| 1 | Samuel | Spade | Protagonist. |
| | Effie | Perine | Spade's secretary. |
| | Miss | Wonderly | Spade's client. Aka: Brigid O'Shaughnessy. |
| | Corinne | | Miss Wonderly's sister. Missing. |
| | Floyd | Thursby | Corinne's lover. |
| | Miles | Archer | Spade's partner. Deceased. |
| 2 | Tom | Polhaus | Dundy's partner. |
| | Dundy | | A lieutenant. |
| 3 | Iva | Archer | Miles's wife. |
| | Mr. | Freed | The hotel manager. |
| | Harriman | | The house-detective on duty. |
| 4 | Sid | Wise | Archer's lawyer. |
| | Joel | Cairo | Spade's client who's looking for a black bird figure. |
| 6 | George | Arliss | A theatre actor. |
| 7 | Mrs. | Flitcraft | Charles's wife. |
| | Charles | Flitcraft | An automobile business owner. Spade's former client. |
| 9 | Icemidov | | The man who has the missing falcon. |
| 10 | Luke | | The hotel-detective. |
| | Caroline | Beale | A burglar victim. |
| 11 | Casper | Gutman | A lawyer. Antagonist. |
| | Phil | Archer | Mile's brother. |
| 13 | Francis | Vernev | The English adventurer. |
| | Charilaos | Konstantinides | The Greek dealer who found the black falcon. |
| | General | Kemidov | The black falcon owner. |
| | Wilmer | Cook | Gutman's secretary. |
| 14 | Rhea | Cook | Wilmer's daughter. |
| | Ted | | Effie's uncle |
| 15 | Dixie | Monahan | Thursby's boss. |
| | Bryan | | The district attorney. |
| | Mr. | Thomas | Bryan's assistant. |
| | Healy | | Bryan's stenographer. |
| 16 | Jacobi | | La Paloma's captain. |