‘Six Feet Under’s Fisher Family Tree Explained

The Big Picture

• Six Feet Under captivated audiences with its exploration of a dysfunctional family running a funeral home, focusing on the intimate dramas and relationships between the characters.
• The patriarch, Nathaniel Fisher, remains a presence in the story as a ghost, providing support and guidance to his family even after his death.
• The Fisher children, Nate, David, and Claire, navigate personal struggles and relationships throughout the series, ultimately building their own families and ensuring the continuation of the Fisher legacy.

When creator Alan Ball‘s series Six Feet Under first appeared on HBO in 2001, it quickly became a favorite. Alongside shows like The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm in the early 2000s, HBO was the place to find the best television, and Six Feet Under was a critical darling that propelled its creator and cast to even greater heights. Alan Ball would go on to create True Blood, Michael C. Hall would find even bigger fame on Dexter, and just recently, Lauren Ambrose became a cast member of Yellowjackets.

What made Six Feet Under so fascinating during its five-season run was the family drama. The series followed the Fishers, a family who runs their own funeral home in Los Angeles. While each episode might have begun by showing someone’s death, it was the drama between the Fisher clan that really held our attention. Throughout generations, all the way to that perfect series finale, the Fishers became one of TV’s all-time greatest families.

Nathaniel and Ruth Fisher Are at the Top of ‘Six Feet Under’s Family Tree

The patriarch of the Fisher clan is Nathaniel Fisher (Richard Jenkins). Nathaniel has been operating the Fishers & Sons Funeral Home for decades. Unfortunately, he passes away in Six Feet Under‘s very first episode, as he is killed in a car accident on December 24, 2000 at just the age of 57. His absence looms large in the series, as his family struggles to keep the family business going without him. Just because he has passed on doesn’t mean he’s not still there, however, as Nathaniel’s presence is still felt. He appears as a ghost to his family members but is more like a figment of their imagination. They still need him and speak to him to get through their grief, even though most of them were never all that close to him when he was still alive.

Nathaniel’s wife, Ruth (Frances Conroy), has never been much involved in the business. Ruth is a timid woman prone to outbursts. She has never been happy, and in fact, was cheating on her husband when he died. Ruth later marries another man named George Sibley (James Cromwell). In 2024, at the age of 79, Ruth peacefully passes away in her bed with George and her children at her bedside.

Much of ‘Six Feet Under’ Focuses on the Fisher Children

Nathaniel and Ruth Fisher have three children. Much of Six Feet Under focuses on them, as they learn to become the heads of the family, all while trying to find themselves and deal with their own outside drama. The oldest child is Nathaniel, Jr. (Peter Krause), who goes by Nate. Nate is living in Seattle now, and though he doesn’t want to, he gets roped into taking over the funeral home. When we first meet him, Nate is a mess, having just hooked up with a woman named Brenda Chenowith (Rachel Griffiths). The two have a toxic relationship, getting back together and breaking up often. Nate gets married to Lisa (Lili Taylor), who dies tragically, and later marries Brenda. Six Feet Under‘s most heartbreaking moment is when Nate dies in Season 5 at just 40 years old.

Nate’s brother and business partner is David (Hall). He is a closeted gay man. The only person who knows the true him is his police officer boyfriend, Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick). David’s inability to live as an out gay man and accept who he is causes great conflict, but David and Keith have a happy ending, when David comes out to everyone and marries Keith. His husband passes away in 2029 after being shot during a robbery. David goes on until 2044 when, at 75, he sees the ghost of Keith and slumps over dead.

The youngest of the Fisher siblings is daughter Claire (Ambrose). We’re introduced to her as a teenager. She is an angsty young woman unsure of her path, but she finds an outlet in art and photography. In Six Feet Under‘s final season she falls in love with Ted (Chris Messina). The powerful finale sees her leaving Los Angeles and her family, along with Ted, behind, but in the final flash-forward we see that Claire and Ted end up married. Claire has the best life, living happily until the age of 102.

The Fisher Children Created Their Own Families on ‘Six Feet Under’

A few of the Fisher siblings have children of their own, creating another generation to live on as Six Feet Under comes to an end. Nate has a daughter with Lisa named Maya. She is left orphaned after both of her parents pass away, but Brenda adopts her and raises her as her own daughter. Nate also has a daughter with Brenda named Willa, but alas, he will never meet her, as Brenda is pregnant when he dies, and she gives birth several weeks later.

David and Keith adopt two children, brothers Anthony (CJ Sanders) and Durrell (Kendré Berry), who are eight and eleven years old when introduced to Six Feet Under. It’s too much for Keith at first, who only wants to adopt one child, but through David’s patience and love, he comes around. One sweet scene has David showing Durrell the ropes of the funeral home. Will he be the next generation to take over Fisher & Sons? It looks like he does, as Ruth’s funeral scene shows Durrell leading it. He also gets married and has three children, creating a fourth generation of Fishers.

As for Claire, it doesn’t look like she has children of her own with Ted. When she passes away in her bed, a content smile on her face, we see her family through the generations of photos on her wall. Everyone is there from the past to the future. Even though, in the distant future, everyone we knew in Six Feet Under will be gone, the Fisher family tree carries on.

All five seasons of Six Feet Under are now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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