Rescuing someone from a car fire for real? Publicly shaming Elizabeth Taylor? And an on-set
dog who can't stop biting people?! Stay tuned to find out the untold truth of 'NCIS''s Mark Harmon.
Mark Harmon was a talented athlete back in the day. A native of California,
the actor was a quarterback at UCLA for two seasons and led the Bruins to a 17-5 record
during his time there. Football runs in Harmon's blood: His father, Tom Harmon,
was also a gifted college player, having scored 33 touchdowns for the University of Michigan.
He used to love watching clips of his dad in action when he was growing up, telling Parade -
"I was literally, like, 8 before I realized my dad ever got tackled,
because on the reel, he scores every time he gets the ball."
Tom Harmon later became a football broadcaster, which furthered his son's love for the game.
Though he wouldn't start acting until after college,
Harmon's time as a football star led to an early brush with Hollywood royalty. In 1973,
he won a National Football Foundation award. That same year, John Wayne was in attendance
at the ceremony to accept the Gold Medal award. As Harmon told Stephen Colbert,
it was an unforgettable night for several reasons. Unaware that it was a tux-only event,
Harmon walked into a clothes store at the last minute and purchased a dove gray tuxedo with a
frilly undershirt. Surprised by his bold outfit choice, Wayne decided to give him a nickname.
"All night, he called me rebel." "...Why?"
"Cuz I had a gray tuxedo on!" "He thought you were some damn hippie."
Mark Harmon ultimately decided to pursue a career as an actor thanks to an unexpected
family connection. After his sister, Kristin, married the musician and actor Ricky Nelson,
Harmon began hanging out with her parents-in-law, who happened to be the famous TV duo Ozzie
and Harriet Nelson. Ricky had starred with his parents in the sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie
and Harriet" in the 1950s and 1960s, Harmon became close with Ricky's father as well,
and he recalled how Ozzie joined him at the beach one summer when he was working as a lifeguard.
At the time, Ozzie was filming a spinoff of "Ozzie and Harriet" called "Ozzie's Girls." One day,
Ozzie asked Harmon to fill in for an actor who couldn't make it, and he agreed. He spent his time
on set following Ozzie around and watching him work in the editing room. After that experience,
all he could think about was acting. He forgot about football and began taking
acting classes. Before long he was landing small roles in television and movies. His
big break came in 1983 when he was cast in the hospital drama "St. Elsewhere."
Leroy Jethro Gibbs may not be the sexiest fictional agent ever created, but there was
a time when Mark Harmon was considered a major hunk. Much to his embarrassment, he was named
People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 1986. In 2015, he told People that he didn't think much
of the title though he found out he had it in a rather unconventional way. The actor had recently
done an interview with People about leaving "St. Elsewhere," but he had no idea the mag was about
to bestow the title of Sexiest Man Alive upon him. He went to play basketball with his friends
one evening and found that both backboards had been covered with copies of the cover.
His friends certainly found it funny, and so did Harmon. The actor poked fun at the whole episode
when he hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1987, delivering his opening monologue in nothing but
a bath towel and joking about a conversation he had with Lorne Michaels about his wardrobe.
"And I said, 'The costume is degrading.' He said 'Look,
Mark, tomorrow's mother's day and that's something for them."
Though Mark Harmon may be the most famous person in his family,
his wife had a successful career of her own before she met her husband. Harmon's wife,
Pam Dawber, is a retired actor best known for playing Mindy in the popular
sitcom "Mork & Mindy." She also played the lead character in the 1986 sitcom "My Sister Sam."
According to People, the pair met at a party thrown by a mutual friend and they tried to
keep their relationship out of the public eye, at least at first, with Dawber saying at the time -
"We're not trying to keep something secret,
but if you don't want it totally exploited by the press, you have to."
Harmon and Dawber made it official in 1987, and have two sons together. Though Dawber
is mostly retired, she did return to the small screen for a stint in 2021 when she joined her
husband for four episodes of "NCIS." Dawber told Entertainment Weekly that she had been
asked to do the show several times before, but only said yes when she was offered the
role of a journalist named Marcie. She only had one stipulation, telling the producers -
"If this is a romantic interest, I'm not interested."
Though Mark Harmon comes off as a devoted family man, he's had his fair share of family drama
over the years. His sister, Kristin, is most well-known for marrying Rick Nelson and being
the mother of the Nelson brothers. Kristin and Rick had something of a tumultuous relationship,
and they were both drug users for many years. Kristin filed for divorce from
Rick in 1980 and received custody of her four kids, including her youngest, Sam,
who was born in 1974. Kristin continued to use drugs after the divorce, and Sam
would often stay with relatives, eventually moving in with Mark Harmon and his wife.
Rick Nelson died in a plane crash in 1985, and around this time Kristin's drug use worsened. Mark
convinced her to enter rehab, and when she came home in 1987, she found that Mark was suing for
custody of Sam, who was 12-years-old at the time. A judge temporarily granted Mark's request, as
well as a restraining order against Sam's mother. What followed was a family feud of sorts, which
eventually ended with Kristin regaining custody of Sam and Mark receiving visitation rights.
