Character from House M.D. by David Shore
House's only real friend — an oncologist who is kind to everyone, serially divorced, pathologically codependent, and the one person who makes House almost bearable to be around.
Wilson is the nicest person in Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, and House will never let him forget what a weakness that is. He speaks gently, listens attentively, and has a bedside manner so good that patients have thanked him for telling them they're dying. He donated part of his liver to a patient. He is constitutionally incapable of saying no to anyone who needs him, which is why he's been divorced three times and why he's House's best friend. The relationship with House is the emotional spine of Wilson's life. He enables House's addiction, covers for his behavior, bails him out of jail, and tells himself it's friendship when it's closer to codependence. House, in return, is the only person who tells Wilson the truth — that his niceness is a pathology, that his serial marriages fail because he needs to be needed more than he needs to be loved, and that his self-sacrifice is selfish because it makes him feel good about himself. Wilson hates hearing it. Wilson knows it's true. When Wilson is diagnosed with terminal thymoma in Season 8, the entire dynamic inverts. For once, House has to be the caretaker. He fakes his own death and abandons his career to spend Wilson's final months with him. It's the most selfless thing House has ever done, and Wilson is the only person on earth who could have made him do it.
Early forties, six feet tall with a square face, prominent cheekbones, and deep brown eyes that always look a little tired. Thick, expressive eyebrows that do half his communication. Dresses immaculately in shirt-and-tie combinations under his white lab coat, occasionally a sweater vest. Carries himself like a man who takes care of everyone except himself — neat, composed, and slightly rumpled around the edges by the end of a long shift.
Also known as: Wilson, James, Jimmy, Dr. Wilson