Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs is a fictional chief investigator from the NCIS television series by CBS Television, played by Mark Harmon.

Biography
A former United States Marine Corps sniper, Gibbs is portrayed as a consummate organizer, disciplined and demanding of his A-team, often standing between them and pressure from other authorities.

Gibbs's age has never been revealed, but it was shown in the sixth season episode "Heartland" that he was born in rural Stillwater, Pennsylvania. His father, Jackson Gibbs, owns a store in the same town. It has been mentioned in "Frame Up" that Gibb's father was possibly in the U.S. Air Force. He is apparently named after his father's friend, Leroy Jethro, who was his business partner in the store after having worked together in the coal mines. The younger Gibbs left Stillwater in 1976 at the approximate age of 18 - 20 and, according to his own statements, did not return for over thirty years.

Gibbs has been married four times and divorced three times (Shalom). He met his first wife, Shannon, while waiting at the Stillwater Train Platform in 1976, at which point she told him about her rules for life - these would inspire a similar set of rules which he would follow later in life. Shannon, along with their daughter Kelly, were murdered while he was deployed for Operation Desert Storm. Each wife was a redhead, and he once had a romantic relationship with the now deceased director of NCIS, Jenny Shepard, also a redhead. In the first, second and once during the 3rd season, he was seen in the company of a mysterious (and never-identified) redheaded woman.

Before the time in which NCIS is set, Gibbs travelled extensively on operations, particularly in Eastern Europe, demonstrated by many flash-backs, many including Director Jenny Shepard.

When a team member succeeds in a particularly clever way, they tend to begin explaining to Gibbs in highly technical language (demonstrating their elite knowledge and capabilities) so that he replies, "Give it to me in English", to get quickly to the point as well as making it accessible to the TV audience.

In the third season episode "Model Behavior", Gibbs is awarded the NCIS Meritorious Service Medal (MSM), but does not attend the award ceremony, at which Tony accepts the medal on his behalf. When Gibbs shows no interest in it, Tony locks it in a box containing several similar presentation cases, all of which, as mentioned in the same episode by Tony, contain similar kinds of medals awarded to Gibbs. One of these medals is revealed to have been a Silver Star, which Gibbs bestows on Corporal Damon Worth in "Corporal Punishment".

He is a dedicated coffee drinker, a fact played out with his team setting up someone to innocently drink or spill his coffee, incurring Gibbs' ire. In the episode "Forced Entry", when McGee drinks Gibbs' coffee unawares, an on-base security officer explains that rule #23 is "Never mess with a Marine's coffee if you want to live." At episode end, Gibbs endows McGee with his coffee as a thank you.

One of the character's "trademarks", Gibbs will often slap the members of his team on the back of the head (a.k.a "dope slap") when displeased with their performance. When Gibbs "retired", and Tony gained his position as leader for a short while, Tony often slapped the team members in a similar fashion. As revealed by Ducky in an episode in Season 3, in his younger years Gibbs was like Tony, personality wise, before his first wife Shannon and daughter Kelly, were murdered.

He has a set of about 50 rules which he lives by and teaches to his team.

Rule #9 Never go anywhere without a knife

Rule #12 Never date a co-worker

Rule #23 Never mess with a Marine's coffee if you want to live

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