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Shaun Murphy, M.D., is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American medical drama The Good Doctor. The character was created by showrunner David Shore and portrayed by English actor Freddie Highmore.
- Overview
- History
- Personality
- Trivia
- References
Shaun Robert Murphy is the main titular protagonist of The Good Doctor. As an attending surgeon at St. Bonaventure, he must learn the ropes of hospital work and how to be a good mentor for residents, while facing unique challenges and embracing his strengths due to his diagnoses of autism and savant syndrome.
Early life
As a young child, Shaun was raised alongside his younger brother Steve by their mother Marcie and father Ethan. Shaun's childhood was very troubled; he has Autism and Savant Syndrome, though it's unknown when he was diagnosed. Nonetheless, the fact that he wasn't like normal kids his age meant that he was bullied and teased by them. At least some of his teachers were better, but one of them Mr. Carl accidentally made things worse for him while trying to help stop him from being bullied. He also got abused by Ethan who was a resentful alcoholic and didn't want Shaun while Marcie stood by without intervening. Ethan's method of child-rearing eventually turned violent, ultimately resulting in him killing Shaun's rabbit when he was fourteen. Shaun and his brother ran to the nearest "doctor place" (as Steve called it), where they met Aaron Glassman for the first time. The two ran away together and lived in an abandoned school bus together, where they were given furniture from their local town's people. Steve took care of Shaun, even giving him a small toy scalpel that would be treasured for years to come and a library copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. Unfortunately, Steve accidentally died while playing in an old building with a group of other children. Shaun was picked up by a police officer who tried to take him back to his parents; at this point, he fell apart in the back of the squad car, screaming and crying about Steve's promise to him. As a result, Shaun didn't see or speak to his parents again following Steve's funeral. Ultimately, Glassman took Shaun in, and raised him like a son. At one point, Shaun lived in foster homes, one of which was with a distant foster mother, Sybil, who was fond of saying "tough titmouse" in response to a challenging situation. After Sybil got diagnosed with a terminal illness, she sent Shaun away again. It was shown that despite her distant attitude towards Shaun, she truly cared about him and was devastated to have to send Shaun away. He lived independently in Casper, Wyoming for some time (though both Glassman and Shaun note that his neighbors provided much-needed help). With Glassman as his mentor, he managed to develop his skills to be a doctor and to later control his emotions and remain calm in tough situations. Later, he moved to San Jose to begin his residency at St. Bonaventure.
Season 1
Shaun came to San Jose to apply for a job as junior surgical resident at St. Bonaventure Hospital, a job that he was only being considered for because Dr. Glassman fought for it and was the hospital’s president. On the way to San Jose, arriving at the airport, Shaun was witness to a freak accident that injured a boy, Adam. Shaun immediately came to the rescue and instructed a fellow doctor how to perform life-saving measures, making on-the-spot diagnoses that seemed unusually pertinent but ultimately saved Adam’s life. Riding along in the ambulance, Shaun noted abnormalities in the ECG that the EMT and later the doctors at the hospital explained away as irrelevant. However, Shaun realised that Adam needed an echocardiogram, but he was pegged as obnoxious by Dr. Claire Browne (one of the residents), thrown out of the hospital and prohibited to re-enter. Shaun refused to leave, and luckily was sought out by Claire and the surgical attending Dr. Neil Melendez who acknowledged that Shaun was possibly on to something. Shaun was allowed back into the hospital and helped them diagnose pericardial effusion, watching the ongoing surgery from outside the OR doors. He was eventually allowed to speak in front of the board, and his moving speech had the board members agree to have him. He was then welcomed into St. Bonaventure’s residency program with Glassman promising that if Shaun was anything less than excellent, Glassman would give up his position as hospital president. Although Shaun found his new position somewhat hard at first because he couldn't help but not send patients home because he thought they could still be sick (and instead was assigned the suction on surgeries and the non-surgical scut work by Neil), he started to prove himself after he suspected a young girl had more than stomach problems as previously believed. While he lived in a small, somewhat dinky apartment, he met one of his neighbors Lea who knocked on his door to borrow batteries for her PlayStation controller that she urgently needed to finish her Uncharted game. They continued to keep running into each other on occasion, such as when she picked him up in her car when he missed his bus stop and had to wait to get the bus in the other direction (with Lea taking an instant liking to him). As Shaun kept honing his medical skills, Neil had a change of heart eventually about Shaun never doing anything more than suction. Shaun managed to prove his surgical worth and was being allowed more and more surgical work, although he still struggled with the emotional and social aspects of patient care. As he kept learning, he was supported by Claire and Dr. Jared Kalu, another junior resident, with Claire taking a particular interest in