Pam Dawber Felt Marriage Would Be the ‘End of Life’ Before Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon has been married to Pam Dawber for decades, now. And although the two boast one of the happiest marriages in Hollywood, at one point Dawber couldn’t imagine herself a married woman.
Pam Dawber found marriage scary
Dawber and Harmon both married in 1987 and never looked back. It all started with Harmon famously making his move on his wife through a mutual friend. According to an interview with People, the friend wanted to set Harmon up on a group date. But Harmon preferred to speak to Dawber personally.
“I said, ‘Can I just call? Can I get a number and just cold call?’ And so I did. I got the number, and I called, and I got an answering machine. And I started to leave a message that said, ‘We don’t have to all go out. We could get a cup of coffee or something.’ And then she was monitoring and she picked up. We went out that night and we’re together ever since,” he said.
It took only a year of dating for Harmon and the Mork & Mindy star to marry. This was a special moment for Dawber, however, who once couldn’t imagine marriage being a possibility.
“I will say that marriage always seemed scary to me – the end of life,” she once told Chicago Tribune. “I was afraid I wouldn’t be allowed to be myself. And basically that somebody would find out I was a boring person. Well, happily I found a person who thinks he’s a boring person, so it’s perfect. We can be very boring people together. A match made in heaven.”
Mark Harmon once explained what the key to his marriage with Pam Dawber was
Not many celebrity couples last as long as Harmon’s and Dawber’s. Even Harmon wasn’t sure why their marriage was as strong as it was, but he did pose a few theories. Harmon felt their age had something to do with it. The NCIS star considered it fortunate that they didn’t get married younger than they were.
“We were both in our thirties when we got married, so hopefully the stupid stuff we did earlier,” he said in a separate interview with People. “That’s probably the closest I have to what the key is.”
He also believed that their differences played a factor. Harmon revealed that he and Dawber hardly found common ground, which might’ve helped their bond. He pointed to his 1987 hit film Summer School as an example. Although Harmon was all for doing the picture, Dawber was the opposite.
“I wanted to do it just because I was excited to work with [director] Carl Reiner,” Harmon added. “That was a game changer for me, like, ‘He thinks I can do this?!’ and that meant a lot. But Pam said, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t do this movie.’ We don’t generally like the same thing, and that’s been healthy for us, actually.”
Pam Dawber once described what she initially thought about marriage before exchanging vows with ‘NCIS’ star Mark Harmon.
After marrying Harmon, Dawber made a conscious decision to step away from the spotlight for a while. This also might’ve helped the pair maintain their marriage over the years.
“I don’t think two people can work all the time in show business and stay married,” Dawber said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
It helped that Dawber already accomplished a lot in her long acting career. After a while, she decided to prioritize motherhood over being a famous actor.
“I wanted to drive my kids to school. I wanted to be there for their birthdays and bring cupcakes and donuts and do the school festivals and all that, and I did,” Dawber said. “I got to teach in their art class and so it was a different life then and I was very happy to do it.”
