ACTOR
Mark Harmon
- Known for
- Freakier Friday (2025), The Presidio (1988), The Deliberate Stranger (1986), Magic in the Water (1995)
61 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Mark Harmon is an actor best known for Freakier Friday, The Presidio and The Deliberate Stranger.
All facts (61)
- #001
Mark Harmon risked his life to rescue two young boys involved in a traffic accident in front of his house. Harmon used a sledgehammer from his garage to break the window of their car and then freed them so they would not burn to death, while his wife Pam Dawber called 911. He made every effort to downplay his role in saving their lives.
- #002
He graduated with a degree in communications from UCLA (1974). He also played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and won the National Football Foundation Award for all-around excellence (1972-73).
- #003
Before achieving major success, he worked as a carpenter, foreshadowing the interest in and skills at carpentry and wooden boat building of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the character he played on NCIS (2003).
- #004
Early in his career, in the early 1980s, he was known as the face of Coors beer after appearing in more than 20 Coors beer commercials.
- #005
On the set of NCIS (2003), Mark uses a restored 1972 Airstream trailer as his dressing room. The trailer has red-and-white checkered floors and an 8-track player.
- #006
His eldest son, Sean Harmon, played the young Gibbs on NCIS (2003).
- #007
Mark is known to wear shirts sent to him by fans.
- #008
Mark trained in American Sign Language for various television roles at The Sign Company.
- #009
After a highly successful college football career at UCLA, he was offered the chance to turn professional with a contract to play for the NFL's New England Patriots. It was not an easy decision, but he turned it down. He did not think he was good enough, and rather than use college to build a career as an athlete, he believed college was about getting an education and making something of it.
- #010
He ruptured his eardrum while filming Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979).
- #011
At age 16, while working an after-school flower delivery job, he found a dozen roses written to a girl a friend was dating. But the roses were not from his friend. Mark threw away the card and replaced it with one bearing his friend's name.
- #012
He made his television debut alongside his father in a Kellogg's Product 19 cereal commercial.
- #013
He was cast as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS (2003) after the series' creator/producer, Donald P. Bellisario, saw his commanding performance as a Secret Service agent on The West Wing (1999).
- #014
Mark broke his shoulder twice. One was during the filming of Summer School (1987), and one was an incident during the shooting of a Coors beer commercial.
- #015
Mark's father was three-quarters Irish, with the rest French and German. The family surname was changed from Hermann to Harmon several generations ago. Mark's maternal grandparents were Austrian (from Vienna).
- #016
Before turning to communications, he studied pre-med in college. He later played doctors on St. Elsewhere (1982) and Chicago Hope (1994).
- #017
Mark and Pam Dawber married on March 21, 1987, exactly one year after they met. They met on March 21, 1986.
- #018
When he was young, he ran 45 miles a week.
- #019
In his first UCLA game, Mark led the Bruins to a narrow 20-17 victory over Nebraska, ending the 32-game winning streak of a team that had won two national championships on defense.
- #020
His favorite actors are Gary Cooper, Buster Keaton and William S. Hart. The license plates on his 1956 Dodge pickup and his 1984 Porsche read YUHP and UH-HUH, both of which were Gary Cooper catchphrases.
- #021
Mark Harmon was a marathon runner and knew how to play the guitar.
- #022
He bought his first car at age 13: a 1928 Ford.
- #023
He was paid $2,000,000 for appearing in Coors commercials in the 1980s.
- #024
On October 1, 2012, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6253 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #025
After college he was a serious runner, running 60 to 70 miles a week.
- #026
Before they were married, Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber once went on a double date with Julianne Phillips and Bruce Springsteen.
- #027
His legendary father, Tom Harmon, played halfback for the University of Michigan Wolverines (1938-40) and won the 1940 Heisman Trophy, the symbol of the nation's best player, for his efforts.
- #028
When he was younger he bore a strong resemblance to Ricky Nelson, which later led newspapers to mistakenly identify him as Nelson's brother, even though he was in fact only his brother-in-law.
- #029
His first paid acting job was playing a gorilla on Ozzie's Girls (1973). The series' star and producer, Ozzie Nelson, was his relative by marriage.
- #030
He now does Pilates to stay in shape.
- #031
In 2011 he was named the fourth most popular actor on prime-time television.
- #032
During the summer between seasons 3 and 4 of NCIS (2003), Mark received a phone call from the producers telling him to stop shaving, because his character, Jethro Gibbs, was to have a mustache and a gruffer look.
- #033
He nearly chose to play football for Oklahoma. He later decided to play for the Bruins because their program was in decline and he wanted to help turn it around.
- #034
One of the most notorious characters Mark played was the serial killer Ted Bundy in the television film The Deliberate Stranger (1986).
