Nero Wolfe stories are populated by a cast of supporting characters who help sustain the sense that each story takes place in familiar surroundings.
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Fritz Brenner is an exceptionally talented Swiss[1] cook who prepares and serves all of Wolfe's meals except those that Wolfe occasionally takes at Rusterman's Restaurant. Fritz also acts as the household's majordomo and butler. In his room, Fritz keeps 289 cookbooks, the head of a wild boar he shot in the Vosges, and busts of Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin as well as a cooking vessel thought to have been used by Julius Caesar's chef.[2] Archie and Fritz have an easygoing working relationship, and Archie often spends time in the kitchen, as he puts it, "chinning" with Fritz. Fritz's relationship with Wolfe is one of mutual respect, admiration and devotion, excepting the times when they quarrel over a recipe. The notoriously finicky Wolfe has even gone so far as to refuse to eat one of Fritz's dishes when he used tarragon and saffron to season pheasant instead of sage. [3]
In Champagne for One it is noted that Fritz is very interested in Wolfe getting new clients, since the fees they pay Wolfe are the source from which Fritz's own salary is derived. Fritz can become anxious when a long time passes without a new paying client appearing. However, when the new client does arrive, Fritz is singularly uninterested in the details of the mystery, being supremely confident that Wolfe will solve it and duly collect his fee.
In the Columbia Pictures feature film Meet Nero Wolfe (1936), the character of Fritz was transformed into a Scandinavian cook named Olaf, played by John Qualen.
In the ABC-TV movie Nero Wolfe (1977), Fritz is portrayed by David Hurst. In the NBC TV series Nero Wolfe (1981), Fritz Brenner is played by George Voskovec. In the A&E TV original series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Fritz is played by Colin Fox.
| “ | Mr. Wolfe has always pampered you because you're the best orchid nurse alive. This is as good a time as any to tell you that you remind me of sour milk. | ” |
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— Archie Goodwin to Theodore after discovering Wolfe has left the brownstone in In the Best Families (1950), chapter 6
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Theodore Horstmann is an orchid expert who assists Wolfe in the plant rooms. His living quarters are adjacent to the plant rooms on the brownstone's top floor. In the first Wolfe book, Fer-de-Lance, Archie remarks that he sometimes hears "old Horstmann" yelling at Wolfe, who "seemed to have the same effect on Horstmann that an umpire had on John J. McGraw," though he is sure that Theodore doesn't dislike Wolfe.[4]
Horstmann seldom appears in person in the narratives. In Door to Death he provides a plot device, as his extended absence forces Wolfe to find another orchid tender. But in Black Orchids, Theodore's actions are central to the denouement; and in chapter five of The Second Confession Theodore's welfare is of great concern to Wolfe.
In spite of the great emphasis on food and eating throughout the series, little mention is made of where, when, or what Horstmann eats, except that in Plot It Yourself he is said to eat in the kitchen with Fritz. Theodore has a sister in New Jersey and sometimes spends time there.
Theodore is portrayed by Robert Coote in the NBC TV series Nero Wolfe (1981). In the A&E TV original series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Theodore is never seen, but is occasionally mentioned.
They were the three 'teers because once at a conference Orrie had said they were the three musketeers and we had tried to change it to fit. We tried snoopeteers, privateers (for private eyes), dicketeers, wolfeteers, hawketeers, and others, and ended up by deciding that none of them was good enough and settling for the three 'teers.
— Archie Goodwin writing in The Father Hunt (1968), chapter 11
| “ | That is Mr. Panzer, there at the end of Mr. Goodwin's desk. If he ever wants to know anything about you, tell him; you might as well. | ” |
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— Nero Wolfe in Murder by the Book (1951), chapter 22
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Saul Panzer is a top-notch private detective who is frequently hired by Wolfe either to assist Archie or to carry out assignments Wolfe prefers that Archie not know about. Panzer is not an impressive looking character; he dresses sloppily, has a big nose, and almost always needs a shave. Even so, Archie and Wolfe respect Saul immensely. He charges much higher fees than other New York detectives, but Archie insists he's worth every cent. "With an office and a staff, he could have cleaned up, but that wouldn't have left him enough time for playing the piano or playing pinochle or keeping up with his reading, so he preferred to free-lance at seventy bucks a day" ("Champagne for One", Ch. VI).
According to "Murder is Corny", Saul's minimum daily fee is eighty dollars.
