Nero Wolfe stories are populated by a cast of supporting characters who help sustain the sense that each story takes place in familiar surroundings.

Household

Fritz Brenner

Fritz Brenner is an exceptionally talented Swiss 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.. Archie and Fritz have an easygoing working relationship, and Archie often spends time in the kitchen, as he puts it, "chinning" with Fritz.

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 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.

Theodore Horstmann

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.

The Horstmann character is often little more than a plot device — as in Door to Death in which 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.

The 'Teers

Saul Panzer

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.

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."

The role of Saul Panzer is played by George Wyner in the NBC TV series Nero Wolfe (1981). Saul Rubinek played the role in the A&E original film The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000). In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), Conrad Dunn is Saul Panzer.

Fred Durkin

Fred Durkin is a blue-collar investigator who is often hired for mundane tasks such as surveillance. 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. To curry favor with Wolfe, he sometimes accepts Wolfe's offer of beer, even though Archie has heard Fred call beer "slop.

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.

Orrie Cather

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); and by Death of a Doxy in 1966, Wolfe states, "You must know that I have no affection for him.

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.

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.

Law enforcement officials

Inspector Cramer

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. 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.

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. Cramer is also grateful to Wolfe for saving his job in The Silent Speaker. Near the end of that book, 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.

Cramer is a cigar chewer. In early Nero Wolfe novels, Cramer lights and smokes them, 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.

Cramer is married and has one son, who fought in the Australian theater during World War II.

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. 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.

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, and by Allan Miller in NBC TV's 1981 series. 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

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. Archie believes that Stebbins harbors some resentment toward him due to the great discrepancy in their salaries, 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.

Lieutenant Rowcliff

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.

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 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 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.”

The role of Rowcliff is played by Bill MacDonald in the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002).

Others

• Police Commissioner Hombert — In some of the novels the New York police commissioner
• Skinner — District Attorney for Manhattan
• Mandelbaum (aka Mandel) — Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan.
• Cleveland Archer — District Attorney in Westchester County
• Ben Dykes — Head of detectives for Westchester County
• Con Noonan — Lieutenant with the New York State Police. A suburban version of Lieutenant Rowcliff.

Friends

Lon Cohen

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 A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), the role of Lon Cohen is played by Saul Rubinek.

Lily Rowan

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 refers to him as "Escamillo 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.

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 him 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.

Others

• Marko Vukčić — A fellow Montenegrin whom Wolfe has known since childhood. Marko owns the upscale Rusterman's Restaurant in Manhattan. In later Wolfe novels, Wolfe acts as the restaurant's trustee.
• Lewis Hewitt — Well-heeled orchid fancier, whom Wolfe saved from notoriety (as told in Black Orchids). During a prolonged absence, Wolfe arranges his orchids to be cared for at Hewitt's estate. Hewitt is a member of the Ten for Aristology, a group of gourmets that figures in Poison à la Carte and The Doorbell Rang. In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery the role of Hewitt is played by David Hemblen.
• Nathaniel Parker — Wolfe's lawyer (and occasionally a client's lawyer, on Wolfe's recommendation) when only a lawyer will do. Parker succeeded Henry H. Barber, who played this role earlier in the series. On the way from Henry Barber to Nathaniel Parker, Wolfe consults Henry Parker in chapter 9 of The Golden Spiders. Parker is well educated: for example, Parker converses with Wolfe in French during the story Immune to Murder. In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Parker was played by Hrant Alianak in "Prisoner's Base," and by George Plimpton in "Death of a Doxy" and "Murder is Corny."
• Doctor Vollmer — A medical doctor who is Wolfe's neighbor and occasional confidante. In the novel The Silent Speaker, Vollmer certifies an illness severe enough that Wolfe cannot be interrogated by the police. In the A&E television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery Vollmer was played by Ken Kramer in "The Doorbell Rang" and "Disguise for Murder," and by Joe Flaherty in "The Silent Speaker."
• Carla Lovchen — Wolfe's adopted daughter, who appears in two stories, Over My Dead Body and The Black Mountain. In the A&E television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery Carla Lovchen was played by Kari Matchett in the concluding episode of the first season, "Over My Dead Body."

Associates

Dol Bonner

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.

Sally Corbett

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.

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).

Others

• Bill Gore — Freelance operative occasionally called in when Wolfe requires additional help in the field.
• Johnny Keems — operative occasionally called in by Wolfe. He makes his last appearance in the novel Might as Well Be Dead.
• Del Bascom — Independent investigator who runs a large detective agency in Manhattan. Wolfe sometimes subcontracts to Bascom when he needs more operatives than usual (The Silent Speaker, for example).
• Herb Aronson and Al Goller — Cabdrivers hired by Archie for mobile surveillance work.

Arnold Zeck

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. Zeck himself appears in In the Best Families (1950). In the third book of what is popularly called The Zeck Trilogy, Nero Wolfe resolves 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.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.

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.

External links

• The Nero Wolfe Database, an editable resource offering character and plot summaries for all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories

References