David McCallum Was in 459 Episodes of NCIS, But Another Star Will Break His Record Soon

NCIS may have entered its new era of drastic changes which will result in some characters coming and going, but only one of them is set to become the most frequent visitor in the entire franchise.

Unlike his retired former boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs, portrayed by Mark Harmon, Special Agent Timothy McGee has no plans for leaving the MCRT and, what’s more, is very likely to set a new record when NCIS’ season 22 arrives later this year.

Introduced in the show’s season 1, Timothy McGee has become a permanent team member only in season 2 and since then never really left the screens.

The character, in the series portrayed by Sean Murray, has come a long way from being an inexperienced newcomer in NCIS to eventually working alongside big bosses like Alden Parker and Director Leon Vance.

Over the years of his work there, he eventually proved that his presence in the team has become crucial for its success. McGee’s major character development also came in handy for Sean Murray himself since he’s about to become NCIS’ most featured actor ever.

To date, Murray has shown up in 452 episodes of the series, surpassing Gibbs’s Mark Harmon with 435 episodes in total and aiming at breaking the record soon by leaving David McCallum behind.

In NCIS, the latter portrayed the MCRT Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard right up to season 21 where the character dies peacefully in his sleep, yet so far the late actor is still a record holder with appearances in 459 episodes overall.

Since Murray is set to be reprising his role in NCIS’ season 22, it leaves absolutely no doubt that surpassing McCallum and becoming the new most featured actor of the entire show would be no real trouble for Murray at all.

NCIS’ season 22 will arrive on CBS this fall.