Early life

Harmon was born in Burbank, California. His father is University of Michigan football All-American and Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon, and his mother is actress Elyse Knox, the daughter of politician Frank Knox. Mark has two older sisters: actress and painter Kristin Nelson and actress Kelly Harmon, who was once married to car magnate John DeLorean.

After attending Los Angeles Pierce College as a student and quarterback, Harmon transferred to UCLA and, following in his father's athletic footsteps, was the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins in 1972 and 1973, engineering a stunning upset of the two-time defending national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1972. He received the National Football Foundation Award for All-Round Excellence in 1973.

Career

After several years of supporting guest roles on episodic television shows such as Police Woman, Laverne&Shirley and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Harmon landed his first prominent role in the 1980 primetime soap opera Flamingo Road where he played Morgan Fairchild's husband Fielding Carlisle. The series was shortlived, however, and following its cancellation he landed the role of Dr. Robert Caldwell on the prestigious Emmy-winning series St. Elsewhere in 1983. In 1986, Harmon left the series as his character contracted HIV through unprotected heterosexual intercourse - a storyline that was notable for being one of the first ever instances in television history where a major recurring character contracted the virus (the character's subsequent offscreen death from AIDS would be mentioned two years later). Following this, Harmon had a limited engagement on the series Moonlighting playing Cybill Shepherd's love interest Sam Crawford for four episodes in 1987. Harmon's next regular television role would be as Chicago police detective Dickie Cobb for two seasons (1991-1993) on the NBC series Reasonable Doubts. He followed this with the eponymous role of Charlie Grace, an ABC series which lasted only one season. He returned to ensemble medical shows on the series Chicago Hope, in which he played Dr. Jack McNeil from 1996-2000. He later had a limited four episode run playing secret service agent Simon Donovan on The West Wing. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in CBS' drama television show NCIS.

Harmon has also made several television and theatrical films throughout his career. In the late 1970s, he had supporting roles in Comes A Horseman and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. His most prominent starring roles were in the 1987 comedy Summer School in which he co-starred with Kirstie Alley, and the 1988 thriller The Presidio in which he co-starred with Sean Connery. He has also portrayed serial killer Ted Bundy in the 1986 television movie The Deliberate Stranger.

Harmon was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 1986.

In the Family Guy episode No Meals On Wheels, Peter Griffin refers to Harmon as "the greatest actor who ever lived".

Personal life

Harmon is married to actress Pam Dawber, with whom he has two sons: Sean Thomas Harmon (born April 26, 1988) and Ty Christian Harmon (born June 25, 1992). He was the brother-in-law of the late Ricky Nelson and the uncle of singers Matthew and Gunnar Nelson of the pop duo Nelson and of actress Tracy Nelson. Harmon dated singer Karen Carpenter in the seventies.
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