{"id":8662,"date":"2016-09-02T16:39:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T16:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8662"},"modified":"2016-12-31T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T15:54:09","slug":"mark-harmon-always-had-the-right-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8662","title":{"rendered":"Mark Harmon always had the right moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NCIS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 I first met Mark Harmon, who turns 65 today, when he was 29 years-old and it was clear then that he had the talent and determination to become one of the most enduring and popular stars on American television.<\/p>\n

Few TV stars can match his longevity from \u201cFlamingo Road\u201d to \u201cSt. Elsewhere\u201d (below) to “Reasonable Doubts” to \u201cChicago Hope\u201d and his long-running current hit series \u201cNCIS\u201d (above) with many feature films, TV movies and other series along the way.
\n<\/p>\n

Harmon was among the first people I came to know when I started to make regular visits to Hollywood to write stories for TV Guide Canada in the early Eighties. I\u2019d stop by his little house in Studio City or we\u2019d meet at Du-Par\u2019s restaurant and bakery\u00a0on Ventura Boulevard. Often, he\u2019d be in the company of actress Cristina Raines (pictured with Harmon below), whom he was dating at the time.That was just fine because like any young man who\u2019d seen her as Keith Carradine\u2019s girlfriend in Robert Altman\u2019s \u201cNashville\u201d, I was a little bit in love with her too.<\/p>\n

\"Harmon,<\/a>I\u2019d stop by the Warner Bros. set of the primetime soap \u201cFlamingo Road\u201d, in which they both starred, and chuckle over the reaction of co-star Morgan Fairchild. Harmon told me, \u201cShe can sense that there\u2019s a member of the press here and she can\u2019t figure out why you\u2019re not talking to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

One time, he invited me to join him and Raines at Faulkner\u2019s Falcon Studio on Hollywood where former Olympic fencer Ralph B. Faulkner had for decades taught actors such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Errol Flynn how to sword-fight in the movies.<\/p>\n

