# Who is the best TV doctor character of all time?

> Surgeons, diagnosticians, starship medics and one hologram, pulled from black-and-white classics and streaming-era dramas alike. Bedside manner varies wildly.

*By YPB Team · Published October 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-best-tv-doctor-character-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Gregory House** — score 1000/1000
   The caustic, Vicodin-popping diagnostic genius played by Hugh Laurie in House (2004-2012).
2. **John Carter** — score 653/1000
   Noah Wyle's ER med student who grew into the heart of County General across the show's run.
3. **Shaun Murphy** — score 617/1000
   Freddie Highmore's autistic surgical prodigy in The Good Doctor.
4. **James Kildare** — score 617/1000
   Richard Chamberlain's idealistic young intern in the hit 1960s series Dr. Kildare.
5. **Martin Ellingham** — score 576/1000
   Martin Clunes's blood-phobic, socially hopeless surgeon turned village GP in Doc Martin.
6. **Leonard McCoy** — score 475/1000
   DeForest Kelley's crusty starship physician 'Bones' of the original Star Trek.
7. **Miranda Bailey** — score 475/1000
   Chandra Wilson's formidable resident 'the Nazi', later chief of surgery in Grey's Anatomy.
8. **The Doctor (Voyager)** — score 475/1000
   Robert Picardo's Emergency Medical Hologram who grew from a program into a person on Star Trek: Voyager.
9. **Lisa Cuddy** — score 475/1000
   Lisa Edelstein's dean of medicine who kept House in check at Princeton-Plainsboro.
10. **Derek Shepherd** — score 411/1000
   Patrick Dempsey's neurosurgeon 'McDreamy', Grey's Anatomy's great romantic lead.
11. **Doogie Howser** — score 411/1000
   Neil Patrick Harris's teenage genius physician in Doogie Howser, M.D.
12. **Michael Robinavitch** — score 337/1000
   Noah Wyle's Dr. Robby, the haunted Pittsburgh ER attending of The Pitt (2025).
13. **Perry Cox** — score 337/1000
   John C. McGinley's ranting, secretly caring mentor in Scrubs.
14. **Marcus Welby** — score 337/1000
   Robert Young's kindly family practitioner whose Marcus Welby, M.D. topped the ratings in the early 1970s.
15. **James Wilson** — score 337/1000
   Robert Sean Leonard's oncologist and House's only real friend.
16. **Hawkeye Pierce** — score 337/1000
   Alan Alda's wisecracking Army surgeon who anchored M*A*S*H for eleven seasons.
17. **Doug Ross** — score 337/1000
   George Clooney's charming, rule-bending ER pediatrician who made him a star.
18. **Mark Greene** — score 337/1000
   Anthony Edwards's steady attending physician in ER, whose final arc remains one of TV's great farewells.
19. **Beverly Crusher** — score 337/1000
   Gates McFadden's chief medical officer of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
20. **Frasier Crane** — score 337/1000
   Kelsey Grammer's pompous radio psychiatrist, from Cheers to his own long-running sitcom.
21. **Ben Casey** — score 247/1000
   Vince Edwards's brooding neurosurgeon in the 1960s medical drama Ben Casey.
22. **Peter Benton** — score 247/1000
   Eriq La Salle's fiercely driven ER surgeon with an arrogance matched only by his skill.
23. **J.D. Dorian** — score 247/1000
   Zach Braff's daydreaming young doctor who narrates the hospital comedy Scrubs.
24. **Christopher Turk** — score 247/1000
   Donald Faison's cocky, big-hearted surgeon and J.D.'s best friend in Scrubs.
25. **Michaela Quinn** — score 247/1000
   Jane Seymour's frontier physician in 1860s Colorado in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
26. **Jack Shephard** — score 247/1000
   Matthew Fox's spinal surgeon turned reluctant leader of the Oceanic 815 survivors in Lost.
27. **Joel Fleischman** — score 247/1000
   Rob Morrow's New York doctor marooned in small-town Alaska in Northern Exposure.
28. **Meredith Grey** — score 0/1000
   Ellen Pompeo's title surgeon of Grey's Anatomy, from intern to chief of general surgery over two decades.
29. **Cristina Yang** — score 0/1000
   Sandra Oh's brilliant, ruthlessly ambitious cardiothoracic surgeon in Grey's Anatomy.
30. **Quincy** — score 0/1000
   Jack Klugman's crusading Los Angeles medical examiner in Quincy, M.E.
31. **Jennifer Melfi** — score 0/1000
   Lorraine Bracco's composed psychiatrist treating Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.

Tags: tv shows, characters, doctors, medical