Though you probably haven't seen Mark Harmon in a movie for many years,
there was a time when blockbuster films were part of his career path. One such film is
1987's "Summer School," where Harmon plays a gym teacher forced to teach summer school
in order to keep his tenure. Harmon spends much of the movie wearing Hawaiian shirts,
talking about surfing, and trying to woo fellow teacher Kirstie Alley.
"Very cute." "Thanks, so are you. Oh, you meant uh…"
While not a rousing success it did well enough at the box office,
and it certainly didn't hurt Harmon's career.
The most impressive thing about "Summer School" is that it was directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner,
who was convinced that Harmon would be perfect for the role, but the actor wasn't so sure and
tried to turn it down. He told The Daily Beast that he tried to get Reiner to cast Tom Hanks
instead and explained his reasoning for turning down the role, saying -
"I'm not funny!"
Harmon shared the screen with several big stars before he became one himself. In 1989,
he starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie "Sweet Bird of Youth," and it was
quite the experience. Speaking to Stephen Colbert, Harmon revealed that Taylor had it in her contract
that she would only work for eight hours a day. She had an assistant with her that would keep
track of the time, and when her time was up, Taylor would promptly leave the set. One day,
Taylor had been working two hours longer than her allotted eight hours, and she made sure everyone
on the set knew it. Harmon, exasperated by all the scheduling difficulties, said -
"Hey Elizabeth - all I got to say is welcome to the f---ing club."
Taylor glared at him when he made the comment, but after that day she gave up her eight-hour
clause and stayed on set for as long as everyone else. Then during the wrap party,
which Taylor hosted at her own home, the Hollywood icon gave everyone who attended the party gifts,
but she had something extra special for Harmon - a solid gold watch with a personal message.
"And on the back, you flip it over, it says uh, 'M.H. Two hours, tik-tok. Love you, T.'"
While Mark Harmon was in a few movies in the 1980s, he has spent much of his career working
on various television shows. While working in television is a well-regarded job for an actor
today, that wasn't always the case. Despite the draw of movie stardom, Harmon made a decision
not to travel the world shooting in exotic locations for one simple reason: his family.
After his children were born, he realized being with his family was more important to him than
any job, so he made a decision to work closer to home. He told CBS News the story of when he
went to shoot a movie in New Guinea and he nearly missed watching his son learn how to
walk. When he arrived at the airport and saw his young son walking on his own, he told his wife -
"Hate to tell you, but I'm not gonna be doing new movies in New Guinea for
the rest of my life to be able to afford the house we're in, and miss all this."
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is known for being a pretty heroic guy, but can we say the
same for Mark Harmon? Apparently, we can. Harmon had a real-life brush with danger
in 1996 when he staged a life-saving rescue right outside his front door. One evening,
two teenage boys were driving down his street when their car crashed and caught fire. The
driver was able to free himself, but the passenger, Colin Specht, remained trapped
inside. Luckily for Specht, Harmon saw what was happening and appeared with a sledgehammer,
breaking the window and pulling the 16 year old to safety. Sprecht told CBS years later -
"I owe everything to him."
Specht suffered third-degree burns and was in hospital for a long time following the accident,
only learning later from his parents that he had been rescued by Mark Harmon. Speaking
about the incident in 2013, the actor was incredibly humble and downplayed his actions,
but according to Specht, however, Harmon is a true hero, saying -
"There's no way I can repay him, except for pay it forward, and I try to do that in my life."
Though Mark Harmon's run on "The West Wing" as Simon Donovan didn't last long, he apparently
made quite the impact on set. Harmon told the Chicago Tribune that he jumped at the chance
to be on the show, heading to set the first day just hours after receiving his very first script.
Speaking about the challenging but rewarding experience of filming the series, he said -
"This train called 'The West Wing' is moving fast, and you're expected to keep up."
The cast of "The West Wing" enjoyed his time on set just as much as he did,
according to creator Aaron Sorkin. Harmon's character was only on the show for four episodes,
and his arc ends when he is shot in a bodega robbery at the end of Season 3, upsetting his
fans on set. Sorkin told The Hollywood Reporter that Donovan's death was an example of something
random happening for no reason, suggesting that Harmon's character was literally born to die.
Sorkin recalled that some of the female members of the crew were especially upset
with his decision to kill off Donovan, making sure to let him know that the special effects
devices used to simulate being shot known as "squibs" were placed in such a way that he could
potentially survive the shooting. When speaking of Harmon's supporters on set, Sorkin said -
"They let me know if I didn't want my tires slashed he'd survive,"
Mark Harmon may not seem like a jokester kind of guy, but that hasn't stopped him
from picking up a few playful nicknames over the years. Queen Latifah brought up some of these
nicknames when she had Harmon on her show, and Harmon attempted to explain the origins
of a few of them. He told Latifah that he was referred to simply as "The Quarterback" while
playing football for UCLA because his dad was the announcer and he wanted to avoid sounding biased.
