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St. Elsewhere
Background:
American actor Mark Harmon was a starting quarterback on the UCLA
Bruins before establishing a successful acting career. The son of
football star Tom Harmon and actress Elyse Knox first came to the
attention of television audiences as one-legged veteran Robert Dunlap
on the ABC film “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years”
(1977), from which he nabbed his first Emmy nomination. But it was
his role of a doctor who contracted AIDS on the hit medical drama
“St. Elsewhere” (1983-1986) that established the handsome
actor as a major heartthrob in the 1980s. On his character, he said,
“The character changed dramatically in the third season. He
went from caring surgeon to womanizing sleaze ball. Originally, I was
going to get Lou Gehrig's disease but Paltrow changed it to AIDS.
Bill Daniels' character said to Bobby, 'I didn't even know you
preferred guys.' And I said, 'I don't.' That was an important piece
of information to get out because there was a consensus at the time
that AIDS was the result of a certain lifestyle, and that was dead
wrong.”
After leaving the show, Harmon took home Golden Globe nominations
for his work in the TV films “The Deliberate Stranger”
(1986, as serial killer Ted Bundy) and “After the Promise”
(1987) as well as the series “Reasonable Doubts”
(1991-1993, as police detective Dickie Cobb). He also received an
Emmy nomination for his outstanding guest performance as secret
service agent Simon Donovan in “The West Wing” (2002).
During 1996 to 2000, Harmon was famous as orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jack
McNeil on the Emmy award-winning “Chicago Hope.” TV
viewers currently can see Harmon playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the
CBS series “NCIS” (2003-current).
As a film actor, Harmon is probably best remembered for his
performances in “Summer School” (1987), “Stealing
Home” (1988), “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
(1998), “Freaky Friday” (2003) and “Chasing
Liberty” (2004). He is set to have a starring role opposite
Blair Underwood and Jane Lynch in the upcoming comedy “Weather
Girl” (2008).
Off camera, Harmon is known as a low-profile family man. He has a
happy marriage with his wife of 21 years, actress Pam Dawber, with
whom he has two sons. Following the death of Rebecca Schaeffer,
Dawber's costar in CBS' “My Sister Sam” and the couple's
close friend who was murdered by a trespasser, Harmon and his wife
became vocal supporters of gun control. In 1996, Harmon made
headlines after saving two teenagers who were involved in a car
accident outside of his home. He risked his own life by breaking the
car's windows with a sledge hammer and pulling the boys out of their
car, which was on fire.
Football Star
Childhood and Family:
The only son of Tom Harmon, a Heisman Trophy winner and nationally
hailed broadcaster, and Elyse Knox, a 1940s film actress, Thomas Mark
Harmon was born in Burbank, California, on September 2, 1951. He
attended Los Angeles Pierce College, in which he also played
quarterback, but later transferred to the University of California in
Los Angeles, from which he graduated cum laude with a B.A in
communications in 1974. Also a college sport’s star, Mark
became the starting quarterback of the UCLA Bruins in 1973 and 1974
and won the National Football Foundation Award for All-Round
Excellence in 1973. In his senior year, he befriended TV legend Ozzie
Nelson, who gave him a walk-on role on the syndicated series “Ozzie’s
Girls” (1973), an experience that ignited Mark's interest in
acting. He then began taking acting lessons and by age 24, had
decided to follow in the footsteps of his mother as a professional
actor.
On March 21, 1987, Harmon married actress Pam Dawber (born on
October 18, 1951). They welcomed their first child, son Sean Thomas
Harmon, on April 25, 1988. Their second son, Ty Christian Harmon, was
born on June 25, 1992. Harmon has two older sisters: actress and
painter Kristin Nelson (born in 1945) and actress Kelly Harmon (born
in 1948). He is the uncle of musicians Gunnar and Matthew Nelson of
the rock group “Nelson” and actress Tracy Nelson.
NCIS
Career:
An award-winning football star, Mark Harmon was introduced to
acting in his senior year of college by friend-actor Ozzie Nelson,
whom he met through his older sister Kristin. After having a walk-on
role on the 1973 television series “Ozzie’s Girls,”
Harmon began to study the craft and continued his dramatic training
even after he graduated from college. At age 24, Harmon entered the
acting world professionally.
Following guest spots in such series as NBC's “Emergency”
and “Adam 12” (both 1975), and ABC's “Laverne &
Shirley” (1976), Harmon nabbed an Emmy nomination for playing
the supporting role of a soldier named Robert Dunlap in his TV film
debut, “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years”
(ABC, 1977). More TV roles followed, including that of Officer Mike
Breen on the short-lived series “Sam” (CBS, 1978) and
Captain John McIntosh in his miniseries debut, “Centennial”
(NBC, 1978). Harmon then broke into the wide screen with the
supporting role of Billy Joe Meynert in the Alan J. Pakula Western
“Comes a Horseman” (1978), which starred James Caan and
Jane Fonda. It was followed by a small part in the 1979
action/adventure “Beyond the Poseidon Adventure” and a
costarring role on the ABC series “240 Robert”
(1979-1980).
