James Evan Wilson
Origin: House M.D.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Date of Birth: 28 February 1969
Occupation: Doctor; works in Sickbay sometimes
Residence: Castle, 5-9-11
Blood type: 0-
Import Date: Year 10.
James Evan Wilson was a major character on House from the first season until the end of the series. He was the Head of Oncology at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and also Dr. Gregory House's sole good friend up until his resignation from the hospital and (probable, due to his refusal to continue treatment) eventual death from Thymoma, which he was officially diagnosed with in the Season 8 episode, Body and Soul. Wilson acts as House’s conscience, sounding board, and the enabler of his abusive personality.
He has been married and divorced three times (his first wife was Sam Carr, the second wife was Bonnie Wilson, the third Julie Wilson). He has had a relationship with one of his terminally ill patients, and dated one of House's rejected applicants, Amber Volakis until her untimely death. Wilson states in Season 1 that he has no children. He does seem to suggest to last girlfriend Sam (also his first wife) that he wants a child with her in Season 7, as when she says she should get a puppy, he replies, "Or pregnant." He proposed to her in the following episode, but it resulted in her leaving him.
He has been treated for clinical depression. Although he cares deeply for House, he often goes behind his back in attempts to help him. For example, although Cuddy proposed the bet to House that he give up Vicodin for a week in order to reduce his clinic duty, it was Wilson's idea. It was also Wilson's idea not to tell House that he was right about Richard McNeil suffering from Addison's disease.
Wilson has gone to extreme lengths to protect and support House, as well as enable House's abusive and manipulative behavior:
He was the only board member to vote against firing House in order to satisfy Edward Vogler, which cost him his spot on the board and almost cost him his job.
He lied to Michael Tritter when House forged Wilson's signature on Wilson's prescription pad. After Wilson admitted the forgery to Tritter, he once again refused to cooperate with Tritter after House saved yet another patient no-one else could.
He was always by House's side when Stacy Warner left him, which eventually cost Wilson his second wife.
Wilson is one of three brothers. He has an undergraduate degree from McGill University, and graduate degrees from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. His father is Christian and his mother is Jewish; he was raised in his mother's faith.
Shortly after a medical convention in New Orleans, after graduating medical school, Wilson accidentally broke an antique mirror and started a bar fight when another customer repeatedly played "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" by Billy Joel to the frustration of Wilson, who was going through a divorce with his first wife at the time. Out of interest, House bailed him out and hired an attorney to clear his name, thus starting both their professional and personal relationship. In the Season 1 episode "Histories", it is revealed that one of his brothers is homeless and that Wilson is unaware if he is still alive as he has not seen him in nine years. Wilson has a history of failed marriages: he is married to his third wife during Season 1 and, with the discovery of his wife's infidelity, separates from her during Season 2. After the failure of his third marriage, Wilson lives in various temporary accommodies as (including a stint at House's own apartment) until he meets Amber Volakis, who is a female substitute for House. Wilson and House's relationship has been sorely tested on many occasions.
Wilson did well in school and was also talented athletically, he was the captain of his high school's varsity tennis team and also played the sport in college.
Wilson has ties to both McGill University (he is often seen wearing a sweatshirt from the university) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University (he has a Surgical Degree from it in his office). It is reasonable to presume he went to McGill as an undergraduate and Columbia for medical school. He also has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he did his specialty training in Oncology.
During this time, Wilson was trying to deal with the demands of his brother Danny Wilson, a student at Princeton University who was on medication for his schizophrenia. Danny had a habit of calling James to complain about his treatment by the professors as the medication Danny took did not totally eliminate his paranoia. However, on one occasion, James was desperately trying to study and hung up on Danny. He soon learned that Danny had left the university and didn’t take his meds, losing all contact with his family.
During his later part of medical school, he met and married his first wife, Sam Carr. It appears Sam was about a year ahead of him and that they married in medical school. The marriage was strained as Sam took an unpaid internship after medical school, leaving James to work two jobs to pay the bills as well as continuing to attend to his final year of medical school.
Shortly after graduating from medical school, Wilson decided to take some time off to attend a medical convention in New Orleans, Louisiana before starting his own internship. While he was at the convention, his wife had him served with divorce papers (the first time he knew Sam was dissatisfied with their marriage). While mulling the matter over at a bar, he got upset with a doctor who kept playing Billy Joel’s “Leave A Tender Moment Alone” on the jukebox. He got into an altercation and hurled a glass into an antique mirror. He was soon arrested and taken to jail.
