Mark Harmon left NCIS after an astounding 423 episodes earlier this year. His last episode aired back in mid-October, with fans left devastated following Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ exit from the show. 

What lies ahead for Harmon is yet to be decided, though he’s left the door open to potentially returning in the future. For now, he wants to spend more time with his family, who are coincidentally responsible for him getting the NCIS gig in the first place.

Now, new details concerning Mark Harmon’s exit from NCIS have come to light, including a rather special request he put in before his last episode …

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Mark Harmon was born September 2, 1951, in Burbank, California. Given his parents, it was safe to assume he was destined to head towards a career in football or acting: his father, Tom Harmon, was a former football player-turned-broadcaster; his mother, Elyse Know, was an artist and actress.

Mark Harmon – early career

Harmon himself has admitted that he had no idea his parents were famous when he was growing up.

As a child, he frequently went along with his father when he was broadcasting at games. Years later, his father would return to favor, watching Mark play football for two years as a quarterback for the UCLA Bruins.

Football was a legitimate career possibility for Mark at that point. However, he dreamt of an even bigger stage; he wanted to pursue a life in theater or on-screen. When his sister-in-law married pop star Ricky Nelson, he began hanging out with his family.

Ricky was acting on the sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet at the time. Later, with Nelson working on the spinoff series Ozzie’s Girls, Harmon was asked to fill in for an actor who couldn’t make it.

Mark followed Ricky around the set to see how things worked. The experience got him hooked on the profession.

“That changed my course,” he told Parade.

My first job in acting

Harmon decided to ditch his dream of playing professional football and pursue a career in acting instead.

While several of his teammates went on to play professionally and – as Harmon recalled – earned more money in a year than he did in the next 15 combined, the aspiring actor headed back to the classroom.

He took acting lessons and soon landed his first roles in film and television. He was even able to work with actors such as Michael Caine and Jaso Robards, who became his mentors.

“They were all humble; they all gave me valuable time and camaraderie and advice,” he recalled.

After starring in series such as 240 Robert, Flamingo Road, and making a couple of appearances on The Love Boat, Mark got his breakthrough role when he became a series regular on the drama St. Elsewhere.

As producers recognized his outstanding acting qualities, Mark got more jobs. Then, after about 15 to 20 years in the business, it all became a bit too much. That was when Harmon decided something which changed the course of his life.

“I was directing a lot, I was doing a movie here or there, and we had this young family that was growing up, and I was missing a lot of [family time], he said, adding that it “was not OK.”

Leroy Jethro Gibbs on ‘NCIS’

Mark was famous, but in the end, he was missing things that he wouldn’t be able to experience later in life.

“I was in the jungles of New Guinea making a not-very-good movie when my firstborn child took his first steps. No job is worth missing life’s important moments,” he said.