A lot of actors have appeared on NCIS over the course of its 20+-year run, and outside of the main cast, the actor who has the most appearances under his belt is Joe Spano. He debuted as Tobias Fornell in the CBS show’s first episode, “Yankee White,” and most recently appeared in “A Thousand Yards,” the NCIS franchise’s 1,000th episode that tied back to the series’ 2003 launch. In total, Spano has played Fornell in 58 episodes of the flagship show, so he’s spent a lot of time with its leading actors, including Cote de Pablo .
In fact, the actress shared an emotional story about how Spano supported her before she left NCIS as a series regular. Cote de Pablo exited NCIS two episodes into Season 11, though she would later reprise Ziva David for a surprise guest appearance in the Season 16 finale, followed by recurring in Season 17. Shortly before she took her final bow as a series regular, de Pablo had a touching moment with Joe Spano, which she talked about when the Hill Street Blues alum stopped by Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch to chat with her and co-host Michael Weatherly , saying: I have to thank you for something because you were one of the few people when I left, whatever the reasons were, they were my own personal reasons.
You never cared what those reasons were. You were the only person that came up to me, and you gave me a huge hug and you said congratulations. And I will never forget that because that was so beautiful and you had no idea what I had gone th.