befriending Shaun, trying to understand how he operates and how she could connect with him. Shaun soon started to encounter some interesting cases, including Evan, a boy who looked uncannily like Steve and was revealed to have terminal bone cancer that Shaun wanted to help with, and Liam, the first autistic person he met and who had grown up very sheltered by his parents, much unlike Shaun. After Lea burst into Shaun’s apartment and stress-ate his last apple, complaining vocally about how the landlord shut off her power the night before because she was playing her music too loud, Shaun went to a nearby grocery store to buy more apples and got held at gunpoint in a robbery. Shaun’s ASD caused him to act somewhat erratically, not able to follow the thief's commands, which led to a young woman getting shot. He was able to save the woman and later got an apple from Lea who hugged him after finding out about what had happened (which Shaun seemed comfortable with), but Glassman got increasingly worried that Shaun was not equipped to live on his own and suggested an aid, or rather a therapist to help Shaun with everyday life tasks and challenges. While Shaun may have thought Glassman had well-meaning intentions, he was uncomfortable and couldn't help but think that Glassman was doing this for himself and not for Shaun. He then ran off after accidentally hitting slapping Glassman in the mouth in frustration. Knowing he messed up, Shaun subsequently packed some of his things and sought refuge at Lea’s apartment where he hid under her bed when Glassman came looking for Shaun. Lea lied for Shaun in front of Glassman and sat Shaun down to tell him he needed to clear his head before he decided something rash. Together, the two took an unsanctioned road trip in Lea’s vintage car while Glassman worried about an AWOL and radio-silent Shaun. The road trip was very eventful for Shaun, with Lea offering him several "firsts": giving him the opportunity to drive her car (though it didn't go well), drink alcohol at a bar, sing karaoke and after their first "date", he even kissed her (his first kiss) at her encouragement. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but lament over how he made a mistake and he would never be good enough for anything. Lea tried to tell him that he should be embracing life and that he’ll never be happy if he constantly lives in fear. Over breakfast that morning, Lea told Shaun that the road trip was good for her too, because she had decided to leave San Jose and go back to her home in Hershey for the dream job she always wanted – to fix up old cars together with her brother Donnie rather than work in a 9 to 5 tech job that wasn't fulfilling for her. Shaun took this news hard, considering that he would be losing his friend. He later considered moving to Hershey to be with Lea and returned to an angry Glassman to whom Shaun stated his intents. When Glassman realized that Shaun’s decision had to do with wanting to follow Lea, he told Shaun he didn’t want him to leave and promised to back off if Shaun stayed in San Jose. Lea also told him she didn't want him to go to Hershey just to run after her. Shaun eventually decided to stay in San Jose. As a farewell gift, Lea gives him the baseball signed by Hunter Pence as a memento to remember her by, asking Shaun to come visit when he can. She gave him a last kiss before she stepped into the elevator. Shaun put the baseball on display on his shelf, next to the framed photo of him and Steve. While Shaun clearly missed Lea, he met a man named Kenny who moved into her apartment and was slightly shady with potentially malicious intentions that Shaun was completely blind to (even taking advantage of this several times). However, Kenny also helped Shaun once in breaking into a pool when Shaun wanted to see what it was like to just float on water after a patient had told him it was a liberating feeling. Across his first year of residency, Shaun continued growing as a surgeon, working closely with Neil and his fellow junior surgical residents on a number of interesting cases, his savant syndrome and eidetic memory often helping to recall medical details and visualizing complex medical circumstances and procedures. Shaun attempted to rekindle his and Glassman's friendship, but Glassman felt that they couldn't if he backed off Shaun (which later came back to bite Glassman). Nevertheless, Shaun set up Glassman with Debbie Wexler, the hospital barrister whom Shaun saw Glassman was attracted to. Unfortunately, Shaun was dismayed when Dr. Glassman revealed that he had brain cancer and only 12 to 18 months to live. This distracted Shaun to the point that he made a mistake during surgery and nicked an artery which caused the patient to have potentially life-threatening complications. At the same time, Shaun urged Glassman to get a second opinion, more tests and more imagining to truly confirm the diagnosis. After a bit of a journey, it is finally determined through a biopsy Glassman was reluctant to get that he had an operable low-grade glioma that was treatable with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy (which pleased Shaun to the point of giving Glassman a rare hug and making amends). Following Shaun’s surgical mistake, the medical team deliberated whether to report the error, knowing full well it could've cost Shaun his job and also likely cost Glassman the hospital presidency. In the end, Shaun himself decided he wanted the error reported, and he and Glassman went to Andrews’ office together to make a statement. On the way up the stairs, Shaun told Dr. Glassman that he loves him, echoing the exact phrasing that Glassman had shared with Shaun that his daughter Maddie had used as a child to voice her love to her father.