In the early 1980s, Harmon's career gained a boost thanks to his
role of Fielding Carlyle in the NBC prime time soap “Flamingo
Road” (1981-1982). This led to his breakout role of plastic
surgeon Dr. Bobby Caldwell on the well-liked, hospital-set NBC drama
“St. Elsewhere.” Starting his tenure in 1983, the
California native left the Emmy-winning show in 1986 when his
character was diagnosed with AIDS following an unprotected
heterosexual encounter. The plot line was considered one of the first
in the history of television in which an important character
contracted the disease.
“That's what excites me about being an actor, the idea that
I can get up every morning and try something new and grow and change.
I'm not worried about image. I wouldn't have done the AIDS storyline
if I weren't. I'm an actor.” Mark Harmon
Harmon, who was named “People” magazine's “The
Sexiest Man Alive” in 1986, took another challenging role, that
of serial killer Ted Bundy in the two-part NBC TV-film “The
Deliberate Stranger” (1986). For his fine acting job, he
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor
in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. He revisited series
TV the following year when he had a recurring role on the ABC
comedy/drama “Moonlighting,” portraying Cybill Shepherd's
love interest, Sam Crawford. Also in 1987, he headlined the Carl
Reiner-comedy/romance “Summer School,” opposite Kirstie
Alley and took home a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of
Elmer Jackson on the based-on-true story “After the Promise”
(TV). Harmon next costarred with Sean Connery in the thriller “The
Presidio” in 1988 and delivered one of his noted dramatic
performances in the little-seen drama “Stealing Home”
that same year. He closed out the decade by starring alongside
Elizabeth Taylor and Madeleine Stowe in a TV remake of “Sweet
Bird of Youth” and in the comedy film “Worth Winning “
A starring role in the drama “Till There Was You” was
Harmon's opening work in the 1990s before he starred as bank robber
John Dillinger in the ABC TV film “Dillinger”(1991) and
the favorite uncle, Charlie, on the TV movie “Shadow of a
Doubt” (1991), adapted from the 1943 Alfred Hitchcock movie of
the same name. He also picked up his next regular television role and
gained some recognition as Chicago police detective Dickie Cobb on
the NBC drama “Reasonable Doubts.” After the show ended
in 1993, he played the title role of a Los Angeles private
investigator in the short-lived ABC series “Charlie Grace”
(1995). In between, Harmon had small roles in such movies as Lawrence
Kasdan's “Wyatt Earp” (1994), Liver Stone's “Natural
Born Killers” (1994) and the Cameron Diaz vehicle “The
Last Supper” (1995).
1996 saw Harmon join the cast of the CBS series “Chicago
Hope.” Playing orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jack McNeil, he
established a reputation as a reliable prime time anchor and jointly
nabbed two Screen Actors Guild nominations in the category of
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1997,
1998). Harmon stayed with the David E. Kelley-created show until it
was canceled in 2000. In the meantime, the busy actor could also be
seen in the independent thriller/drama “Casualties”
(1997, starred with Caroline Goodall), the Terry Gilliam-directed
adventure “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998) and the
family drama “I'll Remember April” (1999, starred Haley
Joel Osment). He also appeared as Astronaut Walter Schirra on the
Golden Globe-winning miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”
(1998).
After the cancellation of “Chicago Hope,” Harmon was
cast in the 2000 Anne DeSalvo drama “The Amati Girls” and
supported Tom Selleck in the 2001 Western TV film “Crossfire
Trail.” In 2002, he played the recurring role of secret service
agent Simon Donovan on four episodes of the popular drama series “The
West Wing.” The role brought Harmon his second Emmy nomination.
Back to the big screen after a long hiatus, he played the supporting
roles of Ryan in Lindsay Lohan's “Freaky Friday” (2003)
and President James Foster in Mandy Moore's “Chasing Liberty”
(2004).
Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Supervisory Special Agent Leroy
Jethro Gibbs, a one-time marine sniper and interrogation expert, on
the CBS drama series “Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative
Service,” which is now in its fifth season. The show won an
ASCAP award for Top TV Series in 2006.
Harmon will star as Dale in the comedy film “Weather Girl”
(2008), directed and penned by Blayne Weaver. Among his costars in
the film are Jane Lynch, Jon Cryer, Blair Underwood and Marin
Hinkle.
Awards:
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