Mark Harmon, the star of the hit television series NCIS, has appeared in numerous television shows from The Love Boat to Moonlighting to the more recent series Jag and West Wing. In addition to television, this hunky, athletic actor has also played numerous film roles in his nearly three decade acting career.
Thomas Mark Harmon was born September 2, 1951, in Burbank, California. His father, a former college football all-American from the University of Michigan, is Tom Harmon. His mother is actress Elyse Knox. Mark is the youngest of three children born into the Harmon family. His two older sisters, Kristin and Kelly, are both actresses. Kristin was once married to the late Ricky Nelson.
Like his father, Harmon played college football as the quarterback for UCLA in 1972 and 1973. After graduating with a degree in communications, Harmon worked as a carpenter and began appearing in small television roles in the mid 1970s. He acquired a regular role on the primetime soap opera Flamingo Road from 1981 to 1982, appearing in nearly forty episodes as Morgan Fairchild’s cheating husband. One of his first major movie roles came in 1987 with Summer School, directed by Carl Reiner and starring Kirstie Alley and a young Courtney Thorne-Smith. Harmon followed this film role with The Presidio in 1988 starring Sean Connery and Meg Ryan.
Other notable film roles include 1994’s Wyatt Earp, where Harmon played Johnny Behan among the all-star cast of Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, JoBeth Williams, and Gene Hackman. Harmon also took an uncredited role in the 1994 Oliver Stone and Quentin Taratino film Natural Born Killers. In 1996, Harmon returned to television playing the role of Dr. Jack McNeil on the medical drama Chicago Hope. His role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on Navy NCIS began in 2003 after appearing as the same character briefly on JAG.
Mark Harmon has been married to Pam Dawber since 1987. They have two children together. Matthew and Gunner Nelson, of the band Nelson, are Harmon’s nephews. Actress Tracy Nelson is his niece. Harmon was voted People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1986. Twenty-plus years later, he still lends credit to that title though no one probably agrees more than Pam.