Mark Harmon

Thomas Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American actor.

He is perhaps best known for playing the lead role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS.

He has appeared in a wide variety of television roles since the early 1970s, including Dr. Robert Caldwell on St. Elsewhere, Detective Dicky Cobb on Reasonable Doubts, and Dr. Jack McNeil on Chicago Hope.

He also starred in such films as Summer School, Prince of Bel Air, Stealing Home, Wyatt Earp, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Freaky Friday, and Chasing Liberty.

After his high school graduation from Harvard-Westlake School in 1970, Harmon completed a two-year associate degree at Pierce College in Los Angeles.

During the mid- to late-1970s, Harmon made guest appearances on TV series, including Laverne & Shirley, Delvecchio, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, and had supporting roles in the feature films Comes a Horseman (1978) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979).

After his second season at Pierce, 1971, Harmon received offers from major college football programs, ultimately choosing UCLA over Oklahoma, even though in the previous season, 1971, the Sooners finished second in the nation, while the Bruins had stumbled to a 2–7–1 record, placing last in the Pac-8.

After transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, he started at quarterback for the 1972 and 1973 Bruins.

During his first game, his UCLA team produced a stunning upset of the two-time defending national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The Bruins were an eighteen-point home underdog to the top-ranked Huskers but won 20–17 on a late field goal by Efren Herrera under the lights of L.A. Coliseum.

In his senior year, Harmon received the National Football Foundation Award for All-Round Excellence.

During his two years as quarterback in coach Pepper Rodgers's wishbone offense, UCLA compiled a 17–5 record (.770).

Harmon was UCLA's starting quarterback for two seasons, but he was not picked in the 1974 NFL Draft.

Harmon graduated cum laude from UCLA in 1974 with a B.A. in Communications.

Thanks to his sister Kristin's in-laws, Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson, he landed his first job as an actor in an episode of Ozzie's Girls. This was followed by guest roles in episodes of Adam-12, Police Woman, and Emergency! in mid-1975.

He also performed in "905-Wild", a backdoor pilot episode for a series about two L.A. County Animal Control Officers which did not sell.

Producer/creator Jack Webb, who was the packager of both series, later cast Harmon in Sam, a short-lived 1978 series about an LAPD officer and his K-9 partner.

Before this, Harmon received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance as Robert Dunlap in the TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years.

In 1978, he appeared in three episodes of the mini-series, Centennial, as Captain John MacIntosh, an honorable Union cavalry officer.

He then landed a co-starring role on the 1979 action series 240-Robert as Deputy Dwayne Thibideaux.

The series centered around the missions of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Emergency Services Detail, but was also short-lived.

In 1980, Harmon gained a regular role in the prime time soap opera Flamingo Road, in which he played Fielding Carlisle, the husband of Morgan Fairchild's character.

Despite initially good ratings, the series was canceled after two seasons.

In the mid-1980s, Harmon also became the spokesperson for Coors Regular beer, appearing in television commercials for them.

Following its cancellation, he landed the role of Dr. Robert Caldwell on the series St. Elsewhere in 1983.

Harmon appeared in the show for almost three seasons before leaving in early 1986 when his character contracted HIV through unprotected intercourse, one of the first instances where a major recurring television character contracted the virus (the character's subsequent off-screen death from AIDS would be mentioned two years later).

Harmon's career reached several other high points in 1986.

In January, he was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

Harmon played Secret Service special agent Simon Donovan in a four-episode story arc in The West Wing in 2002, receiving an Emmy Award nomination for the role.

Harmon's character of NCIS special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was introduced in a guest starring role in two episodes of JAG.

From 2003 to 2021, Harmon starred in the spinoff NCIS as the same character.

Harmon was born in Burbank, California, the youngest of three children.

His parents were Heisman Trophy–winning football player and broadcaster Tom Harmon and actress, model, and artist Elyse Knox (née Elsie Lillian Kornbrath).

Harmon had two older sisters, the late actress and painter Kristin Nelson, who was divorced from the late singer Rick Nelson, and actress and model Kelly Harmon, formerly married to car magnate John DeLorean.

His maternal grandparents were Austrian immigrants.

He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Pierce College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.

After college, Harmon considered pursuing a career in advertising or law.

Harmon started his career in business as a merchandising director, but soon decided to switch to acting.

He spent much of his career portraying law enforcement and medical personnel.

One of his first national TV appearances (other than as an athlete) was in a commercial for Kellogg's Product 19 cereal with his father, Tom Harmon, its longstanding TV spokesman.