This site includes the list of all cast members that appeared on FOX drama series Boston Public.
Main characters Steven Harper Steven Harper, played by Chi McBride, is the main protagonist of the series and the tough and level-headed principal with a heart of gold who constantly struggles with the hang-ups and problems of his employees and students, from Harry Senate's firing off a gun in his classroom to Milton Buttle's affair with a student in Season 1, and Danny Hanson and Marla Hendricks' bickering (and eventual fist-fighting) in Seasons 2 and 3. Throughout the series, Steven remained the most consistent character on the show, and its strongest presence and focal point. Considered one of the most important characters in the show, he was consistently the school's leader, handling teachers and students with problems; much of his character revolved around his pride in the teaching profession and his loyalty to the kids and the faculty.
Little is known about Steven's past, but there are suggestions that he was a rebellious youth during his teenage years. He mentions in one episode that he crashed a car into a tree while drunk, and reveals in another episode that, when he was 14, he and some friends robbed a convenience store, but when one of his teachers found out and didn't report him to the police, Steven began to turn his life around. This, years later, allowed Steven to admire, more or less, teachers who stopped at nothing to help their students. It is also mentioned that Steven played football in high school.
Steven was married to a woman named Louanna, but they divorced. During Season 2, Brooke, Steven's rebellious, liberal activist teenage daughter, gets transferred to Winslow High after being expelled from her private school when an animal rights protest goes wrong. Steven manages to build a relationship with Brooke and his estranged ex-wife, who later goes on to date another man. By the end of Season 3, Brooke had been written out of the series, as she had graduated and was accepted to Harvard University. Once the show's fourth and final season began, Steven embarked on a relationship with Marilyn Sudor, which caused some friction between him and Scott Guber, who had become attracted to Marylin.
Steven appeared in a 2005 episode of Boston Legal titled "Let Sales Ring", when a student sued Winslow High for censoring a news network (that was clearly Fox News Channel, though never explicitly identified as such). He also appeared on Boston Legals parent show, The Practice.
Lauren DavisLauren Davis, played by Jessalyn Gilsig (Seasons 1–2), was one of the two social studies teachers in Season 1. She earned the nickname "The Nun" because of her strait-laced ways. By Season 2, when the ostensibly hipper Ronnie Cooke appeared, Lauren's character changed, making her what her colleagues called a "prima donna perfectionist." In Season 1, Steven felt that she was being racist because she was tougher on her African-American students, an accusation she was willing to consider in order to save Harvey from being fired.
Lauren briefly dated Harry, but broke up with him, in what was Season 1's biggest romance. Later, she began dating Daniel Evans, an alumnus who was found to be a stalker. She carried a gun to protect herself and was suspended for a summer session.
During Season 2, Lauren was shocked when some of her students were hospitalized because they were so stressed out about her work assignments. Scott had a crush on Lauren, a relationship that never seemed to go anywhere until right before Lauren was written out of the show.
When the third season premiered, Gilsig had left the show, and it was mentioned that Lauren had left Winslow High for a job at a private school.
Marla HendricksMarla Hendricks, played by Loretta Devine, was a social studies teacher who suffered from severe bipolar manic depression, the effects of which were mainly only seen in Season 1. She had to take pills to make it through a stressful day, which seemed to be just about every day.
Marla was occasionally depicted as a vocally religious woman, encouraging students to pray on school grounds and running a gospel choir. She was also frequently the one to give lectures to other faculty members, parents or students about the financial and emotional challenges facing teachers, along with other topical issues such as bullying, multiculturalism, and the usage of the word "nigger/nigga" by white people, and has shown to be a full believer of extreme methods, such as Senate bringing a gun and using it to threaten students in hopes they stay quiet.
On the other hand, on many occasions, Marla was depicted, like Danny and Harvey, as someone who did not think before she spoke. She was vocal and no-nonsense, and often insulted teachers, students and even Steven when they needed it, or sometimes just because she needed it. Scott once accused her of being too emotional on too many different issues to the point it diluted her potency as an advocate. Marla's bold personality kept her from advancing into administration when she insulted the concept of standardized testing during a job interview for vice principal. In Season 3, Marla had a brief relationship with a political advocate played by Vern Troyer.
In Season 4, Marla decided to have a baby, and asked Steven if he would consider donating his sperm. When Steven refused, she continued to try to get pregnant but failed, suffering a miscarriage, but later got the chance of experiencing motherhood when she took in a troubled student named Rainy.
Overall, Marla was considered an excellent and compassionate teacher, adept at reaching kids and parents. Like the other faculty members, her personal foibles sometimes got in her way, but she was, overall, there for the kids and her colleagues.