Saul occupies different residences in the Wolfe corpus. In The Next Witness, he has an apartment in Manhattan to himself. Its main room has four lamps, a grand piano, a wall with windows, another wall solid with books, and ". . . the other two had pictures and shelves that were cluttered with everything from chunks of minerals to walrus tusks." [5]
The role of Saul Panzer is played by George Wyner in the NBC TV series Nero Wolfe (1981); by Saul Rubinek in the A&E original film The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000); and by Conrad Dunn in the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002).
Fred Durkin is a blue-collar investigator who is often hired for mundane tasks such as surveillance. Married with several children, Durkin is honest and likable, but unsophisticated. He is often nervous around Nero Wolfe, whom he once offended by stirring vinegar into a roux for squab at Wolfe's table.[6] To curry favor with Wolfe, he sometimes accepts Wolfe's offer of beer, even though Archie has heard Fred call beer "slop."[7] Archie Goodwin notes that Durkin was "worth at least half as much as Saul – which was his price."[8]
In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002) and the series pilot, The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000), the role of Fred Durkin is played by Fulvio Cecere.
| “ | As I entered, Orrie got up and moved to the couch. He has not entirely given up the idea that someday my desk and chair will be his for good, and he likes to practice sitting there when I am not present. | ” |
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— Archie Goodwin writing in Champagne for One (1958), chapter 8
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Orrie Cather is a handsome, personable detective, someone people want to tell things — but he can be too full of himself. In The Mother Hunt (chapter 9), after Wolfe leaves it to Saul to teach Orrie better manners, Archie warns Wolfe, "You know, if you pile it on enough to give Orrie an inferiority complex it will be a lulu, and a damn good op will be ruined." But Archie, too, has an occasional run-in with Orrie, who thinks he would look just fine sitting at Archie's desk.
Orrie's talents as a professional operative are much narrower than Archie's. He has neither Saul Panzer's genius for tailing, nor his memory for faces, nor his instinct for the best move. And while he's brighter than Fred Durkin, Orrie exhibits little of Fred's bulldog tenacity. But he is handsome, and Stout furnishes him more complex motives than he does Saul or Fred. Ambiguities in Orrie's character are introduced as early as The League of Frightened Men (1935);[9] and by Death of a Doxy in 1966, Wolfe states, "You must know that I have no affection for him."[10] In Champagne for One Orrie pulls a major coup, breaking into a suspect's apartment and finding a key document on which the solution of the book's mystery largely hinges – a document which he insists upon handing to Wolfe personally rather than through Goodwin (who reluctantly admits that that was Orrie's due).
Orrie is often the operative Wolfe turns to when an attractive female is involved and Archie is unavailable. His womanizing leads him to become a central character in Death of a Doxy. In that novel, Orrie is seeing a woman named Isabel Keating, despite being engaged to an airline stewardess named Jill Hardy. When he attempts to break it off with Isabel, she attempts to force him to continue their affair by threatening to tell his fiancée. Shortly thereafter, Isabel is murdered and Orrie is arrested as the prime suspect. Wolfe is forced to step into the case to clear Orrie's name, and to prevent his own from being associated with a murder trial. The novel ends with Orrie marrying Jill Hardy, who is none the wiser.
Orrie's full first name is one of the inconsistencies in the corpus. In chapter 16 of The Golden Spiders (1953), clothing store owner Bernard Levine states that he was shown "a New York detective license with his picture on it and his name, Orvald Cather." In chapter 3 of If Death Ever Slept, Archie calls the office and Orrie answers the phone, "Nero Wolfe's residence. Orville Cather speaking." And, thinking he was clarifying the matter, Rex Stout's biographer John McAleer asked the author, "Is Orrie Cather's given name Orrin?" "Probably," Stout replied.[11]
In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002) and the series pilot, The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000), the role of Orrie Cather is played by Trent McMullen.
| “ | Cramer stuck the cigar between his lips and clamped his teeth on it. I had seen him light one only once, years ago. The cigar had a specific function, the idea being that with his teeth closed on it he couldn't speak the words that were on his tongue, and that gave him time to swallow them and substitute others. | ” |
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— Archie Goodwin writing in Plot It Yourself (1959), chapter 10
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Inspector Cramer of the New York Police Department's Homicide Division is Wolfe's main foil. Cramer resents the high-handed manner in which Wolfe pursues his investigations — particularly Wolfe's tendency to let murderers commit suicide rather than face trial.[12] Cramer is usually assisted by Sergeant Purley Stebbins, and at times by Lt. George Rowcliff.