Season 2
After Shaun said goodbye to Jared who went to work at another hospital, he was forced to deal with the unexpected return of Lea. While he cares a lot about her, he struggled with her renewed presence in his life, now living in fear that she would leave again like she did the first time. Shaun thus being evasive and distant upset Lea who returned to San Jose in hopes of finding support from her friend after a bad experience in Hershey. The two ultimately reconciled and moved in together. Though they experience some problems adjusting to being roommates, the two were able to find solutions and maintain a supportive platonic relationship. At the same time, Shaun had to deal with Glassman's cancer diagnosis and the various problems that came with it, particularly Glassman's increasing memory loss. Shaun was left torn between being a supportive friend and what the rules say he must do, leading Shaun to take away Glassman's driving license. However, after learning just how badly this action hurt Glassman, Shaun learnt how to drive with Lea's help so that he can drive Glassman around instead. Although Shaun initially experienced problems with driving, Lea was able to help translate driving into medical terms and Shaun succeeded in learning the skill. When a viral outbreak happened in the ER at Christmas time, Shaun got trapped in the emergency room department along with Morgan and Lim. While dealing with issues that Morgan and Park were able to help with, he had to treat pregnant mother-to-be Viola who suffered complications requiring a C-section. With no other doctors available, Shaun was forced to perform the C-section himself as his first solo surgery with Dr. Garcia supervising from outside the ER and only Nurse Deena Petringa assisting him. Although Shaun continued to struggle, he fought through it and delivered the baby. When both mother and baby suffered complications, Shaun treated them both at the same time with the help of Dr. Alex Park’s son Kellan. Shaun succeeded in saving both of his patients and later shared a rare hug with Glassman who was revealed to have meningitis. They and Lea soon spent a day together at her job, though Shaun remained concerned about Glassman who decided to leave the hospital early after his meningitis surgery. Glassman intended to speed up his cancer treatment and recognized that Shaun still had feelings for Lea, but Shaun couldn't tell her when he returned home as he was surprised and upset to discover that Lea got a boyfriend. After Shaun communicated to the mother of a child with severe birth defects that her actions during pregnancy were possibly the cause behind her child’s defects (though the child was saved because of Shaun), he got into serious trouble with the new Chief of Surgery, Dr. Jackson Han who thought it best to transfer Shaun to pathology (despite Shaun and his friends attempting to say otherwise). Although he proved to be exceptional and gained a crush on one of the workers, Dr. Carly Lever, he was uncomfortable and tried to get Dr. Han to give him his job back. When he refused, Shaun attempted to stand up for himself but unfortunately got fired for apparently acting irrational. He then accidentally broke the scalpel Steve gave him and Claire sat with him, not knowing what to do. Glassman got Shaun a job interview at San Jose General, but Shaun was too depressed to go and instead went to a bar to get drunk. While there, he met another man, Zack Cordell, whom Shaun accidentally angered when Shaun questioned if he too was sad and then got beat up until Zack collapsed. After escorting Zack to the hospital, Shaun evaded questions about how he found Zack, although Claire quickly figured out the truth on her own. Shaun took flirting advice from her and secretly sought treatment for his injuries with Carly's help. While visiting Zack, Shaun realized that he was been misdiagnosed and actually had treponema, though it was misheard as "trampoline" before Shaun collapsed due to his injuries. He was then left unconscious and on a ventilator for a brief period. When he regained consciousness with Lea and Glassman beside him, he initially started panicking about Zack until Claire revealed that she figured out what Shaun actually said. After he was later visited by Andrews, Glassman used Shaun's ability to inspire Claire to look through his eyes and save a life as proof that Shaun does communicate, even if it is not in the way others do. Andrews also chose to fire Han in order to be able to rehire Shaun who got his job back despite the fact that it possibly destroyed Andrews' career at the hospital. That night, Shaun visited Carly and successfully asked her out, though he forgot to give her his chocolate and flowers in his excitement.
