Mark Harmon

Thomas Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American television and film actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of roles since the early 1970s. Harmon gained recognition for portraying Secret Service special agent Simon Donovan in The West Wing, receiving a 2002 Emmy Award nomination for his acting in the four-episode story arc. Harmon was cast in a similar role a year later: Donald P. Bellisario—the creator of both JAG and NCIS for CBS—had seen Harmon in The West Wing and decided to cast him in NCIS. Harmon's character of NCIS special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was first introduced in a guest starring role in two episodes of JAG. Since 2003, Harmon has starred in NCIS as the same character. 2Early life Harmon was born in Burbank, California, the youngest of three children and the only son. His parents were Heisman Trophy–winning football player and broadcaster Tom Harmon and actress and artist Elyse Knox (née Elsie Lillian Kornbrath). Harmon has two older sisters, actress and painter Kristin Nelson, who was divorced from the late singer Rick Nelson, and actress-model Kelly Harmon, who was once married to car magnate John DeLorean. His maternal grandparents were Austrian immigrants. 3College football After graduating from high school at Harvard School, Harmon completed a two-year associate degree at Pierce College in Los Angeles, then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins football team in 1972 and 1973. After his sophomore season at Pierce, Harmon had a number of offers from major college football programs, and he ultimately chose UCLA over Oklahom