Cramer has enjoyed twitting Wolfe by rising from the red leather chair without using his arms for leverage – something that Wolfe cannot do.[13]
Cramer has considerable respect for Wolfe's investigative skill. In The Doorbell Rang, Cramer goes to some lengths to keep the state of New York from taking Wolfe's and Archie's licenses as private investigators. And in In the Best Families, Cramer says, "Wolfe is too cocky to live ... I would love to bloody his nose for him. I've tried to often enough, and someday I will and enjoy it. But I would hate to see him break his neck on a deal like this where he hasn't got a chance."[14] Cramer is also grateful to Wolfe for saving his job in The Silent Speaker. Near the end of that book[15], Cramer expresses his gratitude by bringing Wolfe " ... a misshapen object covered with green florist's paper" that turns out to be an orchid.
Cramer shares few, if any, of Wolfe's tastes; in the story "Black Orchids", for example, Wolfe exclaims that the black orchids are unique, matchless and incomparable, Cramer replies that "They're pretty ... Kind of drab, though. Not much color. I like geraniums better."[16]
Cramer is a cigar chewer. In early Nero Wolfe novels, Cramer lights and smokes them (in The League of Frightened Men he smokes a pipe), but in later novels Archie notes that Cramer only chews on cigars and has never been known to light one. Cramer often ends his visits to Wolfe's office by angrily throwing his chewed cigar at the wastebasket, usually missing the target. Archie suspects that the cigars give Cramer a moment to calm down before he says something regrettable.[17]
Cramer is married and has one son, who fights in the Australian theater during World War II.[18]
Cramer's first name, Fergus, is given once only, in 1940's Where There's a Will. However, his initials are later given as "L.T.C." in 1946's The Silent Speaker, due to Stout's failure to recall that he had earlier given Cramer a first name.[19] This led to Robert Goldsborough giving him the full name of "Lionel T. Cramer" in Goldsborough's version of Nero Wolfe novels. "To me he is just Inspector Cramer," Stout said.[20]
Cramer is the protagonist of one Stout novel, Red Threads (1939).
Inspector Cramer was portrayed by Biff McGuire in the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe, by Allan Miller in NBC TV's 1981 series, and by Sergey Parshin in Russian TV-series Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (2001-2002). In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), the role of Inspector Cramer is played by Bill Smitrovich. Archie hears him called Fergus in the episode '"The Silent Speaker," when he makes the brief acquaintance of Mrs. Cramer.
Sergeant Purley Stebbins is Inspector Cramer's assistant. Stebbins is in many ways the archetypal good cop: tough, brave and dedicated, but also gruff and unpolished. Stebbins is ambivalent about Archie, and Archie makes frequent references to the few times Stebbins has let his guard down and called him by his first name. Archie believes that Stebbins harbors some resentment toward him due to the great discrepancy in their salaries[21], but Stebbins recognizes Archie as an expert and talented detective.
In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), the role of Purley Stebbins is played by R.D. Reid.
| “ | We were fairly even — he set my teeth on edge about the same as I did his — until one day I got the notion of stuttering. When he gets worked up to a certain point he starts to stutter. My idea was to wait till he was about there and then stutter just once. It more than met expectations. It made him so mad he had to stutter, he couldn't help it, and then I complained that he was mimicking me. From that day on I have had the long end and he knows it. | ” |
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— Archie Goodwin on Lieutenant Rowcliff in Murder by the Book (1951), chapter 5
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Lieutenant George Rowcliff is a police lieutenant for whom Wolfe harbors special animus, partly due to an incident in which Rowcliff took Wolfe into custody. As Wolfe once puts it, "This whole performance is based on an idiotic assumption, which was natural and indeed inevitable, since Mr. Rowcliff is your champion ass – the assumption that Mr. Goodwin and I are both cretins."[22]
As with Cramer, Stout made a continuity error in Rowcliff's first name. Though it is given as George elsewhere, in Please Pass the Guilt his first two initials are stated as "J.M." in a letter dictated by Wolfe.
Rowcliff is the only character acknowledged by Stout to have been consciously modeled and named after a real-life person — a young naval attache under whom Stout served while a yeoman on Theodore Roosevelt's Presidential Yacht Mayflower in 1906–07 and to whom Stout took an intense and enduring dislike. Whether or not the connection between the real and fictional Rowcliffs was known contemporaneously, it is clear that the source of Stout’s obnoxious cop suffered no ill effects professionally: Gilbert Jonathan Rowcliff went on to a distinguished naval career spanning both world wars, at sea as an honored commander and in Washington as Judge Advocate General, a position he assumed in June 1936, shortly after his namesake was introduced in The Rubber Band. It is also clear that, whether or not the naval Rowcliff followed Stout’s career or read and recognized himself in the Nero Wolfe books, Stout followed his; in an interview with John McAleer, the author dead-panned, “he retired in December 1945, with the rank of rear admiral.” [23]
The role of Rowcliff is played by Bill MacDonald [1] in the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002).
