Most know Mark Harmon from his longtime role as sturdy cop, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, on “NCIS” on CBS. But like anyone, Harmon started out groping through a number of jobs trying to find his place in the world.
Recently chatting on “The Rich Eisen Show,” Harmon recalled his earliest odd jobs, Outsider reports.
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“For a few years after college,” Harmon explained, “other than being carpenter I was just trying to do whatever I could do to make a few bucks.”
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Eisen, being a sports guy, of course delved into the fact that Harmon could’ve chosen many guys’ dream job — NFL quarterback. Harmon was quarterback for UCLA during its early 1970s heyday as a consistent NCAA power, but he told Eisen he never really took it seriously as a career.
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“I had a chance to go to [NFL] camp, I had calls from New England, I had AFL, the CFL, they were all in full swing at the time. But I just never… It was never even something I thought about, it was just time to move on to something else.”
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A few little breaks in his explanation implied there may be some wistful regrets in there somewhere.
Instead, Harmon went with the usual job hopping: “I sold shoes, I was in law school for a little bit… I worked for Adidas for about eight months. And before that, I was in merchandising and radio here in Los Angeles.”
But there was a method to his madness — method acting, actually. All along, Harmon was taking acting classes at night.
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It finally paid off as he started landing roles in cop shows like “Adam-12” and “Police Woman,” then worked consistently as a dependable character actor in TV and film before landing what has become his iconic, 19-years running role on “NCIS” as… Bob Nelson?
“For a moment, when I started getting interested in doing it,” Harmon told Eisen “the name changed to Bob Nelson or something. And I said, ‘Eh…please, can you put the name back?’”
“NCIS” co-star, Sean Murray, is sure glad they figured out the name situation, as he told Country Living magazine, “He goes for the realness of it, the truth of it, you know? That’s what we all strive to do as actors. Boy, is he good at it.”
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Murray knew Harmon from way back though. “I actually worked with him when I was 15 on another show called “Harts of the West,” he recalled. Harmon’s role as an alcoholic rodeo clown was originally Jeff Bridges’ role, but Bridges had some scheduling issues.
“And they got Harmon to come and do the part instead,” Murray said, “which I’ll never forget. That’s where I first met Harmon. And he made an impression on me even back then.”
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