From playing Winnie the Pooh in first grade to the breakthrough role of Don Draper in the acclaimed television drama “Mad Men,” West St. Louis County-native turned popular actor Jon Hamm thoughtfully maintains his roots and ties with the Gateway City region.
Regarding his Pooh bear acting start, "I was an early adopter of standing in front of people and looking like an idiot," Jon was quoted as saying, by film/TV enthusiasts and cinephiles Last Exit To Nowhere.
In a Vanity Fair interview by Bruce Handy titled "Mad Men Q&A: Jon Hamm" during August 2009, Bruce reported Jon stated he was picked by his teacher to be Winnie the Pooh when public school programs “still had things like productions.” Jon shared his mother sewed his bear suit, making it from a Butterick pattern and strapping a pillow around him.
Fast-forward to July 2025, and Jon is seen selling his car in a humorous Carvana 30-second TV 'Excuses' commercial about trying to get out of attending a neighbor’s dog party. Ironically, Jon calls the actor playing opposite him in the commercial “Gerber,” which sounds a lot like “GrrrBear” in the spot.
Jonathan Daniel Hamm was born in St. Louis on March 10, 1971, to Deborah (née Garner) Hamm, a secretary, and Daniel Hamm, who managed a family trucking company.
While attending Ladue-based John Burroughs School, he played football and baseball. He was involved in theater during high school and college, but didn't pursue acting as a career for several years.
Early on, he appeared in a production of "Carousel," and at 16 years old, played Judas in "Godspell," despite initially not wanting to audition for it. He graduated high school in 1989. At the University of Missouri, he performed in plays such as "Cabaret" and "Assassins."
After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in English, he returned to his alma mater, John Burroughs School, to teach drama for two years. During 1995, he decided to pursue acting professionally and moved to Los Angeles.
During 2020, Jon went on the "Today Show" with broadcaster Hoda Kotb to discuss the St. Louis Actors' Studio's Sustainable Fund. Jon, Beau Willimon, JBS '95, Cory Finley JBS '07 and other St. Louis actors, writers and directors joined to support professional theater during the pandemic.
He also bought Imo's Pizza for SSM Saint Louis University Hospital workers during that period.
Additionally, 165 JBS students logged online during April 2020 to play Kahoot!, a virtual trivia game, with Jon, as he answered questions and shared stories about JBS, St. Louis and movies.
During 2013, Jon participated in a groundbreaking for a new Haertter Hall and athletic center on the Burroughs campus. In a JBS video regarding the project, joined by retired athletic director Jim Lemen and theater director Wayne Salomon, Jon stated he invests in and enjoys staying connected, especially with the school’s performance-based initiatives.
“Athletes and actors have the same skillset,” says Wayne. “Although they may use them differently.”
In a “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast, Jon says Wayne repeatedly told him that students “aren’t meant to stay in one lane. You’re meant to try it all.”
Wayne says his earliest memory of Jon was seeing him tackle an opposing football player. “I didn’t meet him until his junior year when he was in the dance chorus for Carousel, with other football players, because the original director thought football players could [physically] lift people. I started to notice Jon was a pretty good dancer and noticed his charisma. As I thought of the future, he was my guy for Judas.”
“Jon was a gifted young man and hard worker.”
Jon readily admits John Burroughs had a profound impact on him, with Wayne as his mentor, and that he wanted to turn that around and “do something for another generation of kids.”
“And I wanted to give something back,” Jon admits.
Online sources count the following as Jon’s lead roles in films: Stolen (2010), Million Dollar Arm (2014), Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016), Beirut (2018), and Confess, Fletch (2022), as well as his supporting roles in The Town (2010), Sucker Punch (2011), Bridesmaids (2011), Baby Driver (2017), Tag (2018), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), The Report (2019), Lucy in the Sky (2019), Richard Jewell (2019), No Sudden Move (2021), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). He voiced roles in Shrek Forever After (2010), Minions (2015) and Transformers One (2024).
Jon was named one of Salon's Sexiest Man Living in 2007, and one of People's Sexiest Men Alive in 2008. Entertainment Weekly named him one of their Entertainers of the Year in both 2008 and 2010. He also won GQ's "International Man" award in September 2010. He won an Emmy, two Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Not bad for a friendly and steadfast Winnie the Pooh bear, right?
Jon Hamm is a devoted fan of the St. Louis Blues, and has appeared in television advertisements for the team, as well as a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. He narrated the official highlight movie for the 2011 World Series, won by the Cardinals.