Thomas Mark Harmon born September 2, is an American actor, writer, producer, television director and former football player. He has appeared in a wide variety of television roles since the early s, including Dr. Robert Caldwell on St. Jack McNeil on Chicago Hope. Harmon was born in Burbank, California , the youngest of three children. Harmon had two older sisters, the late actress and painter Kristin Nelson , who was divorced from the late singer Rick Nelson , and actress and model Kelly Harmon , formerly married to car magnate John DeLorean.
His maternal grandparents were Austrian immigrants. After his high school graduation from Harvard-Westlake School in , [ 7 ] Harmon completed a two-year associate degree at Pierce College in Los Angeles. After transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles , [ 12 ] he started as quarterback for the and Bruins. During his first game, his UCLA team produced a stunning upset of the two-time defending national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers.
After college, Harmon considered pursuing a career in advertising or law. One of his first national TV appearances other than as an athlete was in a commercial for Kellogg's Product 19 cereal with his father, Tom Harmon , its longstanding TV spokesman.
Thanks to his sister Kristin's in-laws, Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson , he landed his first job as an actor in an episode of Ozzie's Girls. This was followed by guest roles in episodes of Adam , Police Woman , and Emergency! He also performed in "Wild", a backdoor pilot episode for a series about two L. County Animal Control Officers which did not sell.
He then landed a co-starring role on the action series Robert as Deputy Dwayne Thibideaux. In , Harmon gained a regular role in the prime time soap opera Flamingo Road , in which he played Fielding Carlisle, the husband of Morgan Fairchild 's character. Despite initially good ratings, the series was canceled after two seasons. Following its cancellation, he landed the role of Dr. Robert Caldwell on the series St. Elsewhere in Harmon appeared in the show for almost three seasons before leaving in early when his character contracted HIV through unprotected intercourse, one of the first instances where a major recurring television character contracted the virus the character's subsequent off-screen death from AIDS would be mentioned two years later.