Scott GuberScott Guber, played by Anthony Heald, is vice principal who was forced to play the disciplinary "bad cop" to both the students and faculty. As someone who grew up bullied because his peers mistakenly thought he was gay, Scott treated bigotry and bullying as serious a crime as cutting class or cheating on an exam. On the other hand, some episodes had him seriously bullying teachers with a condescending, managerial tone that caused them to dislike him. In fact, the students saw him as so tough they labeled him "The Nazi" in spite of the fact that Scott is Jewish. However, Scott's dedication to Winslow High and its students was eventually noted in the first-season finale when the kids gave him a special award.
It is strongly indicated that Scott's father died several years ago; his single mother, Miriam, appears in Season 3 and goes out on a date with Harvey. Scott also has an older brother named George, who is a high-priced lawyer; he became estranged from his brother when George set Scott up on a date with a masseuse who turned out to be a call girl.
Scott's ongoing goal was to one day become a principal himself, a goal he pursued in Season 1, which was also devoted to his growing dislike for being the "bad guy" to Steven's "good guy." He was disappointed to receive an unfavorable recommendation from Steven, who said he wasn't ready and was too autocratic to be a principal. Over the next seasons, Scott and Steven would sometimes wrangle over the boundaries between their two jobs, but their friendship was key to the both of them and to the show.
Scott's love of classical music, composing and conducting was a staple of the character's off-duty time and occasionally allowed for storylines. His romantic life, unlike Steven's, was often fodder for storylines on the show. In Season 1, Scott pursued Lauren to the point she called it harassment, and later asked Marilyn Sudor out, leaving Lauren and Marilyn to conclude that he asked out any woman who was nice to him. This tendency came to a head in Season 2 when Scott began an ill-advised relationship with the duplicitous Meredith Peters who, in Season 1, locked her son Jeremy in the basement. Jeremy returned the favor, and she escaped only by chainsaw, severing her hand in the process and gaining the nickname "Hook Lady." The relationship was filled with ups and downs. Scott's attempts to get on Jeremy's good side were occasionally chronicled, including his sensitivity to Jeremy's bisexuality. Both characters basically disappeared after Scott separated from the erratic and pathological Meredith late in Season 2.
At the end of Season 2, Scott took up with Lauren, but as she didn't come back for Season 3, we never learned how that relationship ended. By the end of Season 3, however, Scott had increased his level of friendship with Marilyn through dancing lessons, and by Season 4, he was pursuing her. Marilyn rejected his advances, as she was seeing Steven. Weeks later, Scott found love in Violet Montgomery, a former adult film actress turned free spirit who shared his taste in music and agreed to date him exclusively.
Marilyn SudorMarilyn Sudor, played by Sharon Leal, was the music instructor and an English teacher. One of the most attractive teachers in the school, Marilyn was often listed as the teacher the "boys most wanted to sleep with" in a yearly student poll.
Student storylines had her involved with Tyronn Anderson (a gang member whom Harry was covering for), Jeremy Peters (who was being locked in the basement by his mother), and Aisha (a young talented singer who needed to break up with her abusive boyfriend). Marilyn admitted in Season 3 that she too had been in an abusive relationship with an ex-husband who showed up for an annulment in Season 4.
Romantically, Marilyn joined with Scott to take some dancing lessons, but was quick to assert that they were going to just be friends. She dated a basketball coach who turned out to be in coaching to advance his college coaching chances. In the final season, she began dating Steven, and their romance became public after a student faced suspension for kissing Marilyn at a scholarship awards ceremony threatened to go before the school board because he felt that he was suspended for kissing the principal's girlfriend; eventually, Steven agreed to reduce the student's punishment so that it would not cause him to lose his scholarship or hurt his college application process.
Marilyn was also involved in many of the musical numbers the show employed, singing at school concerts, doing a singing trio with Louisa and Marla, and working with young musicians. She was known for being by-the-book, compassionate, and straightforward, but also rather enigmatic and sort of a utility player a lot of the time.
Harvey LipschultzHarvey Lipschultz, played by Fyvush Finkel, was a history teacher. Harvey was a somewhat stereotypical elderly Jewish man. He was not a fan of political correctness, and his character seemed to switch from being a well-meaning old man that once met with the school's football team to ask them not to discriminate against a player who was rumored to be gay, while other times he came off as an Archie Bunker-type bigot or a simple comical buffoon of a bygone era.
As a young man, Harvey served in World War II. On the night before he left to go to Europe, he had a one-night stand with an African-American "lady of the evening" who later gave birth to a son named Lester who, at the age of sixty, was able to track down Harvey and introduce him to his family, including Lester's children and grandchildren. After the war, Harvey came home and married a woman named Helen, and remained faithful to her until she died, although she did have an affair. He frequently reflected back on Helen, who died shortly before the series began. In Season 3, a stock dip erased Harvey's life savings.
Often threatening to retire and also threatened with being fired, Harvey was able to continue working after he agreed to attend racial sensitivity classes in Season 1, and in Season 3, was barely saved from retirement by some last-minute budget restructuring.