Mark Harmon

Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon, photographed by Jerry Avenaim 2005
Born	Thomas Mark Harmon September 2, 1951 (1951-09-02) (age 58) Burbank, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–present
Spouse(s)	Pam Dawber (m. Mar. 21 1987 – present) 2 children

Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American actor who has been starring in U.S. television programs and films since the mid-1970s. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the popular CBS series NCIS.

Early life

Harmon was born Thomas Mark Harmon in Burbank, California. His father was University of Michigan football All-America and Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. His mother is actress and artist Elyse Knox (née Elsie Lillian Kornbrath).^[1] Mark has two older sisters both married to well-known men: actress and painter Kristin Nelson, the former wife of singer Ricky Nelson, and actress Kelly Harmon, who was once married to car magnate John DeLorean.

After attending Los Angeles Pierce College as a student and quarterback, Harmon transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles and, following in his father's athletic footsteps, was the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins in 1972 and 1973,^[2][3] engineering a stunning upset of the two-time defending national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1972.^[4][5] He received the National Football Foundation Award for All-Round Excellence in 1973.^[2][6] In his two years as quarterback in Coach Pepper Rodgers wishbone offense, UCLA won 17 games and lost only 5. He graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Communications cum laude in 1974.

Career

While he considered "advertising or law" as careers after college,^[7] Harmon became an actor and has spent much of his career portraying law enforcement and medical personnel. His first acting credits were from guest-starring on episodes of Adam-12 and Emergency! in mid-1975 (the Emergency! episode that Harmon starred in, "905-Wild", centered on two L.A. County Animal Control Officers, and was a pilot episode for a possible new series, which did not sell). Producer/creator Jack Webb, who was the packager of both series, later cast Harmon in the very short-lived Sam, about an LAPD officer and his K-9 partner, in 1978. In 1979, he starred in the action series 240-Robert as Deputy Dwayne Thibideaux, which centered around the missions of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Emergency Services Detail.

After several years of supporting guest roles on episodic television shows such as Police Woman, Laverne & Shirley and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Harmon landed his first prominent role in the 1980 primetime soap opera Flamingo Road, where he played Morgan Fairchild's husband Fielding Carlisle. The series was short-lived, however, and following its cancellation, he landed the role of Dr. Robert Caldwell on the prestigious NBC Emmy-winning series St. Elsewhere in 1983. In 1986, Harmon left the series as his character contracted HIV through unprotected heterosexual intercourse - a storyline that was notable for being one of the first instances where a major recurring character contracted the virus (the character's subsequent off-screen death from AIDS would be mentioned two years later). Following this, Harmon had a limited engagement on the series Moonlighting, playing Cybill Shepherd's love interest Sam Crawford for four episodes in 1987. Harmon's next regular television role would be as Chicago police detective Dickie Cobb for two seasons (1991-1993) on the NBC series Reasonable Doubts. In 1993, he appeared in one episode in the unlikely role of a rodeo clown on the CBS comedy/western series Harts of the West, on which future NCIS actor Sean Murray was a series regular in the role of Zane Grey Hart.

Harmon appeared as Charlie Grace, a private investigator series which lasted only one season on ABC. He returned to ensemble medical shows on the series Chicago Hope, in which he played Dr. Jack McNeil from 1996-2000.

In May 2002, he had a limited four episode run playing Secret Service Special Agent Simon Donovan on The West Wing. Harmon took a lead role in two episodes of JAG in April 2003, which introduced viewers to him in the role of NCIS agent Gibbs. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in CBS' drama television show NCIS.

Harmon has also made several television and theatrical films throughout his career. In the late 1970s, he had supporting roles in Comes a Horseman and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. His most prominent starring roles were in the 1986 romantic comedy Prince of Bel Air and 1987 comedy Summer School in both of which he co-starred opposite Kirstie Alley, and the 1988 thriller The Presidio in which he co-starred with Sean Connery and Meg Ryan. He also portrayed serial killer Ted Bundy in the 1986 television movie The Deliberate Stranger. In 2003, he played Ryan in the movie Freaky Friday. Harmon was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 1986.

Mark Harmon also starred in several stage productions in Los Angeles and Toronto. Los Angeles' The Cast Theatre saw him perform as Bobby in Wrestlers as well as in The Wager. In the late eighties he was part of the cast of the Canadian premier of Key Exchange. Several productions of Love Letters provided him the opportunity to play alongside his wife Pam Dawber.

Personal life

He worked as a carpenter before making a success of his acting career.^[8]

Harmon has been married to actress Pam Dawber since March 21, 1987. The couple have two sons: Sean Thomas Harmon (born 25 April 1988), who played a young Gibbs in NCIS Season 6 Episode 4, and Ty Christian Harmon (born June 25, 1992).^[9] Harmon was the brother-in-law of the late Ricky Nelson and is the uncle of singers Matthew and Gunnar Nelson of the pop duo Nelson, and actress Tracy Nelson. Harmon dated singer Karen Carpenter in the 1970s.^[10]

In 1996, Harmon made headlines when he saved two teenage boys who were involved in a car accident outside of his home. Harmon used a sledge hammer from his garage to break the window out of their burning car, then pulled them free from the flames. He made every effort to downplay his role in saving the boys' lives.^[11]

Filmography

References

External links

• Mark Harmon at the Internet Movie Database
• Mark Harmon at TV Guide
• Mark Harmon Web
• CBS profile