The comic strip Doonesbury, by Garry Trudeau, has featured many recurring characters since its debut in 1970. Most of these characters have interacted with each other at various times, and with only a few exceptions their individual histories have been maintained consistently throughout the strip's existence, even when a character may disappear from the strip for years at a time. First appearances are noted in parentheses.
Numerous real-world figures, especially from politics, have appeared in the strip.
Since the late 1980s some prominent politicians were given direct, but metaphorical, visual portrayals via Doonesbury Icons, avatars in the strip which abstractly represented them.
Most other prominent figures, after the strip's early years, stopped appearing directly in-frame, and were represented solely by their dialogue emerging from outside the frame, or from a television or a building shown from the outside (especially the White House). The small number of exceptions to this rule are below.
The following figures have been directly portrayed in-frame in the strip.