Richard Webber

For the judge, see E. Richard Webber.

Richard Webber
Grey's Anatomy character
James Pickens, Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
First appearance	"A Hard Day's Night" 1x01, March 27, 2005
Created by	Shonda Rhimes
Portrayed by	James Pickens, Jr.
In-universe information
Title	Chief of Surgery M.D. F.A.C.S.
Occupation	Attending Surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital
Spouse	Adele Webber
Relationships
Romances	Ellis Grey (ex-love affair)

Richard Webber, M.D., is a fictional surgeon from the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. The character is portrayed by actor James Pickens, Jr., and was created by Shonda Rhimes. He is the current Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital.

Background

During their residency at Seattle Grace, he had an affair with Meredith's mother, Ellis Grey, although both were married. Although Ellis left her husband, Richard could not bring himself to leave his wife, Adele (he would learn decades later, however, that Adele had known about the affair all along and stayed with him anyway). He confessed in a later episode that he ended the affair because he believed that Ellis deserved better and that he had too much baggage. After completing his residency, Richard left Seattle Grace to complete his fellowship. There are continuity errors regarding where exactly Richard built his career; at one point he states that with the exception of his fellowship, he spent his entire career at Seattle Grace. However, it is also established that he both taught and befriended Addison and Derek, presumably in New York (the majority of references within the show, as well as additional sources, indicate that a good portion of Richard's career was spent in Manhattan, rather than Seattle). He is a recovering alcoholic, which might help to explain the continuity errors, since "the Chief" cannot remember which city he spent the majority of his career....

Character History

The enigmatic Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace is a leading figure in the show. Always vigilant, seeking and trying new things, his ambition is to see Seattle Grace as the top surgical program in the country. This sometimes leads him to take daring decisions, at the beginning of Season 1 the Surgical Program is presented as one of the best in the United States, believed by many viewers to be because of his efforts.

Later in the series Adele asks him to retire, forcing him to choose between his career or their marriage. He tries to skirt around it, but Adele, tired of waiting, makes her choice and leaves him. He moves out and was sleeps in his office for a short time, but now has a room at the same hotel as Callie. Since learning of Ellis's illness, Richard had been visiting her regularly, but upon deciding to attempt a reconciliation with Adele realized that he could no longer continue his emotional affair with Ellis. He attempts to patch things up with his wife, but is stunned to find out that she has apparently moved on to someone else.

Richard had planned to retire and recommend Preston Burke as his successor, but after the secret of Burke's tremor and cover-up came out, that plan was put to a stand-still. Nevertheless, he has told the hospital board of his retirement and has yet to name his successor; Derek, Preston, Addison and Mark all eagerly clamoring for the post. Richard eventually chose Derek, but Derek tells him that Richard should remain chief.

Near the end of the third season, Adele is admitted to the hospital and is discovered, first by Addison and later by Richard, to be pregnant (at 52 years old). Though he believes the father to be the man Adele insinuated to be seeing months earlier, Richard stays by Adele's side as she is treated, though complications later arise and she loses the baby. Adele later admits to Richard that the baby, which was a boy, was actually his. At the conclusion of the third season, Richard and Adele decide to give their marriage another try.

Since the beginning of season 4, he and Adele have declared that his work is the reason that their marriage has failed. He moved in with his friend Derek Shepherd in his trailer home. He tried to repair his life as a divorcé for the remainder of the season until, by the end, he reasserted his good reputation to his wife and won her back.

At the start of the fifth season, he starts to deal with the fact that Seattle Grace's surgical program ranking has been suffering. Determined to repair his hospital's reputation, he has become determined to enforce a new tougher series of hospital rules. Adding to his new behavior, he seems to becoming more and more agitated by Meredith Grey's presence in his life as she is a reminder to him of every mistake he has made over the years. Over the course of the season, he becomes resentful of his mentee in General Surgery, Dr. Bailey's decision to leave the General Surgery program to embark upon a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery and attempts to prevent it in any way possible; he gives her an uninspiring letter of recommendation and buys a surgical robot for General Surgery to "lure" Dr. Bailey back to the program. However, as he finally comes to terms with Dr. Bailey's choice, she confides to the Chief that her husband has left her with an ultimatum - if she takes the fellowship in Pediatrics, he will divorce her. Dr. Bailey tells the Chief that she has decided that she will leave her husband herself, but that she still cannot take the Pediatrics fellowship, because she will now be a single mother, and breaks down in front of the Chief.