Shaun has "almost perfect recall," extraordinary and genius-level intellect and the excellent analytical abilities that allow him to make highly accurate diagnoses. He is highly perceptive and often bluntly voices these perceptions, such as noting that Neil, his superior, was "arrogant" on the first day that they met. Notably, Shaun was the only person in the entire hospital to suspect that Dr. Marcus Andrews would choose to remain Chief of Surgery instead of choosing a new one, resulting in Shaun winning the betting pool everyone created on the decision. During hospital scenes, Shaun's thought process is frequently captured in an overlay for viewers, demonstrating his eidetic memory. This shows that he is a highly visual learner. Over time, Shaun's unique visualizing process has become evident to those around him to the point that they have realized what he is doing simply by looking at him. After hearing a patient describe what Shaun looked like in "Trampoline" before he collapsed, Claire immediately realized what had happened without having been witness to it for herself. Shaun's unique diagnostic skills are noted by many characters, including Dr. Jackson Han who displayed prejudice against Shaun for his autism. Jared Kalu expressed fondness for it years after last seeing Shaun with Asher Wolke commenting that it's the highlight of his day to watch Shaun do it.
His autism is depicted as obvious to many of the people he interacts with. He displays several traits of his condition, including heightened sensory sensitivity, abnormal inflection when speaking, lack of interest in eye contact and heavy reliance on routine. Additionally, he becomes fixated on certain objects at times, most notably the toy scalpel that Steve gave to him. He insists on eating the same thing for breakfast every day: yogurt and a green apple except for Mondays when he has breakfast with Dr. Glassman at the hospital. He loves to eat chocolate chip pancakes with a glass of milk. While Shaun was clearly uncomfortable treating Liam (the first autistic person he met), his unique insight into the young man's condition allowed him to recognize that he was autistic and not psychotic as was originally believed, help calm him through most of an MRI and figure out what was wrong with him. He was also able to get Liam’s parents (who initially discriminated Shaun because of his Autism) to see that they had caused their son to get sick and they subsequently began listening to their son rather than unilaterally making decisions for him. When a buzzing light and the stressful situation caused Shaun to go into sensory overload and collapse into the fetal position, Morgan was able to get him through it by getting him focused on surgery and Park realized what was causing Shaun’s distraction and eliminated the source by smashing the light. When Shaun went into sensory overload again during a C-section, his first solo surgery, he was able to fight through it and come up with a solution to the problem.
Despite Shaun's troubled childhood, he maintains a generally positive outlook on life, choosing to pursue medicine in the hopes of improving the lives of others. However, he was wary of forming deeper relationships with people after the death of his rabbit and younger brother. Shaun is revealed to have a great degree of proficiency, if not fluency, in Spanish. He also mentions an interest in football in at least one episode. Among the things Shaun dislikes are pickles, mushrooms, anchovies, olives, garlic, mayonnaise, walnuts, Chinese food, bread with cinnamon, nuts, seeds or berries in it, the way coffee makes him feel, confrontation and direct questions. He has an aversion to physical touch unless he is the one to initiate it and/or it comes from people he is very comfortable with. After he started dating Carly, Shaun was comfortable with her kissing him, but not with holding hands and only liked touching one thing at a time. He is shown as being fond of cats.
As a result of his autism, Shaun has trouble with cognitive empathy (discerning why people are upset), but is fine with emotional empathy (being able to see that they are). This is something that he himself notes. As a result, he may make a decision that is rational and by the rules, but morally wrong or otherwise harmful such as taking away Dr. Glassman's license due to the rules dictating it while not understanding why Glassman was angry with him (though it was clear to him that he was upset). This is something Shaun was shown working on such as learning how to drive to make up for taking away Glassman's ability to drive himself places by driving Glassman instead. Another example is how he treated Lea after her return due to being hurt over her leaving in the first place which made Shaun rude and mean to his friend. At one point, Shaun advocated against giving a patient surgery to fix a dent in his forehead as the surgery was cosmetic and unnecessary. After hearing the young man's story, Shaun actually empathized with the patient and came up with a simple and ingenious solution that fixed the problem while also saving costs. Shaun came to feel he made the wrong decision as the patient suffered a complication that almost killed him, but Park revealed that Shaun's actions actually saved the young man's life as he had been planning suicide beforehand. Shaun's trouble with empathy and communication led to him telling a mother that her anti-depressants possibly caused her infant daughter's severe birth defects, something that it was pointed out that no other doctor would have ever said. However, Shaun's bluntness at times has proven helpful; he once pointed out a couple's doubts, causing them to confront those doubts and reach a resolution. Carly even stated that she found Shaun's bluntness and obvious care for his patients cute when they had first met, a contrast to many people who are put off by that bluntness. She and Lea have both also believed Shaun to be the most genuine and honest person they know. He’s even had patients ask that he talk to them because they know he’ll tell them the truth.
