Mark Harmon

In 1986, he began dating actress, Pam Dawber and the couple got married in 1987 in a small and closely-guarded ceremony. The couple had two children - Sean Thomas Harmon and Ty Christian Harmon

In 1987, he filed for custody of his nephew Sam, claiming his sister Kris was incapable of good parenting but later dropped the custody bid.

Mark Harmon was born in Burbank, California. He was the youngest of the three children born to Tom Harmon and Elyse Knox. He is of Austrian descent though he claims to have renounced his Austrian ‘past’ and to have adopted the American life from a very early age.

He graduated from high school in 1970 and completed his junior college education at Pierce College, Los Angeles.

After getting his associate’s degree, he transferred to the University of California, where he started playing for the UCLA Bruins football team as a quarterback in 1972.

He graduated with a BA in Communication ‘cum laude’, in 1974, and after his graduation, he considered taking up advertising or law as a career option. However, fate had other plans for him and he was cast in his first commercial for Kellogg’s cereal, which also became his first national TV appearance.

His first role for a series in television, ‘Ozzie’s Girls’ was offered by his sister Kristen’s in-laws, Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson. Word of his raw talent spread and he swiftly bagged guest-roles on episodes of other shows including, ‘Emergency!’, ‘Police Woman’ and ‘Adam-12’.

He was cast in the TV Movie, ‘Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years’, for which he received critical acclaim. In 1978, he was cast as Captain John Macintosh for the acclaimed mini-series, ‘Centennial’.

The same year he was cast in a feature film, ‘Comes a Horseman’ and the following year, he landed a role in ‘Beyond the Poseidon Adventure’. In 1980, he received a major role in the primetime soap opera, ‘Flamingo Road’, where he portrayed the role of Fielding Carlisle.

His second breakthrough role, following the cancellation of ‘Flamingo Road’, was in the Emmy Award-winning show, ‘St. Elsewhere’ as Dr. Robert Caldwell in 1983. Through the 1980s, his acting career reached great heights as he got to play important roles in the films like ‘Let’s Get Harry’ and ‘Summer School’.

He returned to TV movies in the late 1980s and acted alongside Meg Ryan and Sean Connery in the film, ‘The Presidio’ in 1988 and alongside Jodie Foster in, ‘Stealing Home’. Despite his burgeoning talent, his career never really gathered impetus, but his efforts and his acting abilities were taken notice of and lauded by critics and audiences.

His portrayal of Dr. Caldwell in the medical drama, ‘St. Elsewhere’, earned him widespread recognition around the world. He played the role of a surgeon who helped promote awareness about AIDS but ended up contracting the disease himself. This story of the quintessential heterosexual, became one of the most popular shows on television and earned him a permanent place in People’s Magazine as the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ in 1986.