Special Agent Samantha "Sam" Spade is a fictional character portrayed by actress

Poppy Montgomery Poppy Montgomery (born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue; June 19,1972) is an Australian-born actress. She played FBI agent Samantha Spade on the CBS mystery drama ''Without a Trace'' from 2002 to 2009 and played Detective Carrie Well ...

on the CBS television drama ''

Without a Trace ''Without a Trace'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of ...

''. Samantha is a Special Agent in the New York City FBI

missing persons A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

case squad led by Special Agent

Jack Malone Special Agent John "Jack" Michael Malone is a character in the CBS crime drama ''Without a Trace'', portrayed by Anthony LaPaglia. He was the lead agent of the New York City FBI missing persons unit. His departmental title is '' Supervisory Specia ...

. She was raised in a poor, troubled home in the town of

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...

and as a result is particularly empathetic to kids in troubled situations. She was very unhappy as a teenager and tried to run away when she was sixteen, but was stopped by her mother and a policeman. She had a short-lived marriage when she was eighteen. She has had an on-again-off-again romantic relationship with Jack Malone, that began with an affair while he was married. She also had a secret office romantic relationship with Martin Fitzgerald, which ended because of disagreements between them on whether or not to reveal it to the rest of the team. She has a son, Finn, from a one-night-stand with Brian Donovan, who is played by Adam Kaufman, Montgomery's then-real-life boyfriend. In Episode 18 of Season 5, Sam's estranged older sister, Emily (

Molly Price Molly, Mollie or mollies may refer to: Animals * ''Poecilia'', a genus of fishes ** ''Poecilia sphenops'', a fish species * A female mule (horse–donkey hybrid) People * Molly (name) or Mollie, a female given name, including a list of persons ...

), visited. When Samantha was fourteen, she killed her mother Patricia (

Tess Harper Tessie Jean Harper (''née'' Washam; born August 15, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her first film role in 1983's ''Tender Mercies'', and for the Academy Award for Be ...

)'s then-boyfriend (

Joe Henry Joseph Lee Henry (born December 2, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released 15 studio albums and produced multiple recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums. Early life H ...

) with a shovel because she caught him sexually abusing Emily (Episode 19). They buried him in the woods next to the cabin and eventually grew distant from each other. Samantha learns that as a result of this abuse, Emily had a son, Randy, who now has cancer so she sought a

bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...

donor A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as rep ...

. Sam is not a match but her mother is a possibility. Spade received her name because her mother was a fan of fictional detective

Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. ''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...

from '' The Maltese Falcon'', created by

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

References

External links

''Without a Trace'' Official CBS Website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spade, Samantha Without a Trace characters Fictional characters from Wisconsin Fictional Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel Television characters introduced in 2002