Dr House

Dr. Gregory House, M.D., is a fictional character and protagonist of the Fox medical drama House. He is played by Hugh Laurie.

House is a maverick medical genius (often quoted as "medicine's most brilliant mind") who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He has been called a "misanthrope" and a "curmudgeon"—in fact, "curmudgeon" was named one of the top television words of the year in honor of the character.

House commonly expresses a profound and innate disappointment in the fallibility and inferiority of other people. His crankiness is commonly attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in one or more of the quadriceps muscles in his right thigh), for which he requires the aid of a cane. However, according to former girlfriend Stacy Warner, he was "pretty much the same" before the infarction.

House takes Vicodin frequently for the pain in his leg (and usually while dealing with a case that wastes his time or annoys him); whether he takes it too frequently was the subject of an entire episode, "Detox", as well as a story arc in the third season. He agrees that he has an addiction, but when his boss, Lisa Cuddy, interprets this to mean he admits to having a problem, colleague Dr. James Wilson has to explain the difference to her. House claims the addiction is not a problem because it does not interfere with his life.