Latifah also reminded Harmon that he has been called a "silver fox" more than once,
which he had no response to. When asked about the nickname "Papa Smurf," he blamed his NCIS
castmate Sean Murray though he has no idea where Murray got the name from.
"If he's on here with you he'll tell you about that. I don't know what it means,
I don't know why he did it, but he did it and its- it obviously made the Google list."
When prompted about the two nicknames on CenterStage with Michael Kay, Harmon admitted
he's not a huge fan of either one. When Kay asked Harmon what his wife calls him, Harmon responded -
"None of your business."
Mark Harmon and his wife Pam Dawber have two sons together,
Sean and Ty. His son Sean has followed in both his parents' footsteps,
having become an actor as well as a stunt coordinator. So when "NCIS" producers were
looking for someone to portray a younger version of Gibbs, they were in luck.
Rather than casting an unknown actor with a passing resemblance to Harmon,
why not cast his actual son? That's exactly what happened in 2008 when the first flashback episode
featuring a young Gibbs aired. Sean Harmon would play a young Gibbs in a total of seven episodes
over the course of the series. Mark Harmon told Entertainment Tonight that he's proud
of the work Sean does as an actor, and that he's proud of both his sons for being hard workers.
Interestingly enough, Sean Harmon was actually featured in another part of the "NCIS" universe,
though not as anyone in the Gibbs family. He returned to the franchise in 2015,
starring in an episode of "NCIS: Los Angeles."
It's no surprise that a series that's run for 19 seasons and counting would have its fair share of
on-set drama. Some of that drama revolved around Mark Harmon and his co-star Pauley Perrette,
whose real-life relationship was far from the loving one depicted on screen. Perrette left the
series after Season 15 and, at least initially, the reason for her departure was unknown.
After rumors surrounding her departure began to crop up online, Perrette took to Twitter
to explain her side of the story in 2018. Via several tweets, Perrette explained that she had
remained silent up to that point in an effort to protect her colleagues and added that a, quote,
"very rich, very powerful publicity machine" had been pressuring her into silence. According
to The Wrap, Perrette's claims revolved around "NCIS" star Mark Harmon and his dog.
As the story goes, Harmon and Perrette got along fine until an incident in 2016
when Harmon brought his dog to set. His dog apparently bit a crew member,
who then required 15 stitches. Harmon continued to bring his dog to work following the incident,
which upset Perrette and other members of the crew, according to reports. Perrette then took
the issue to CBS management, who made the decision to prevent Harmon from bringing
his dog to set from then on. This created such a huge rift between the two that after these
events Perrette and Harmon refused to film any scenes together, according to an insider.
Fans of the wildly successful procedural "NCIS" were shocked when it was announced
that Mark Harmon and his character Leroy Jethro Gibbs would be leaving the show.
"I'm not going back Tim." "To
work?" "Well that too - I'm not going back home."
Harmon signed on for only a limited number of episodes in Season 19,
with his character intending to leave his job at NCIS in order to start a
new life in Alaska. Gary Cole then went on to replace Harmon as the lead actor on the show.
But, just because Harmon has left the show for now doesn't necessarily mean we'll never
hear from Gibbs again. Executive producer Steven D. Binder told fans not to despair,
reassuring viewers with hints that Gibbs may not be done.
Harmon remains an executive producer on the series, so he hasn't left the show entirely
behind. Sean Murray, who plays McGee, says Harmon still comes to set often.
Regarding Harmon's continued presence behind the scenes, Murray told Parade -
"I really, truly believe that the Gibbs could pop up somewhere. I
really believe that there's a possibility of that happening."
None of this is confirmation one way or the other, but it's clear that Harmon remains
an important part of the "NCIS" family, whether he ever returns as Gibbs or not.
Though Harmon has been working steadily as an actor for over 40 years, he has a pretty good
idea of what he would be doing now if Hollywood hadn't worked out for him. When Men's Journal
asked him what he would do if acting weren't an option, he was quick to answer, saying -
"[I'd] be a carpenter. I tried to do that, but I just couldn't get hired."
Like his character, Gibbs, who builds boats in his free time,
Harmon says he still enjoys carpentry, but he doesn't have much time to do it anymore.
When working as a carpenter didn't pan out for Harmon, he went on to work at an ad firm,
where he stayed for about four years. It was during this time that he got a
promotion at a sales rep company, meaning he was essentially a shoe salesman for a few months.
He recalled the moment he made the decision to switch to acting full
time. On the flight home after a work trip in Boston, he was sitting next to a
33-year-old man who was telling him about how he was trying to make pension by 65,
meaning he would have to remain at his job for another three decades. As Harmon recalled -
"He was drinking his second martini by the time we were wheels up. He was miserable in
his job and he was trying to maintain the job for another [32] years. I went home,
got in my car, drove out to the place where I worked, and gave my notice."