Dr. Donald Horatio Mallard, or Ducky as everyone calls him, is played by David McCallum. He first appeared in the JAG backdoor pilot 8x20 "Ice Queen" before becoming a main character on NCIS when the show started. Dr. Mallard has been the Chief Medical Examiner since then, until more recently in season 16 when he retired after 26 years of working at NCIS. However Director Vance decided to offer him the position of the NCIS Historian which Ducky accepted.

Ducky has been the heart of the show since the beginning. Over the years he has helped the team in numerous ways, including finding important clues during the autopsies, profiling, and extending his wide range of personal knowledge. Throughout the series we have seen him as the medical examiner, an investigator, a psychological profiler, a doctor, as a part of the Sherlock Consortium for Investigation (aka The Sherlocks), a mentor, a son, a brother, and a friend.

Before joining NCIS, Ducky was born in Scotland and was a part of the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in the Vietnam War, Yugoslav Wars, and the Soviet invasion. We have gotten glimpses of Ducky's past in numerous episodes, including 12x03 "So It Goes", 13x11 "Spinning Wheel", and 14x10 "The Tie That Binds" where we saw him as a young man (played by Adam Campbell) struggling with some of life's biggest choices. He has many tales to share, he even wrote an auto-biography about his life. He never got married, however he considers NCIS to be his family.

He's known for being compassionate, not only with his co-workers, but with the dead as well. He always tries to find answers, and he's a fairly good judge of character. Why we love him? He's there for everyone, he's a father-figure to Palmer and welcomes all new team members, regardless of their previous employments.



"Only the dead know the true meaning of patience, Timothy. No
more places to go, people to see… except me of course."



David McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1933. He's the son of two musicians: a violinist and a celist. He first wanted to be an oboe player, but later on switched his studies for Dramatic Art at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He has been married 2 times, has 5 children and 6 grandchildren. He and his second wife, Katherine are supporters of the US Marine Corps, since Katherine's father was a Marine himself.

He's an accomplished actor who appeared in more than 100 different projects on both side of the ocean. He has been in the industry since 1953. Other than his role as Ducky in NCIS, his most well-known project was playing Illya Kryakin in the TV Series called The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Some of his other projects have included guest appearances on shows such as Hart to Hart, The A-Team, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Law and Order, and Sex and the City. He has also done voice work for some animated Batman movies (as Alfred Pennywort) and the teen cartoon series Ben 10 (as Professor Paradox). A fun fact: in '83 David played a major role in a Eastern German movie (Az aranyifjú - The Golden Boy) where he had a separate dub/voice actor as the movie was shot in Hungarian.

Beyond his acting work, David McCallum is a classically trained musician - instruments he can play include the oboe, English horn, guitar, and drums. In the 1960s he recorded four albums which were composed of instrumental interpretations of hits of the day. David is also an author, publishing his first crime novel in 2016; Once a Crooked Man. He is currently working on a second novel in the series.