What NCIS actors have passed away? Remembering every star the show has lost
Across 22-plus seasons and more than 1,000 episodes of franchise television, NCIS has employed hundreds of actors — and, inevitably, said goodbye to some of them for good. Here's a look at the stars the show has lost, as of 2026.
The one that hurt the most
David McCallum played Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the team's beloved medical examiner turned historian, from the very first season. The Scottish-born actor died on September 25, 2023, at age 90 — of natural causes, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, surrounded by family, per a CBS spokesperson. He'd stayed with the show right up to a cameo in the season 20 finale. NCIS wrote Ducky's death into the show and gave him an on-screen memorial episode in early 2024.
Gibbs' father
Ralph Waite — TV royalty since playing John Walton on The Waltons — brought warmth to NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, father of Mark Harmon's Leroy Jethro Gibbs, across eight episodes. Waite died in February 2014 at age 85. The show honored him too: Jackson passed away off screen in season 11, roughly three months after the actor himself.
Guest stars gone too soon
Plenty of memorable one-off and recurring players have also died since filming:
- Annie Wersching — Deputy DA Gail Walsh in season 8's "False Witness." The 24 and The Last of Us star died of cancer in January 2023 at just 45.
- Heath Freeman — played Benjamin Franks. He died in November 2021 at 41 from an accidental overdose.
- Gregory Itzin — two NCIS roles, in 2003 and 2020. The 24 alum died in July 2022 at 74 after complications from emergency surgery.
- René Auberjonois — Dr. Felix Blackwell in season 10's "Phoenix." He died of lung cancer in 2019 at 79.
- Sam Sarpong — appeared in season 1. He died in 2015 at age 40.
- Vachik Mangassarian — played a fake Iranian president. He died in 2022 at 78.
- Nina Foch — the Hollywood golden-age star, of An American in Paris fame, died in 2008 at 84.
Losses across the franchise
The wider NCIS universe has grieved too. Miguel Ferrer, who played Assistant Director Owen Granger for seven seasons on NCIS: Los Angeles, died of throat cancer in January 2017 at 61 — working on the show right through his diagnosis.
"Miguel made the world brighter and funnier," his cousin George Clooney said in a 2017 family statement.
Ravil Isyanov, NCIS: LA's mobster Anatoli Kirkin from 2013 onward, died of cancer in September 2021 at 59.
The show itself has always marked these losses — even producer's assistant Harriet Margulies, a longtime staffer who died in 2021, got an on-air tribute card. For a series about honoring the fallen, it practices what it preaches.