West Wing Wiki
Register
West Wing Wiki
mNo edit summary
No edit summary
Line 33: Line 33:
 
*[[Toby_and_Bartlet|Conflict between Toby and President Bartlet]]
 
*[[Toby_and_Bartlet|Conflict between Toby and President Bartlet]]
 
*[[Josh-Toby|Conflict between Josh and Toby]]
 
*[[Josh-Toby|Conflict between Josh and Toby]]
  +
===See Also===
 
  +
{{Connections|family=[[Andrea Wyatt]] [[Huck Ziegler]] [[Molly Ziegler]] [[David Ziegler]] [[Julie Ziegler]]|friends= [[C.J. Cregg]] [[Josh Lyman]] [[Sam Seaborn]]|jobs=[[Director of Communications]]|aff=[[Democrat]]}}
 
[[Category:Primary_Characters|Ziegler, Toby]]
 
[[Category:Primary_Characters|Ziegler, Toby]]

Revision as of 21:47, 27 July 2006

Template:Character

Bio

Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler, former White House Communications Director is a fictional character played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing.


Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.



Toby was born December 23, 1954. His childhood and family are not fully known; he is from a lower-class background, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York; his father, Julie Ziegler, who, according to one episode, "needed the G.I. Bill," probably fought in the Korean War, and also worked for Murder Incorporated and later served time in prison, complicating their relationship somewhat (Note: Holy Night suggests that Julie Ziegler was still involved with Murder, Inc. at the time of Toby's birth - however, in reality, Murder, Inc. had largely disappeared by the end of the 1940's). Toby's other relatives are less visible on the show; he mentions at one point that his sisters took him to protest rallies in the mid-sixties. Toby also had a younger brother, David, who was a mission specialist at NASA and who later committed suicide after learning he had a terminal illness.

Toby's education is less well-established than that of his colleagues. He attended the City College of New York, but his undergraduate major or any postgraduate degrees are unknown.

Toby is a fan of the New York Yankees baseball team. In "Posse Comitatus," the show's third-season finale, first airing on May 22, 2002, he claimed to have attended 441 games at Yankee Stadium. If he saw his first game there at the age of seven, in the 1962 season, and the show progresses in real time, this works out to about eleven games per season, though it is not clear if he could keep up this pace once he began working at the White House.

Toby's ex-wife, Andrea 'Andie' Wyatt, is a U.S. Congresswoman and liberal Democrat from Maryland. During the fourth season, it was revealed that Toby and his ex-wife had conceived twins together. His ex-wife is later sued by a right wing group on grounds that her nondisclosure of her pregnancy during her campaign for re-election constituted election fraud. She has repeatedly turned down Toby's proposals for re-marriage. Toby and Andrea's children were born the same day Zoey Bartlet, President Bartlet's daughter, was kidnapped. They are named Huckleberry and Molly. Huck is named after his maternal great-grandfather, and Molly is named after the Secret Service agent who was killed attempting to prevent Zoey's kidnapping.

Toby is a committed Jew, who regularly attends synagogue on Saturdays. Some details, including the presence of a female cantor and an organ, suggest he attends a Reform temple.

By the time of the dedication of the Bartlet Presidential Library, Toby teaches at Columbia University and considers it "not a bad place to spend time."

Resume

  • White House Director of Communications (now dismissed)

References

  • Bartlet White House
  • Conflict between Toby and President Bartlet
  • Conflict between Josh and Toby

See Also

Template:Connections