The young actor took such instruction very seriously. He said, \u201cActing is photographed movement. To be able to move is really important. Put Errol Flynn on a screen and, I tell you, he\u2019s magnetism; he\u2019s incredible to watch because he moves so great. Astaire and Rogers. That\u2019s where my head is at because that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do, to be prepared to do anything I get the chance to do when the opportunity arises. It\u2019s a waiting game and you gotta learn how to wait, and when you get the chance you\u2019ve got to be ready. If you\u2019re not ready, who cares? Somebody else who looks just like you and is just as talented, maybe more talented, he\u2019ll do it. People fall by the wayside. I\u2019m a competitive person. I\u2019m a disciplined person. That goes \u2019way back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harmon was born in the shadow of his father, an American football legend at the University of Michigan and the Los Angeles Rams, who became a successful broadcaster. Mark told me, \u201c\u2018When I hit my first home run in Little League, when I was nine, people said, \u2018Well, he\u2019s Tom Harmon\u2019s son.\u2019 When I went to college and started playing football, people said, \u2018Oh, Pepper Rogers gave Tom Harmon\u2019s kid a scholarship, isn\u2019t that terrific.\u2019 I could never understand that logic. My Dad raised me real tough and he made damned sure that whatever it was I wanted, I worked for it, and I did. My mind is real clear about that. Nothing was ever given to me to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he wanted to play catch with his father, he had to wait, hopeful that, when he got home Sunday night after a road trip and a broadcast, it was still light out: \u201cI didn\u2019t just throw the football, either. I hit right shoulder, left shoulder, ear, ear, chin. Baseball, the same. When I threw one in the dirt or threw one high, he went inside. That was it. I\u2019m talking an 8 year-old kid with amazing control.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sensed even then that his father was breeding a competitive spirit in him: \u201cHe would always push a bit more but he was smart enough to know that I responded to that. Think about this: I was 17 years-old before I beat my Dad in a 40-yard run. My first game for UCLA against Nebraska at the Coliseum, all he told me was \u2018Relax, have fun, play your game.\u2019 We beat them and when I came out of the locker room, he was just leaning there. There were a lot of people around. I looked at him and he said, \u2018Hey.\u2019 He smiled and he said, \u2018Great game!\u2019 I just started crying. I ran to him and he started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting, he said, was not an option, it was a deliberate choice. He had done national commercials and print work from the time he was aged 6. He entered speech contests and did stage plays: \u201cI knew I wanted to do that. It was great to get up and entertain people. People would ask, \u2018What do you want to do?\u2019 I\u2019d say, \u2018I want to go to the biggest school I \"Mark<\/a>can go to and compete.\u2019 It turned out to be UCLA (right) and it was a wonderful experience. I played athletics in college but I played for different reasons than a lot of people there. To put on a uniform and run around in front of 80,000 people on a Saturday, that was a kick.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew that he could make good money playing football: \u201cWhen I was a\u00a0 senior at UCLA, the WFL was in full swing and the CFL and the NFL were getting into horrendous bidding wars for athletes because there was only a certain number of players who were available. I\u2019m not saying I could have made the team, any team, in any of the leagues. But I am saying that I could have gone to camp and received bonus money that was incredible at the time. They were offering big bucks and when you\u2019re 20 years-old, to turn down $40,000 just for reporting to camp was an awesome decision.\u00a0 It was for me. The guys who were my friends, 19 kids that I played with, were drafted and went on to play professional football. Every one of them made more in six months than I made in three years. Now, only two of them are still playing so the thing evens out and I\u2019m sitting here saying \u2018knock on wood\u2019. But there was a whole lot of time when the decision was anything but brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not, however, jump right into a role on TV: \u201cI took a job in an advertising firm. I studied acting all the time. Advertising was a good arena to study people and it gave me the money to study acting at night, which is what I did for one year and two months, two different jobs. I could have tried carpentry but I wouldn\u2019t have gotten the dollars I got from advertising. The acting classes, the fencing lessons, and ballet lessons were expensive. Then I decided it was time to make the commitment. When I quit the advertising job there weren\u2019t many people I knew who didn\u2019t think I was out of my mind but I quit my job, sold my house, sold my car and hung in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"harmon<\/a>Bit parts led to bigger roles and then came \u201cFlamingo Road\u201d. Then in it\u2019s second season, Harmon remained clear-eyed about it: \u201cIn comparison to other shows that have been cancelled, it\u2019s not getting the numbers that qualify it to stay on the schedule. That\u2019s the fact of the matter. So, if it stays on the air, great; if it doesn\u2019t, you know, there\u2019s always tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enjoyed the work: \u201cIt\u2019s a nice family on the show. I go to work each day and I get to work with people like Kevin McCarthy and Howard Duff. I couldn\u2019t get educated like that in any classroom across America. They\u2019re wonderful people. I fight real hard to keep it in perspective, and say, OK, that\u2019s alright, the learning experience was in the chance, not necessarily in the finished product.\u201d<\/p>\n

His idols, he said, were old time movie stars: \u201cWhen I saw William Wellman\u2019s \u2018Wings\u2019 when I was 6, I was Buddy Rogers flying that airplane. That\u2019s the kind of stuff I want to do. I watch a lot of old movies on TV. I\u2019m a great fan of the bottom 10 in the Nielsen ratings. The actors I admire the most are the ones who are so damned natural on the screen. They work so hard that the \u2018act natural\u2019 thing comes across. The trick is to be natural and not let the effort show. Directors at first complained about Gary Cooper, \u2018When will he start acting?\u2019 but the point is that when he was on screen, you couldn\u2019t look at anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he loved about the business, he told me, was the insecurity: \u201cAs an actor, you have to be asked to exercise your talents. It\u2019s not like writing or sculpting or painting. You can\u2019t do it without somebody else asking you to do it. It\u2019s a waiting game and it\u2019s real important to learn how to wait. I hope I\u2019ve learned how. I\u2019ve always had a game plan. I\u2019m a big dreamer. I dream big, in colour. That\u2019s an advantage and a disadvantage. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve been pleased with much of anything I\u2019ve done. Maybe I won\u2019t ever be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 I first met Mark Harmon, who turns 65 today, when he was 29 years-old and it was clear then that he had the talent and determination to become one of the most enduring and popular … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1263,15],"tags":[4391,4392,4390,2137,4389,4388],"class_list":["post-8662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-television","tag-chicago-hope","tag-flamingo-road","tag-ncis","tag-st-elsewhere","tag-cristina-raines","tag-mark-harmon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8830,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions\/8830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}