However, he was soon rescued by a doctor who had also been at the convention who had been following him around, Gregory House. House became intrigued with Wilson when he saw him carrying around a parcel from a divorce attorney all weekend without opening it. He followed him to the bar and bailed him out of jail. They spent the rest of the weekend drinking together and soon became fast friends. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, Wilson never attended to plead to the charges and a Louisiana warrant was issued for his arrest.
Wilson completed his internship and residency in oncology, becoming board certified. He soon found romance with a new partner, Bonnie Wilson.
Wilson enjoyed substantial career success as an oncologist. One day, House called him to let him know that Princeton-Plainsboro was looking for a new oncologist and thought it would be fun to work together. Wilson jumped at the chance, but not for the reason House thought – since Danny had disappeared in Princeton, Wilson took the opportunity to look in homeless shelters for him. He kept this secret from House for years. He only spotted Danny once during this time – while James was having dinner, he spotted him outside. However, by the time he got out of the restaurant, Danny was gone. This eventually prompted Wilson to join the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital where he eventually became the head of the Oncology Department.
Unfortunately, Wilson’s second marriage went no better than his first. When House became disabled and his girlfriend Stacy Warner left him, Wilson started spending more time with House and less with Bonnie. Between this and Wilson’s infidelity, Bonnie finally decided to divorce him too, leaving Wilson on the hook for alimony.
However, Wilson bounced back again – he married a third time to Julie (who has never been seen in the series).
Wilson is by all standards one of the nicest people you could meet, as he has an unbelievable bedside manner and knows exactly how to talk to people. He also cares deeply about others, sometimes even more than he cares about himself. Patients have been known to thank him after he tells them that they're dying. He has donated blood and even organs to his patients when they cannot find matches. In the Season 6 episode, Lockdown, Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley teases him, saying that he's too much of a "nice boy". He is "incapable of turning away from any responsibility" and ultimately believes that "enduring pain for someone you care about" is what life is all about. However, despite this, Wilson doesn’t seem to acknowledge or realize that House admitted to being abused by his stepfather as shown at his stepfather's funeral.
In contrast to his own personality and demeanor, Wilson generally finds friends in much darker and more dour people, such as his best friend House or girlfriend Amber. In fact, House and Wilson are so very different from each other, that the close pair of friends can be said to be "polar opposites." This social life issue causes Wilson a great deal of frustration at times. This trait makes Wilson the only person who is willing to be with House on such a close and personal level of friendship.
In addition, as House often criticizes him for, Wilson tends to be a "clingy" friend/date. This is because of how much he cares about other people, resulting in him wanting to be as involved with them as possible.
He has also demonstrated that he caves in to people's demands too easily and has trouble forming his own opinions. In the Season 3 episode, Family, House lashes out at Wilson for leaving a major decision up to the parents of a patient, and when asked what he would recommend, he simply tells the parents that it's their decision. Also, in the Season 4 episode, Living the Dream, his girlfriend, Amber Volakis, tells him that the reason that his previous marriages didn't work out was because he did whatever they wanted and he ended up resenting them. She also angrily tells him "don't you ever do that to me." This is also shown by his inability to pick his own furniture in the Season 6 episode, Black Hole, displaying how he had always placed other's needs over his own to the point he didn't even know what he himself wanted, and when asked to pick one piece of furniture to define him, he finally picks out an organ for House instead, choosing to define himself by his relationship with others (particularly House). In Season 8, Wilson even agrees to undergo debilitating chemotherapy in order to extend his lifetime for House's sake, despite not wanting the treatment for himself. Wilson constantly enables House, including drug abuse and rude behavior, but on occasion stands up to him, usually for his own good, such as refusing to help him escape the psych ward in "Broken," or refusing to take the fall for a vandalism charge in Season 8.
While Wilson is normally a calm, serious person, he does have a humorous and playful side, as well. This especially happens when he is in a good emotional state, and/or when people play pranks with him. He has also proven many times that he is more than capable of outwitting House with such examples being during the Season 2 episode, Safe where Wilson successfully sawed through House's cane so that it broke when House put his full weight on it, in Not Cancer, having learnt that House had a private eye to spy on him, Wilson deliberately hired a prostitute for a short visit and planted drug paraphernalia in his own garbage and then in the Season 8 episode, Perils of Paranoia where Wilson successfully locked House in the bathroom.
