Sandy Cohen

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"He's not a criminal  !, he's a kid with nowhere else to go ! , and since when you've become so cynical ! ."

—Sandy to his wife Kirsten Cohen about Ryan Atwood in the pilot episode

Sandy Cohen was a main character in "The O.C." . He was portrayed by Peter Gallagher and Max Greenfield (younger version).

Sandy, is the son of Sophie Cohen and a man whose name is unknown (he left the family, when Sandy and his older brothers were still young) .

Sandy, is married to Kirsten Cohen. Sandy and Kirsten have three childrens together, two older sons : Seth and Ryan, and a younger daughter : Sophie Rose.

Story of the Character

Life before Season 1

Sandy went to the University of California at Berkeley to study law where he met and fell in love with Kirsten. Before, he had been engaged to Rebecca Bloom. He was originally a public defender, which brought him into contact with troubled teen, Ryan Atwood, whom he eventually adopted and took on as his own after his mother abandoned him. He has since then gone into private practice in a law firm, before going to start his own law firm and finally taking over his late father-in-law's company, the Newport Group. After Seth accidentally burned down the Newport Group headquarters, Sandy returns to the public defender's office. He and Kirsten have three children. Sandy supports more liberal politics when compared to his wife Kirsten Cohen. He campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale in 1984, while his wife Kirsten, supported the Republican Ronald Regan.

Season 1

Sandy has a mainly stable relationship with his wife Kirsten and their only son Seth, albeit with the occasional problem surfacing. Unresolved issues of trust and jealousy rise to the surface with regards to Kirsten's former childhood sweetheart, Jimmy Cooper, who is also their next-door neighbor.

He leaves the Public Defender's Office to go into private practice at Patridge, Savage and Khan, along with his former colleague from the District Attorney's office, Rachel Hoffman. She causes tension between Sandy and Kirsten when Kirsten finds Sandy enjoying a drink with Rachel one night while he was supposed to be at a meeting. Later on, Sandy and Rachel get involved in a case against Caleb's company, the Newport Group. Both were accused by Caleb of having an affair because they had been spending a lot of time together and working very late. Not long afterwards, when Rachel and Sandy were working late in her apartment, she makes a play for him, but he rejects her advances. He and Kirsten then attempt to set her up with the newly divorced Jimmy, to no avail.

Season 2

In season 2, Sandy, re-meeting his first love : Rebecca Bloom, the daughter of an old Berkeley professor : Max Bloom. Rebecca is wanted by the FBI for a subversive act she had accomplished twenty years ago and Sandy helps her hide in Newport, initially to greet her dying father, then to defend her in court. Soon the two become very intimate, thanks to Sandy's silence with his wife, and they kiss each other. The episode remains, however isolated. Sandy chooses to stay with Kirsten, and Rebecca is forced to flee, disappearing forever. Unfortunately, Sandy's problems with his wife are not resolved, his flirt with Rebecca, contributed towards her growing alcohol problem, and the distance between her and Sandy caused her to almost have an affair with a magazine editor, Carter Buckley, who was hired as editor of Newport Living, a magazine edited by Kirsten and Julie ; He is a political activist with whom Sandy immediately makes friends, but towards which his wife Kirsten develops a strong emotional bond, although he left before anything happened. The departure of Carter, drops Kirsten in a state of deep depression, which culminates with her father's Caleb Nichol, death. Despite Sandy being very close to her during this hard moment, Kirsten's drinking problem runs out of control after attending her fathers funeral, forcing the entire Cohen family and Kirsten's sister, Hailey  to stage an intervention and put her in rehab.

Season 3

In season 3, after Caleb's death Sandy took over management and ownership of the Newport Group. However being The CEO of Newport and the underhanded business dealings neccessary to survive have proven a test for Sandy's character. This leads to a very rough patch with his family. On the night that he is elected 'Man of the Year' he says he cannot accept the award and decides to devote himself to his family.

Season 4

In season 4, Sandy helps Ryan sort things out with Kevin Volchok, who was responsible for the death of Marissa and he was also the one who talks Ryan into helping Taylor, who was in the middle of a divorce from her French husband, Henri-Michel.

