The Surprising Reason Pam Dawber Kept Saying No to Mark Harmon

Long before Mark Harmon embraced the character of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, his wife, Pam Dawber, was starring with the legendary Robin Williams in the comedy Mork & Mindy. Dawber, who turned 75 on October 18, stepped back from acting after marrying Harmon and starting a family with him. However, in recent years, she’s appeared on NCIS a handful of times. She said no multiple times before saying yes, though.

In addition to Mork & Mindy, which aired from 1978 to 1982, Dawber also starred in My Sister Sam, which aired from 1986 to 1988. As Dawber was showcasing her comedy acting chops, her eventual husband was raising heart rates on St. Elsewhere. Harmon starred on St. Elsewhere from 1983 to 1986, and he also had a role on Chicago Hope from 1996 to 2000. NCIS debuted in 2003.

Amid their early career successes, Harmon and Dawber also fell in love. A mutual friend suggested the two meet in 1986, and exactly one year after their first date, noted People, they got married. They had two sons, Sean Harmon and Ty Harmon, and Dawber stepped away from acting to raise them.

Although Dawber has never fully returned to acting, she has appeared in a handful of NCIS episodes playing investigative journalist Marcie Warren. However, she resisted doing it for a long time, she has revealed.

In 2021, she told Entertainment Weekly, “The show has been on for a hundred years, and they have come at me a few times. Either I just didn’t want to do it or I didn’t appreciate what it was they wanted me to do.” Dawber said she wasn’t interested in “chasing the business” and found excuses to say no.

“At this age, that’s what you do. You’d have to really want it. I just don’t want to put myself out anymore.”

However, then the character of Marcie popped up. Her agent reached out to her about the role, encouraging her to read the script. Harmon had suggested that Dawber would be perfect for the role, and he was right. She fell in love with what the NCIS writers put together for the character, and despite a lot of anxiety, she decided she couldn’t say no.

Dawber did say no to her character becoming a romantic interest for Gibbs, though. Luckily, the show was on the same page on that front.

This was the first time that Harmon and Dawber shared a screen, and she gushed, “My husband is so supportive of me. He’s just a giving, great guy.”

She played Marcie in a total of seven episodes, which aired in 2021 during seasons 18 and 19. She hasn’t done any acting since then, but she does appear alongside Harmon at public events from time to time.