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In Step With...Mark Harmon
James Brady
published: 05/16/2004
Actor Mark Harmon was late calling me on a Saturday morning because, as he said apologetically, “We worked all night, and I just got in the door.” Harmon is on CBS’s Tuesday-night hit Navy NCIS, and he told me he works an average of 18 hours a day.
“It’s OK,” he said. “I didn’t take this job for the days off. The series is doing well, and we’re proud of it. And with CBS extending it to a full season, we may not even get a hiatus.”
That last part may be a joke. But the series—created by Don Bellisario, a former Marine who’s also the idea guy behind the TV show JAG—is anything but a joke. It deals with a maverick criminal-investigating unit within the Navy. Harmon is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the chief investigator—also a former Marine. David McCallum (remember him?) is the unit’s medical examiner, “ Ducky” Mallard.
I asked about McCallum, who played Illya Kuryakin on the hit ’60s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. “ He’s the best,” Mark said. “When we first met on the set, I greeted him as ‘Illya,’ and he just laughed. ‘Man, that was 39 years ago!’ he said. He’s a gift of a professional.”
Harmon hasn’t been around quite as long as McCallum, but he’s got an impressive résumé. He’s been nominated for four Golden Globes, he was on Chicago Hope, St. Elsewhere and Moonlighting, and in 2002 he received his second Emmy nomination for his role as Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan on NBC’s The West Wing. Harmon also has done stage work, and this winter he portrayed the President in the film Chasing Liberty. In 2001, Mark played the “heavy” in a fine TV Western of a Louis L’Amour story called Crossfire Trail, starring Tom Selleck. “I didn’t know you could be that nasty,” I told the affable Harmon. “It was just fun to do,” he said. “We need more great Westerns.”
Brady's Bits
Mark Harmon lives in the mountains high above Santa Monica with his wife, actress Pam Dawber (Mork & Mindy), and their two sons. Is Pam acting these days? “She gets offered stuff all the time,” Harmon told me, “but she turns it down. She does a lot of concerts, singing Sondheim songs with a full orchestra behind her. And she’s teaching art.”
Harmon’s bloodlines are impressive: His mother is the former Hollywood beauty Elyse Knox, and his father was the All-American running back Tom Harmon of Michigan. Before Mark went into showbiz, he too played college football.
“My father was broadcasting UCLA games at the Coliseum,” he recalled, “and I ran copy for him when he was on the air. I used to look down at the field and fantasize about coming out onto the grass from the players’ tunnel.” So when Mark was 21, he did just that. “I was standing with the team in that tunnel,” he said, “waiting to take the field, with 97,000 people watching.” How many Americans have a story like that?
As his CBS hit series, NCIS, returns for another fall season, “special agent” Mark Harmon talked to me about why the show is consistently in the Top 10.
“NCIS is really character-driven,” he said. “I don’t think the show’s success has to do with the ‘caper,’ whatever it is that week. Because sometimes we solve the case, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we get the bad guy, or we don’t.
“Most series decline with time,” he went on. “This will be our sixth season—not that I’m counting—and we do better each year.”
In between talk about work, I asked Mark how he and his wife, actress Pam Dawber, seem to have one of those rare Hollywood marriages that endures.
“I don’t know the secret, if there is one,” he told me. “I’m not even comfortable talking about the secret of a good Hollywood marriage. It’s not pleasant to be under that microscope. It’s hard living anyway, without publicity.”
He and Pam (so delightful in Mork & Mindy) wed in 1987 and have two sons— Sean, 20, a college student, and Ty, who’s 16 and still in high school. Both of them are, Mark reported succinctly, “doing very well.”
The family lives in the hills above Santa Monica. Where was Mark during that recent earthquake with a 5.4 magnitude? On location?
“We could feel it, but what can you do?” he said pragmatically. “We recognized it for what it was. Then, when it was over, we moved on—back to work! The epicenter was far away from the set, and it wasn’t fun. But that’s part of the fabric of living in California.
“Have you ever been in a quake?” he asked. I had but didn’t realize it until someone enlightened me. “See,” Harmon said, thoroughly enjoying the fact that I was an earthquake rookie.
But it’s not all work and no play. At UCLA, he was the starting quarterback who often played in front of about 100,000 fans. These days, the man’s an athletic 57-year-old who seems to be in terrific shape. How does he manage that?
“I do a daily exercise regimen that supplanted all the running I used to do,” he told me. “It’s not to save my knees. It’s just that you need to change.”
As for the lovely Pam Dawber, “she’s doing a lot with Jason Alexander. Musical stuff,” said Mark. So maybe that’s their secret: Pam and Mark stay busy and don’t have a lot of time on their hands.
Brady's Bits
While NCIS is a huge network hit, it’s not Mark Harmon’s first. He starred on Chicago Hope and St. Elsewhere. Later, while on The West Wing, he earned an Emmy nomination as Secret Service agent Simon Donovan. Mark also has been a movie headliner with stars such as Meg Ryan and Jodie Foster. And how is it behind the scenes at NCIS? “There are more than 260 people involved,” he said. “Cast, crew, show-runners, and stagehands. The only real problem is that this group makes it look so easy, and it isn’t.” Mark’s the son of the late Heisman Trophy-winner Tom Harmon and glamorous actress Elyse Knox. As he was a UCLA player himself, I asked what Mark thought of the current team. “It remains to be seen,” he said somewhat dolefully, “but I have faith in their coach.”
Personal
Born Sept. 2, 1951, in Burbank, Calif. Married to Pam Dawber since 1987; two children.
Why You Know Him
He’s appeared in renowned TV series such as Chicago Hope, St. Elsewhere, and The West Wing.
What You Don't Know
The late Ricky Nelson was Mark’s brother-in-law. His nephews are twin rockers Gunnar and Matthew.
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