The CBS military police procedural “NCIS” has gone through a lot over its 22 seasons (and counting), and its central Major Case Response Team has had many members. Still, one name continues to rise above the rest: Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), who watched over his NCIS team for the vast majority of the show and who has become virtually synonymous with the series.
Gibbs is a fascinating character in many ways, not least because of his name. Completely out of sync with the punchy, powerful names of your average procedural drama character, “Leroy Jethro Gibbs” is a mouthful. As it happens, this is one of the very things that attracted Harmon when he first became acquainted with the “NCIS” script.
“I was sent the ‘NCIS’ script, and I … read the name ‘Leroy Jethro Gibbs,’ and the name stopped me,” Harmon told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “People say, ‘What attracted you to the story?’ I said, ‘The name.’ There’s more to it than that, obviously, but I didn’t expect to be taken in like I was.”
Gibbs continues to be an integral part of the NCIS franchise
In hindsight, the fact that “NCIS” creators Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill decided to get creative with character names was a serious blessing for the show. After all, Mark Harmon turned out to be far more than just an actor when it comes to the franchise. Harmon left “NCIS” after 19 seasons in 2021, but has remained an executive producer of the show. He’s also one of the EPs on the “NCIS” spin-off prequel “NCIS: Origins,” which he also narrates while Austin Stowell plays the younger version of Gibbs.
Harmon (who was born in 1951) is well into his 70s, so the fact that he remains an integral part of the “NCIS” universe even after the effective retirement of his on-screen character is a testament to his commitment to the franchise — which might never have taken root if weren’t for the name Leroy Jethro Gibbs.