‘NCIS’ Star Mark Harmon Says His Brief Hookup With Heather Locklear Was ‘Just an Emotional Cup of Coffee’
NCIS fans are familiar with Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He joined the NCIS team in 2003 — and years before that, fans knew him for his dashing good looks. Harmon was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1986, and he had no trouble attracting women. While speaking to the publication, he discussed his brief hookup with star Heather Locklear.
‘NCIS’ star Mark Harmon once said his brief hookup with Heather Locklear wasn’t special
Mark Harmon is known for his time as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS, but true fans of the actor know he was once crowned the Sexiest Man Alive by People. Harmon made viewers swoon after first starring as Dr. Robert Caldwell in St. Elsewhere. His co-star, Cristina Pickles, who played nurse Helen Rosenthal in St. Elsewhere, commented on how women reacted to seeing Harmon.
“Mark’s sensitivity shows through that handsome face, and women love that,” she told People in 1986. “I don’t think he is fully aware of his effect on women.”
“Forget Mel Gibson,” actor Donna Mills noted. “Whenever I see Mark, I think to myself, ‘Your place or mine?’”
While the ladies loved Harmon during his heyday, not every hookup was a winner. Harmon sustained a relationship with Flamingo Road co-star Cristina Raines for four years, and he told People that she’d always remain special to him despite them heading their separate ways. After Raines, he rebounded with Heather Locklear. And the rebound was nothing special.
“It began around Christmas [1984] but was over by New Year’s,” he commented. He then called the star “just an emotional cup of coffee to me.”
Heather Locklear also went on a date with Tom Cruise in the ’80s, but it got ‘weird’
Heather Locklear didn’t make a lasting impression on NCIS star Mark Harmon in the ’80s. She was rumored to have dated several other high-profile men, including Tom Cruise, in 1982. Unfortunately, Locklear and Cruise weren’t meant to last. Locklear explained that Cruise’s dance moves were some of the most offputting she had ever encountered.
‘You know in Risky Business where he does that dance in his underwear?” she asked on Chelsea Lately in 2013, according to Daily Mail. “We were dancing in a club and he went into that. You just kind of stand there and don’t know what to do. Do you dance around him? It was weird. I just sat down.”
Locklear also clarified that she and Cruise didn’t go on a “date.” Rather, it was just dancing. “It wasn’t really a date,” she added. “We had auditioned for something together and he didn’t have any friends. … I mean, not that he doesn’t have friends. Out here, he doesn’t have friends. We went out, and we went dancing.”
Mark Harmon recently discussed his current marriage of 36 years
NCIS star Mark Harmon navigated love quite well after his lackluster time with Heather Locklear. Shortly after being crowned the Sexiest Man Alive, he met his current wife, Pam Dawber. He cold-called Dawber after getting her number from a mutual friend in 1986. They married a year later.
He explained the secret to a long-lasting marriage to People. “I have no secret,” he said. “We laugh. You got to laugh, and you got to talk and communicate. That’s the fun part. Do we sit and talk about it? No. Maybe you just get fortunate and find the right one. We share many things, and yet we’re really different.”
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