Lauren Holly's NCIS character Jennifer Shepard spent her whole career working her way up
to becoming Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, only to be gunned down
some three years into the top job.
The last fans saw of Shepard was in an abandoned diner, getting sentimental with fellow NCIS
Agent Mike Franks. Her death happens off screen, signified by a storm of gunshots and a mostly
obscured shot of her body. But we know she didn't go quietly: Replacement Director Leon
Vance said that the forensics from the scene indicated that Shepard went down fighting.
"She put up a hell of a fight."
Holly, on the other hand, wasn't fighting against her character's death and departure
from the show. She joined NCIS at the start of season 3, with her character replacing
former NCIS Director Thomas Morrow, and appeared on a total of 48 episodes up to the season
5 finale. Sometimes, learning the real reason NCIS actors left raises more questions about
the show's famous backstage drama, but unlike some of her former co-stars, it seems like
Holly left on her own terms.
Three seasons on a show that's into its second decade doesn't seem like a long time in the
grand scheme of things. but Holly never expected to last even that long on NCIS. In a now-deleted
post on her personal website, she wrote that she initially found her way to NCIS through
her former Chicago Hope co-star Mark Harmon, who, of course, is best known today as fearless
NCIS leader Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Excited at the chance to again work with Harmon and with legendary creator Don Bellisario,
Holly originally went up for the part that went to Sasha Alexander. But two years later,
Holly was invited to join the show with the understanding that she would be part of a
six-episode story arc as the new Director of NCIS. Holly was living in Chicago at the
time, and she started commuting back and forth to L.A. for the show. When the creators offered
to extend the part into future seasons, Holly and her family moved to California.
Not every departure from the show has been smooth sailing. Holly, however, apparently
didn't have any hard feelings. She wrote,
"I enjoyed being on the show, and began some wonderful friendships."
But two years in, Holly was happy to bow out of the series, saying that after playing the
same character day in and day out for such a long time, she was bored and wanted a new
challenge. Ultimately, she was happy with how Shepard met her demise. According to Holly,
after she let the showrunners know that she wanted out,
"The decision was made to kill me, and boy did they. About five different ways!"
Holly's only exaggerating a little bit: Shepard had been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor
before she was ultimately taken out by a group of assassins. NCIS continued on without Shepard,
and the actress hopes the series extends its long run even further for the sake of the
cast and crew. She wrote,
"A lot of people depend on it for their families. For that, I hope it continues forever. It
probably will. I think of them all often."
While some actors face the unfortunate fate of a quickly dimming career after leaving
a hit series, that couldn't be further from the truth for Holly. She's continued to flourish
in both the television and film realms post-NCIS, which should come as no surprise considering
how many screen credits she'd racked up prior to joining the show.
Since exiting NCIS, Holly has appeared on series such as Leverage, Lucifer, and Good
Witch. She's also lent her voice to the computer-animated television show The Adventures of Chuck and
Friends, playing the aptly-named Haulie, an anthropomorphic forklift. Holly's biggest
television gig after NCIS came in 2013, when she began starring in the Canadian police
procedural series Motive, a gig that lasted until August 2016. Most recently, Holly has
held a recurring role as Lynn Harper on the political drama Designated Survivor.
"He's a wonderful partner, he's attentive, and irreproachable, and unimpeachably correct."
"She doesn't mean that as a compliment."
On the film side of things, fans likely best remember seeing Holly as Linda in 2015's The
Blackcoat's Daughter. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the film centers around
two students who are left behind at their boarding school during winter break. It's
rumored that the school's nuns worship Satan, talk that turns out to be a lot less terrifying
than the truth of the situation.
NCIS was inarguably a bright spot in Holly's professional career, even if she did get bored
of the gig after a while, but it's clear that her future is even brighter.
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