Mark Harmon’s upcoming movie role is a necessary career step away from NCIS central character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, whom he played for nearly two decades in over 400 episodes. Harmon’s lengthy effort stretches back to when he, a few other original NCIS characters, and the concept of the military police procedural were introduced in the legal drama JAG. What started as a two-part backdoor pilot (JAG season 8, episodes 20 and 21) burgeoned into a popular, long-running TV series that’s still being made today and inspired the creation of four NCIS spinoff series and an upcoming NCIS prequel series.
In the role of Gibbs, the honorable supervisory special agent in command of a DC-based NCIS team, Harmon was the face of NCIS until around season 19. After 18 seasons and a limited appearance in the 19th, Harmon decided to move on from NCIS, but it did little to break the inextricable link between the actor and the franchise. Harmon’s widely-revered performance and longevity in the original series made it hard to see him as more than Supervisory Special Agent Gibbs. Yet, Harmon boasts an extensive and layered acting career that his new movie role will remind everybody of.
