Mark Harmon Reveals Why the Name of His NCIS Character Was Nearly a Dealbreaker Before Accepting Role

Mark Harmon had a very specific reason behind his decision to join the cast NCIS.

The 72-year-old actor, who has starred in the show since it premiered in 2003, admitted he was drawn to the CBS procedural because of the name of his character, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

“I didn’t expect to like the script as much as I did when I first read it,” said Harmon, who left the series in 2021. Party tonight. “I was reading other things and I was also trying to stay at home – a young family, and I wanted to try to be at home more.”

“I read ‘Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ and thought, ‘Huh, I like that name,'” he added. “And then, briefly, when I decided I liked the idea of ​​the project, the name changed.”

Mark Harmon on ‘NCIS’. Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty. Mark Harmon leaves ‘NCIS’ after 18 seasons: ‘He will always be part of the show’

Harmon recalled how he found out the character was going to be called “Bob Johnson or something.”

“I said, ‘No, no, that has to be Leroy Jethro Gibbs.’ The creator said, ‘No, you can’t play a guy named Leroy Jethro Gibbs,’ and I said, ‘Why not?'” he explained. “And then it came back and I was happy about that.”

Harmon recently told PEOPLE why being home for Saturday brunch with his kids and wife Pam Dawber was another factor in making the show.

“It was important to be able to make pancakes on a Saturday morning,” he said. “And there were times when that meant not sleeping. You just got home, took a shower and went back downstairs. And yet I look back on it and I don’t miss sleep.”

“I was still missing things,” he added. “I worked, but I was part of their lives.”

Elyse Knox, Mark Harmon, Pam Dawber and son Sean during a performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in Los Angeles on August 13, 2006.

Ron Wolfson/WireImage

‘NCIS’ producers recall they thought Mark Harmon’s departure in 2021 was the ‘death knell’ for the show

The actor said goodbye to the procedure in the fourth episode of season 19 when his character decided to stay in Alaska indefinitely after solving the case.

“What I’ve always been drawn to here is the character that I’m playing and to keep it fresh and challenging,” Harmon said in a special feature on the show’s 19th season DVD release in 2022. “In terms of the plot, this character took the path that he did . I thought that was fair and OK.”

As for his character, Harmon said he believes Leroy Jethro Gibbs is “not retired,” adding, “The character lives in Alaska as far as I know.”

He said ET that he’s open to the possibility of returning to the long-running series, joking, “He’s probably sitting in a creek up in Alaska fishing. Will he come out of the creek? I don’t know. But if he does, I don’t know about it.”

Mark Harmon and Emily Wickersham in ‘NCIS’.

Eddy Chen/CBS via Getty

Mark Harmon Says Pancake Breakfast Was Big Reason He Made ‘NCIS’: ‘It Was Important’ (Exclusive)

Actor, who published his nonfiction book Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese-American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, also reflected on the success of the CBS series and the show’s 20th anniversary, saying, “As an actor, you don’t think in those terms. You think, ‘A TV show, if it lasts three years, we’re ‘gifted.’ But they’ve been good and they’ve worked hard, so it’s a really good group of people.”

“I don’t know if any of us thought the series would last as long as it has,” he added.

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NCIS airs Mondays at 9pm ET on CBS. Fans can rewatch past seasons on Paramount+.

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Source: HIS Education