Later in the season, Sandy bumps into a man at the New Year's Eve party and investigates further. The man is revealed to be Ryan's biological father, Frank Atwood, whom Sandy meets. Frank wants to see Ryan, so Sandy tells Ryan who refuses. Frank tells Sandy that he has cancer so Kirsten invites him to dinner but Sandy is suspicious. It is later revealed Frank lied in a last-ditch attempt to see Ryan, prompting Sandy to punch him in front of everyone.

Sandy helps in the preparation for Kirsten's fortieth birthday. He finds a mail truck, exactly the same model as the one that both of them lived in Berkeley, while his real present to her was two first-class tickets around the world. When he tells a stunned Kirsten, she announces that she is having a baby. After an earthquake hits Newport Beach, Sandy finds Kirsten on the ground, and tries to help her up, but had difficulties because of the falling objects around them. At the hospital, Sandy and Kirsten discover that they are going to have a daughter.

Six months later, he and Kirsten move to Berkeley ; back to the house where they had Seth. It is in this house that Seth and Ryan's sister, Sophie Rose, starts her life. In the flashforward set five years later, Sandy is now a law professor at UC Berkeley.

Personality

Despite living in Newport and marrying a "Newpsie", it becomes apparent that Sandy does not consider himself to be "one of them". His blue-collar, single-parent upbringing in The Bronx contrasts with that of his wife Kirsten. Like long-time next door neighbor Julie Cooper, he was not raised in the affluent Newport lifestyle but unlike Julie, he generally disassociates himself from his counterparts. He never fails to make known his distaste for the shallow, materialistic and pampered ways of his contemporaries who were born and bred in that lifestyle, even going so far as to describe Harbor School teachers as "preppy little savages" and calling the housewives' social gatherings "Newpsie Conventions".

As the more easy-going parent, Sandy's "hippie parenting" sometimes clashed with Kirsten's more strict and firm style. He prefers to let his children learn the error of their ways by experiencing the consequences themselves.

Memorable Quotes

See Memorable Quotes by Sandy Cohen

Apparitions or References

Season 1

• Pilot
• The Model Home
• The Gamble
• The Debut
• The Outsider
• The Girlfriend
• The Escape
• The Rescue
• The Heights
• The Perfect Couple
• The Homecoming
• The Secret
• The Best Chrismukkah Ever
• The Countdown
• The Third Wheel
• The Links
• The Rivals
• The Truth
• The Heartbreak
• The Telenovela
• The Goodbye Girl
• The L.A.
• The Nana
• The Proposal
• The Shower
• The Strip
• The Ties That Bind

Season 2

• The Distance
• The Way We Were
• The New Kids on the Block
• The New Era
• The SnO.C.
• The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't
• The Family Ties
• The Power of Love
• The Ex-Factor
• The Accomplice
• The Second Chance
• The Lonely Hearts Club
• The Test
• The Rainy Day Women
• The Mallpisode
• The Blaze of Glory
• The Brothers Grim
• The Risky Business
• The Rager
• The O.C. Confidential
• The Return of the Nana
• The Showdown
• The O.Sea
• The Dearly Beloved

Season 3

• The Aftermath
• The Shape of Things to Come
• The End of Innocence
• The Last Waltz
• The Perfect Storm
• The Swells
• The Anger Management
• The Game Plan
• The Disconnect
• The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah
• The Safe Harbor
• The Sister Act
• The Pot Stirrer
• The Cliffhanger
• The Heavy Lifting
• The Road Warrior
• The Journey
• The Undertow
• The Secrets and Lies
• The Day After Tomorrow
• The Dawn Patrol
• The College Try
• The Party Favor
• The Man of The Year
• The Graduates

Season 4

• The Avengers
• The Gringos
• The Cold Turkey
• The Metamorphosis
• The Sleeping Beauty
• The Summer Bummer
• The Chrismukk-huh?
• The Earth Girls Are Easy
• The My Two Dads
• The French Connection
• The Dream Lover
• The Groundhog Day
• The Case Of The Franks
• The Shake Up
• The Night Moves
• The End's Not Near, It's Here