Despite his kind, and sometimes humorous nature, Wilson does occasionally get in a cranky mood. This typically happens when House pushes him to his limits, or when his issues just become difficult to handle, in general. There have also been times where Wilson has expressed some outrage or anger towards Cuddy, House himself and even some of House's team, usually for some emotional failure. This usually manifests in him "going off" on them, but is usually brief, and he typically makes up with them quickly. This happens a number of times with House. He also suffers from depression, for which he has been clinically treated. According to actor Robert Sean Leonard, he describes Wilson as "the saddest man alive... he's very lonely and a very spooky character", showing that he does suffer from a dark side.
Wilson also occasionally gets petty, such as with germs and keeping food safe, and with keeping his furniture clean. In the season 6 episode, "Open and Shut," this proves to be a challenge with his attempt to get back together with Sam. Wilson becomes annoyed when Sam puts the milk in the door shelf of the refrigerator, saying that it would be colder in the center, thus less likely to become spoiled. Wilson originally tries to ignore his annoyance with Sam not being as cautious as he is, and says nothing to her about it at first. However, House notices and uses it to try to test and sabotage the strength of Wilson's re-emerging relationship with Sam, by off-setting the dishes in the dishwasher so that there's a big bowl on the bottom shelf that blocks the water from getting to the top shelf. Thinking that Sam also did that, and not knowing it was actually House's "testing", Wilson finally asks Sam if she could be more cautious with germs, and also if she could use a coaster with her drinks on his furniture. Sam becomes surprised when he brings up and asks for all of that at once, though eventually becomes glad that, unlike before, Wilson is expressing his annoyances.
However, Wilson's high standards for detail also prove useful. In the Season 6 Episode, "Wilson," he noticed that a Cancer patient, who was in remission, did not brag about his grand kids like usual. While a seemingly minute happening, especially for a Cancer patient, Wilson thought that the patient's subtle increase of depression could be the result of new Cancer. Having done some tests as a result, there indeed was a newly formed, small Cancerous mass in the patient's lung, which didn't end up doing much harm, due to the very early catch. Wilson was then congratulated for this finding, from his attention to detail, at a board meeting. His perceptiveness also helps him accurately interpret things that House is saying, including when House lies or denies his true motives, on many occasions.
Wilson is a theatre geek who frequently references plays and musicals. Although he watches "trashy" tv with House - who prefers it as a distraction while he's thinking about a case or for pure entertainment value - Wilson loves classic cinema and puts up framed posters in his office for movies like "Vertigo", "Touch of Evil", and "Ordinary People". The plots of those movies hint at insights into Wilson's character: a man on the verge of a breakdown who can't stop trying to save a woman he ends up losing; a flawed detective who walks with a limp; and an upper-middle-class family pretending they're coping with the loss of their oldest son while the mother emotionally shuts out her younger son who is struggling with his mental health and guilt in the aftermath.
He writes with his left hand, a trait he shares with Lisa Cuddy, Eric Foreman and Jessica Adams.
He has been seen using his right hand for things other than writing, suggesting he may be ambidextrous.
He is allergic to ragweed and dandelion.
House is eventually released from prison and returns to PPTH where he gets a cold reaction from Wilson who then finally tells House he doesn't like him. After House asks Wilson to either punch him in the face or kick him in the nuts to get over his hurt feelings, Wilson chooses the former and agrees to bring dinner around to his place. The two repair their friendship.
Things continue normally for a while up until Body and Soul where Wilson reveals that he has cancer, more specifically stage II thymoma which leaves House completely stunned.
Wilson goes for a "Hail Mary" cure, but although he survives the treatment, it doesn't work and both men realize he will be dead in no more than six months if he refuses further treatment. When Wilson tells House he has no intention of spending the rest of his life in and out of hospitals, the two men get into a fight over it. Wilson goes back and forth over his decision, but in the end, House realizes that six months is better than nothing and accepts Wilson's decision. House plans on spending his remaining time with Wilson, but one of House's pranks goes horribly wrong which results in the revocation of House's parole and his imminent return to jail.
Unwilling to let that happen, House fakes his death and he and Wilson go on a trip across America together, intending to make the most of their time together before Wilson succumbs altogether.
It's presumed that in or around September or October 2012, Wilson eventually dies from the cancer.
Wilson and House were imported into the Inn-Between, where Wilson was healed and took up practicing in Sickbay