beach house) is lieutenant and police detective for the LAPD. Mark also has an estranged daughter, Carol Sloan Hilton (Stacey Van Dyke), a nurse, who lives in Northern California.
His first home was a small house at Colorado Drive, Los Angeles. Sometime later, he buys a beach house located at 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 (soft shoe and tap). 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.
| Steve Sloan | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Diagnosis of Murder |
| Last appearance | Without Warning |
| Portrayed by | Barry Van Dyke |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Police Detective/Lieutenant for LAPD |
Police Detective/Lieutenant Steve Sloan, played by Barry Van Dyke, is a police detective/lieutenant. The character appears in all episode of all seasons.
Steve Sloan is the son of Dr. Mark Sloan and Mark's wife, Katherine. Katherine died of cancer when Steve was younger—throughout the series, Mark refers to her death occurring "ten years ago." Steve has one sibling, an estranged sister named Carol. (Carol is only mentioned in a few episodes.)
Right out of college, he joined the army and spent 18 months on one tour to Vietnam during the War. He took a second tour towards the end of the war. Afterwards, Steve joined the LAPD and, after season two, was promoted from homicide detective to lieutenant. Following this appointment, Steve was subsequently promoted to his own one man army, in his genuine pursuit of justice
His apartment burns down, he moves to a separate apartment in his father's Malibu beach house. He often tries to move away, once even buying an electric house. After the house almost kills Mark, Steve begins renting it. Steve was once shot in the chest and was legally dead for three minutes until doctors were able to resuscitate him. This makes him a target in "Murder On The Hour".
At the beginning of season six, he and Dr. Jesse Travis go into business together. They co-own a barbecue restaurant called BBQ Bob's. Mark is also a silent partner.
Sloan is unmarried and it becomes a running gag that all his girlfriends turn out to be involved in murders he is currently investigating. Or, they end up dead.
As a character he is quite active. Sloan played Little League, where he badly broke his nose, and American football in high school. He is quite athletic, enjoying jogging and playing and watching basketball, while he also rides dirtbikes and has a small catamaran on the beach. One of his dreams was to become a stunt man and in the episode "Frontier Dad" (Season Seven) he gets this chance, though is overcome with stage fright. (This episode was also written by Barry Van Dyke and starred all of Barry's children.) He also often uses his patented dive to apprehend criminals.
Towards the end of the series, Barry began writing his own episodes, such as "Never Say Die", and "Frontier Dad". All episodes Barry wrote star his four children: Carey, Shane, Wes and Taryn. Shane becomes a regular during season eight, portraying Alex, a medical student.
| Dr. Jesse Travis | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | An Innocent Murder written by Cynthia Deming & William J Royce |
| Last appearance | Without Warning |
| Portrayed by | Charlie Schlatter |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Trauma surgeon for Community General Hospital Co-owner of BBQ Bob's restaurant |
Dr. Jesse Travis, played by Charlie Schlatter, is introduced in "An Innocent Murder," the first episode of season three. The moment Charlie Schlatter joined the cast in 1995, Jesse became a breakout character. He appeared as a regular character through season 8, missing only five episodes.
After medical school, Jesse became a resident at Community General, where his teacher, Dr. Mark Sloan would inspire him to be a doctor.
According to the background revealed in the show, he was born in Minnesota. His mother's name is never mentioned, but she was portrayed by Kathleen Noone. She is a podiatrist and owns a family practice in Minnesota. She is always trying to convince Jesse to move back. His father is Dane Travis (Robert Culp), who is a retired CIA spy and tennis professional. His parents are divorced.
(Charlie Schlatter was introduced in Season Three to replace Scott Baio, who'd left the show.)