Mark Harmon is best known for his role as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on the 18-season crime drama, NCIS.
But before the actor made a name for himself in Hollywood, he modelled for a Baxter of California skincare magazine advert in a campaign that saw him looking completely unrecognizable.
Early career and his first big break
© NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesThe son of American football player Tom Harmon and actress Elyse Knox, it seems Mark Harmon inherited his sporting and acting talents from his parents.
While studying at UCLA in the early seventies, Mark played quarterback for UCLA’s American football team.
It was also while at university that he first acted on-screen, appearing as Ricky Nelson in the seventies sitcom Ozzie’s Girls alongside Ozzie and Hannah Nelson.
Before landing his breakthrough role as Robert Dunlap in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977), for which he earned his first Emmy nomination, Mark featured in smaller guest roles on shows including Police Story, Laverne & Shirley, and Adam-12.
Mark’s acting career continued to grow from strength to strength, starring as Fielding Carlyle in Flamingo Road and later as Dr Robert Caldwell in St Elsewhere.
Mark models in an unrecognisable 70s ad campaign
© Getty ImagesBut before Mark made it big on-screen, he began to take on smaller acting roles and commercial work to get by.
In the late seventies, he appeared in a magazine advert for Baxter of California skincare. The advert depicts the star in his late twenties, shirtless and modelling its skincare range.
Best known roles and awards
© NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesMark earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the serial killer Ted Bundy in the 1986 film The Deliberate Stranger.
That same year, he was named People magazine’s second-ever Sexiest Man of the Year, despite telling the publication at the time: “All I see is a bunch of fake teeth and football scars.”
© Getty ImagesIn the early noughties, Mark played Ryan in Freaky Friday (2003) before landing his most well-known role as Special Agent Leroy Jethro in the 18-season series NCIS in 2003 – a role for which he won the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Crime Drama TV Actor in 2018.
Private life and family
© Getty ImagesMark Harmon married his now-wife, actress Pam Dawber, in 1987, a year after they first met through a mutual friend.
The couple have two sons together, Sean and Ty, who both work in the film industry. Mark’s eldest son, Sean, works as a producer, writer and actor, appearing as the younger version of Gibbs in NCIS. Sean also works as an executive producer alongside his father on NCIS: Origins, which premiered in 2024.
© Getty ImagesHis other son Ty mainly works behind the scenes in screenwriting and visual effects. The brothers co-wrote Catholic Schoolgirl Chainsaw Showdown in 2012.
Recent work
The actor returned to his NCIS role as Gibbs in the show’s 2024 revival, NCIS: Origins. The star appears in the series’ third season, which premiered on CBS earlier this month.
© Variety via Getty ImagesIn 2025, Mark re-appeared in his role as Ryan in Freakier Friday alongside his original castmates, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, over 20 years since the film first came out.
© FilmMagicAway from acting, Mark wrote the best-selling non-fiction book Glass of Honolulu about naval counterintelligence during the Second World War with former NCIS Leon Carroll Jr.
