Mark Harmon was born in Southern California, the son of Tom Harmon, an All-American football player who won the 1940 Heisman Trophy and was the No. 1 pick in the 1941 NFL Draft. The "NCIS" star's dad walked away from playing pro football to become a fighter pilot in World War II, then did TV sports. Mark's mom, Elyse Knox, was an actress, and he had two sisters, Kristin and Kelly, per Biography.
According to Biography, Mark was a college football star, the starting quarterback for UCLA for two seasons, but he decided to leave football behind after graduating college. Mark got bit by the entertainment bug, thanks to his sister Kristin and her in-laws. Kristin dated and then married rocker Rick Nelson. As the son of 1950's TV stars Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Rick was Hollywood royalty.
In a 2019 interview with Parade, Mark talked about how his relationship with Ozzie Nelson, Kristin's father-in-law, changed his life. When Ozzie was shooting an episode of "Ozzie's Girls," the spinoff of the hit series "Ozzie and Harriet," Ozzie asked Mark to stand in for an actor who could not be there. Mark said that after being on the set with Ozzie, he was hooked, and he said, "That changed my course."
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