List of Deadwood Characters - Main Characters - Jane Canary

Jane Canary (Robin Weigert), a former scout for General Custer, arrived in camp with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter. She idolized Hickok, is still friends with Charlie Utter (albeit begrudgingly), and forges a friendship with Doc Cochran, after their joint efforts in protecting Sofia Metz and the doctor's enlistment of her aid in fighting a smallpox epidemic.

Known for her hard drinking and swearing, Jane is truculent and abrasive upon first impression, but her character has a loopy humor and an upright moral center that grows on people in the camp. After Hickok's murder, she sinks even deeper into severe depression and alcoholism. At the end of Season 1, she leaves camp, telling Utter that she cannot bear to be a drunk in the place where Hickok is buried. Utter is seen voicing "grave doubts" about Jane's future to Hickok's grave.

Despite a constant tough front, she is overcome with fear when confronted with violence (such as with Tolliver and Swearengen.) Despite offering little history of herself, she mentions to Charlie Utter after she's confronted by Al that she hadn't been that scared since she was a child, possibly telling that men like Cy and Al remind her of her own father. She recovers somewhat due to her relationship with Joanie Stubbs. Joanie invites Jane to live with her and helps her through her depression, and they begin a romantic liaison.

Though never referred to as "Calamity Jane" in the series, the origin of her nickname is implied by Andy Cramed, a smallpox victim left to die in the woods by Cy Tolliver, whom she recovered and helped nurse back to health. Upon his recovery, he tells her "Hereafter in calamity, I'll be sure to call for Jane."