Shaun's communication issues led to him failing to catch the cues that Zack Cordell was angry with him at a bar, while further angering Zack when Shaun said that he doesn't like to be touched. As noted by Glassman, Shaun all the same showed mercy to Zack despite his cruel and violent actions which is extraordinary in and of itself. Even more extraordinary is that Shaun's statement that Zack was misdiagnosed before collapsing from his injuries led Claire to successfully replicate Shaun's thought processes to see through his eyes and save Zack's life. In doing so, Shaun made Claire a better doctor because of how he inspired her. According to Glassman, this is proof that while Shaun may not communicate as others do, he does communicate and is heard and inspires others. Shaun also inspired Andrews - who was once the most reluctant to hire him - to stand up to Han and fire him so that Shaun could be rehired by offering Andrews advice that Steve had once given to him. Claire even thought of Shaun as a role model on certain things and sought his advice on how to deal with her mother.
Another problem Shaun often has is with romantic relationships. He was immediately attracted to Lea when they first met, even though he did not know much about relationships and was rude and mean to Lea when she returned. After their relationship resumed platonically, Shaun had trouble adjusting to Lea having a boyfriend and showed signs of possibly being in love with her. Shaun appeared to have possibly moved on from Lea or was at least trying to as he decided to ask Carly out instead, getting coaching from Claire on how to do so. Despite his “disaster” of a date, Shaun had genuine feelings for Carly who understood Shaun on a level that most people don't due to having an autistic sister and as such, isn't immediately put off by Shaun's blunt and potentially hurtful answers that are given in the moment. As a result, after talking about their doubts and getting advice from multiple people, Shaun chose to continue his relationship with Carly by seeking out a more relaxed informal date that wouldn't be so overwhelming to him and had been described by Claire as something she greatly enjoyed when Claire was using her own dating experiences as an example. Subsequently, the two continued with more informal dates, but Shaun struggled with the effects of his touch aversion upon their intimacy.
•Freddie Highmore, the actor who portrays Shaun, studied Spanish, which his TV series character is fluent in.
•Dr. Glassman states that he has known Shaun for 12 years, they met when Shaun was 14, meaning Shaun was born in 1992.
•Shaun may know Japanese as in "First Case, Second Base," he watched a procedure in the language and knew the procedure well enough to walk Andrews and Lim through it later. When Shaun watched the video, there was no sign of English subtitles that could've been guiding him.
•After a patient makes him famous through the Internet for saving her life in "Influence," the patient tells Shaun that he's already gotten over seventy marriage proposals which he doesn't find comforting.
•In "Venga," Shaun is revealed to be fluent in Spanish. However, as he puts it, he still has communication problems in two languages.
•In "The Overview Effect," Shaun reveals that he speaks six words of Yoruba, eight with the two words that he learns during the episode.
1."Heartfelt": Season 1. Episode 15. Thomas L. Moran/Johanna Lee (writer) & Regina King (director). [February 26, 2018].
2."Burnt Food": Season 1. Episode 1. David Shore (writer) & Seth Gordon (director). [September 25, 2017].
The Good Doctor: Created by David Shore. With Freddie Highmore, Richard Schiff, Hill Harper, Christina Chang. Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and Savant syndrome, is recruited into the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital.
- (118K)
- 2017-09-25
- Drama
- 41
Nov 11, 2023 · Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, moves from the quiet country life to join the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital.
- 15 min
- 4M
- Sony Pictures Entertainment India
The Good Doctor is an American medical drama television series remake of the 2013 South Korean series of the same name that aired on ABC from September 25, 2017, to May 21, 2024, lasting seven seasons and 126 episodes. The series stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a young autistic surgical resident at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure ...
May 23, 2024 · The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore discusses his character Dr. Shaun Murphy's ending in the series finale. The hit ABC medical drama first aired in 2017 and just came to an end after 126 episodes with The Good Doctor season 7 finale.
Apr 2, 2023 · Medical drama about Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, who relocates from the countryside to join a prestigious surgical unit in San Jose.
