Tall, Mark & Handsome

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All About

Mark Harmon

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THE DELIBERATE STRANGER NBC, 1986

It was the year that PEOPLE magazine dubbed him the Sexiest Man Alive, but Harmon still jumped at the chance to play serial killer Ted Bundy for this TV movie, a role that earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.

''I made plans to go meet Ted when he was on death row. I wanted to look into his eyes. The director told me to think about it. He was right: The person I would have met would have been charming. Instead, [the director] sent me to Utah to meet Carol DaRonch, the only woman to [escape] Ted's attack. There was a lot of responsibility attached to that role. I'd be on set and notice two people off to the side — they were parents of victims looking for closure. I thought the dark stuff would be the hardest stuff and the charming stuff would come easier, but sometime during filming it switched, and the charming stuff became harder.''

CHICAGO HOPE CBS, 1996-2000

After toiling in two short-lived detective series (Charlie Grace and Reasonable Doubts), Harmon regained momentum when he joined David E. Kelley's Emmy winner in its third season as Dr. Jack McNeil, an orthopedic surgeon with a nasty gambling addiction.

''[Exec producer] John Tinker initially told me that he wasn't sure what kind of surgeon I'd be, but he knew I'd wear clogs and be complicated. I said, 'Great!' Sometimes we'd come in days earlier to rehearse full surgeries and how to pass instruments — that is, when we had a script. It was more usual to shoot something and a change would come down to reshoot. It was a fun place to be. I learned never to eat an Altoid before putting on a surgical mask. You'll go blind from the vapors.''

NCIS CBS 2003-present

During the long-running drama JAG's eighth season, Bellisario penned two April 2003 episodes (starring Harmon) that focused on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which would be at the center of Navy NCIS, a spin-off premiering that September. Though his film career was healthy — that summer's Freaky Friday would become a hit — Harmon signed on in part because it would allow him to work near the L.A. home he shares with his wife, actress Pam Dawber, and their two children, Sean, 17, and Ty, 13. It was a smart move — the offbeat drama quietly became one of CBS' most reliable and popular shows.

''Jethro doesn't think of himself as a hero, which is maybe what I like best about him. He's an old-school leader. People perceived this show to be one thing but it has proven to be something else. To me, what made the show different was how these characters were not predictable and there was humor. The real NCIS is a worldwide authority that was redefined by 9/11, so [the show] is terribly current. But Don will never let this get too serious. We're not surprised by the ratings — we know what we've been doing — but it feels really good.''