NCIS boss exposes real reason Mark Harmon landed ‘challenging’ Gibbs role

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In celebration of NCIS’ 20th anniversary, the show’s bosses reflected on the early days and detailed the reason Mark Harmon landed the role of the beloved Gibbs.

Gibbs was first introduced in the procedural’s pilot episode as the Special Agent in Charge of the NCIS Major Case Response Team.

He led the team as they took on some of the Navy’s most important criminal cases and handled violent stand-offs.

While he was a firm leader, Gibbs also proved to be a father figure for other agents including Nick Torres (played by Wilmer Valderrama) and quickly became a fan- favourite.

However, in 2003 bosses had the “challenging” decision of who would play the starring role as they put a number of Hollywood a-listers forward for consideration.

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In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, casting director Susan Bluestein admitted: “Casting was very challenging.

“I cast Mark Harmon to play John Dillinger in a movie of the week in 1991, and he was terrific.

“Mark had been on my NCIS list from day one. I always felt like Mark really had the gravitas for this character.”

The former heard of casting at CBS, Peter Golden reflected: “Susan said, ‘What about Mark Harmon?’ Mark was a big deal, and everybody thought, ‘We’ll make an offer to Mark Harmon, and when we don’t get him, let’s go through the list of who else we could get.’”

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Peter added: “Mark had a meeting with Don Bellisario, and they hit it off, and Mark agreed to do it. All of a sudden, the show took on much more importance in my mind.”

While the showrunners were impressed with Harmon from the beginning, the role of Gibbs could have gone to other actors.

Executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson recalled: “I know Harrison Ford was a name that everybody thought about for Gibbs because he was so perfect.

“But I don’t think it ever got further than, it was a name thrown out.”

While the casting director admitted she didn’t “remember Harrison Ford,” she listed the other stars they looked at.

Susan detailed: “There were names like Alec Baldwin, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Kevin Bacon, Tom Berenger, Val Kilmer, Charlie Sheen, Aidan Quinn, Patrick Swayze.

“We did not make offers to those people. We just investigated,” the showrunner added.

Although Mark eventually stepped down from the role in season 19, the years he spent as Gibbs had a profound effect on longtime fans who were overcome with emotion during his final episode, Great Wide Open.

NCIS seasons 1-20 are available to steam on CBS in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

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