Lon Cohen is a newspaper editor and/or journalist near the top of the fictional New York Gazette, a major New York daily newspaper. The Stout stories place Cohen's office close to the publisher's, but Archie claims not to know what Cohen's title is. Lon is Archie's pipeline to breaking crime news, and Archie frequently asks Lon for background information on current or prospective clients.
Archie, Lon, and some other Wolfe regulars play poker Thursday nights at Saul Panzer's apartment.
Over the years, Wolfe and the Gazette develop a symbiotic relationship that gives the newspaper exclusive information regarding Wolfe's cases, and that gives Wolfe publicity – sometimes, more than he would want.
Lon's role at the New York Gazette is not further detailed in the Rex Stout stories, but it becomes central to the story line in Robert Goldsborough's novel Death on Deadline.
In the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe, Lon Cohen is played by John Randolph. In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), Lon Cohen is played by Saul Rubinek.
Lily Rowan, heiress and socialite, often appears as Archie Goodwin's romantic companion, although the relationship is not an exclusive one. Lily and Archie meet in Some Buried Caesar, in which she calls him "Escamillo"[25] after his near-encounters with a pastured bull. Subsequently she appears in several stories and provides needed assistance on occasion (see, particularly, In the Best Families and A Right to Die).
Lily is one of the few women for whom Nero Wolfe has a grudging respect: "I have not only eaten her bread and salt, I have eaten her grouse. I am in her debt."[26]
Lily's father, who made his money building New York's sewer system, helped Inspector Cramer get started at the NYPD, and this background sometimes causes Cramer a conflict of interest where Lily is concerned.
In three episodes of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002) — "Door to Death," "Christmas Party" and "Death of a Doxy" — the role of Lily Rowan is played by Kari Matchett.
Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner is a smart, attractive female private detective, introduced as the protagonist of Rex Stout's 1937 novel The Hand in the Glove. Head of her own detective agency, she makes another appearance in Stout's Tecumseh Fox novel Bad for Business (1940). Dol plays a major role in the Nero Wolfe novella Too Many Detectives, and she is employed by Wolfe in If Death Ever Slept and Plot It Yourself.
In Lady Against the Odds, a 1992 TV adaptation of The Hand in the Glove, Dol Bonner is played by Crystal Bernard.
Wolfe and Archie first meet Dol Bonner's assistant Sally Corbett (aka Sally Colt) in the first chapter of Too Many Detectives, when they are summoned to Albany for questioning about wiretapping activities. Archie starts his report by stating, "I am against female detectives on principle." Still Sally Colt, she is again called on to help out in If Death Ever Slept. In Plot It Yourself, it is a Sally Corbett, not Colt, who helps out on Wolfe's case: "Sally Corbett was one of the two women who, a couple of years back, had made me feel that there might be some flaw in my attitude toward female dicks," Archie writes. Sally Colt/Corbett makes a final appearance in The Mother Hunt, in which Archie again remarks that Sally and Dol had made him change his attitude about female detectives.[28]
Sally Corbett is played by Manon von Gerkan in Motherhunt, part of the second season of the A&E original series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002).
Arnold Zeck appears in three Nero Wolfe novels. Zeck is a mysterious and powerful crime boss possessed of a superior intellect. He and Wolfe become mutual admirers and antagonists in the course of several cases.
Zeck’s malevolent presence intrudes via telephone in two novels, And Be a Villain (1948) and The Second Confession (1949). Zeck had previously telephoned Wolfe twice: on June 9, 1943, concerning Wolfe’s work for General Carpenter; and on January 16, 1946, regarding Mrs. Tremont.[29] Zeck himself appears in In the Best Families (1950), the third book of what is popularly called The Zeck Trilogy, in which Nero Wolfe finds it necessary to defeat Zeck once and for all. In 1974, the Viking Press collected the three Zeck novels in an omnibus volume, Triple Zeck.
"I was thrilled when Wolfe finally encountered his own Moriarty in the archvillain Arnold Zeck," wrote Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic for The Washington Post.[30] British author and literary critic David Langford has also noted that the relationship between Zeck and Wolfe compares to that of Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes.[31]
The role of Arnold Zeck (renamed Arnold Dorso) is played by Robert Loggia in In the Best Families. an episode of the 1981 NBC TV series Nero Wolfe.