- #035
He broke his collarbone during spring practice at UCLA (1973).
- #036
He is the uncle of Tracy Nelson, Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson and Sam Nelson.
- #037
Mark was given the nickname 'Quarterback' because his father was the announcer for the football games Mark played as a kid. His father did not want to call Mark by his name, so he called him Quarterback.
- #038
He had two famous (or infamous) brothers-in-law: car executive John DeLorean, convicted in federal court on drug charges related to raising money to keep his car company afloat with drug proceeds, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Ricky Nelson, who died of severe burns in a DC-3 plane crash once thought to have been caused by Ricky using the plane's gas heater to light a drug. The drug theory was later rejected.
- #039
As People magazine's second annual "Sexiest Man Alive," he was chosen in 1985, between the inaugural winner Mel Gibson and the third-year winner Harry Hamlin in 1987.
- #040
He owns a 1951 Woody that he and his father restored.
- #041
Mark Harmon loves dogs. He once had an Australian shepherd, a golden retriever and a bearded collie.
- #042
His favorite series while growing up was Combat! (1962).
- #043
Gary Cooper is Mark Harmon's acting idol because of Harmon's respect for Cooper's acting philosophy.
- #044
His godfather, Forest Evashevski, is in the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame for coaching.
- #045
Before achieving major success, Mark Harmon also worked as a lifeguard. The job was a summer one in Laguna Beach, California, where his parents and the Nelsons had beach houses. His father would wake him early so he could run on the beach for an hour before going to work, a practice Harmon believes conditioned him for football training in the fall. Another early job in his acting career was working as the color man with Mike Walden on KTLA's tape-delayed UCLA television broadcasts; on one of those broadcasts, Harmon discussed his then-upcoming series Sam (1978).
- #046
Mark Harmon played the same character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, in six different series: JAG (1995), NCIS (2003), NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), Family Guy (1999), NCIS: New Orleans (2014) and NCIS: Origins.
- #047
In the 1970s he was Adidas's national shoe representative.
- #048
His mother, Elyse Knox, who was married to the legendary Tom Harmon, died on 15 February 2012 at the age of 94.
- #049
He appeared nude in several works, including The Presidio (1988) (region 2), Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), Fourth Story (1991) and the season 3 Paris flashbacks of NCIS (2003).
- #050
He was considered for the role of Dan Gallagher in Fatal Attraction (1987), which went to Michael Douglas.
- #051
He is the younger brother of Kelly Harmon and Kristin Nelson.
- #052
He once had a bearded collie named Ryan and a cat named Arnold.
- #053
Mark Harmon was the quarterback of the 1972 and 1973 UCLA Bruins football teams and was a teammate of center Randy Gaschler; defensive back and safety Fulton Kuykendall; fellow quarterback (and future Philadelphia Eagles professional defensive player) John Sciarra; defensive end (and future Minnesota Vikings professional defensive player) Fred McNeill; cornerback (and future Pittsburgh Steeler and Detroit Lions professional cornerback and safety) Jimmy Allen; and center (and future Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots professional center) Art Kuehn, among others.
- #054
He had a four-year relationship with Cristina Raines, his co-star on Flamingo Road (1980), which ended in 1984. (They met while filming the miniseries Centennial (1978).)
- #055
He is not related to Angie Harmon, though both appeared in a series that also starred Sasha Alexander.
- #056
He was the first actor to play the serial killer Ted Bundy.
- #057
He was awarded the National College Football Foundation Gold Medal.
- #058
He and his wife, Pam Dawber, are gun control advocates, even though they wear holsters in their work.
- #059
He is not the grandson of former U.S. Secretary of the Navy William Franklin "Frank" Knox. Mark Harmon's mother, former actress Elyse Knox, was born Elsie Lillian Kornbrath in Hartford, Connecticut, to Frederick and Elizabeth Kornbrath; despite many incorrect sources saying so, she was not the daughter of Secretary of the Navy Knox.
- #060
Mark Harmon was born on exactly the same date as Michael Gray, who is best known for Shazam! (1974).
- #061
Mark Harmon's sister was married to Ricky Nelson, the son of Ozzie Nelson.
Continue through the archive
- Freakier Fridayas Ryan
- Wyatt Earpas Sheriff Johnny Behan
- The Presidioas Jay Austin
- Chasing Libertyas President James Foster
- Crossfire Trailas Bruce Barkow
- NCIS: Originsas Narrator
- St. Elsewhereas Dr. Robert Caldwell
- Goliath Awaitsas Peter Cabot
- Chicago Hopeas Dr. Jack McNeil
- The Deliberate Strangeras Ted Bundy
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