Every NCIS Character Who's Been Killed Off The Show

From the moment "NCIS" hit television screens in 2003, the "JAG" spin-off has proved immensely popular with viewers. Throughout its 20-year run, the show has largely followed Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team of Special Agents at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as they solve major cases and track down a variety of criminals. Carefully blending police procedural elements with military drama, the show has established itself in popular culture due to its longevity and continuing high quality.

But the fact that it has been on the air for so long also means that its cast has changed significantly over the years — even Mark Harmon has now departed the show. This means that the writers have had to come up with ways to bring character arcs to an end to explain why they are no longer part of the show.

Thankfully, that is not a particularly difficult task considering that the entire premise of the show sees the NCIS team in a number of dangerous situations — battling against terrorists, serial killers, and other violent criminals who are willing to kill to escape justice. Even the Special Agents themselves are willing to do some pretty questionable things that often land them in tricky situations, and many have met untimely and grisly ends. This is every NCIS character who has been killed off the show so far.

Jennifer Shepard began her career as an NCIS Special Agent but eventually rose through the ranks to become the director of the organization. Joining the show in Season 3, she was the daughter of Colonel Jasper Shepard (Webster Williams) and she replaced Thomas Morrow (Alan Dale) following his resignation after the death of Caitlin Todd in Season 2. A no-nonsense leader, she was a dedicated and strict director who pushed her colleagues to become the best they could be.

Played by actor Lauren Holly, Shepard eventually met her end in Season 5 after more than 80 episodes on the show. She was killed during a shootout with a number of assailants in a diner that she had visited in the hopes of finding who was responsible for killing Special Agent William Decker (Mark Vahanian). According to Holly, her role was only initially meant to be a temporary part (via Smashing Interviews Magazine) and she explained on her personal blog that she was no longer enjoying her time on the show. She went on to say: "To be honest, now that the work bug had bitten me again, I got bored with my part of the director."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III" and "Inception" star Tim Kelleher is the man who brought the character of Special Agent Christopher Pacci to life in "NCIS." Often operating alone, he was largely responsible for cold cases, working on solving crimes that had been open for years or even decades. Despite being a hard-working part of the team, the character had a relatively short-lived time on the show.

Pacci made his final appearance during the Season 1 episode "Dead Man Talking" while he was investigating a cold case without any backup. On the case of a former Navy Lieutenant Commander known as Hamilton Voss (Jamie Luner) — who had stolen $10 million before his sudden death — Pacci discovered that Voss was still alive and well. He had faked his death and undertaken sex reassignment to try and evade justice. Now living as Amanda Reed, she shot Pacci in the head and went as far as to disembowel him to keep her secret safe. Leroy Gibbs eventually manages to corner Reed, shooting and killing her as she reaches for her gun.

Special Agent Brent Langer is another character that didn't last particularly long on "NCIS." Making his debut in the Season 5 episode "Tribes," he would appear until "Last Man Standing" in Season 6, meeting his demise during the episode. The character was played by Jonathan LaPaglia, who has also appeared in the likes of "S.W.A.T." and Seven Days," and was a key player in the overarching mole storyline during Season 6.

In fact, it was this storyline that led to his death. Langer had come under suspicion as the potential mole leaking information and was determined to prove his innocence by uncovering the real double agent. The person responsible for killing Langer was none other than Michelle Lee (Liza Lapira), arguably one of the more popular villains in the history of "NCIS." When Langer discovered that she was the mole, she quickly killed him to keep her secret. Leroy Gibbs and the rest of the NCIS team did manage to clear his name and find some justice for him by bringing down Lee and her accomplices.

Special Agent Lara Macy is somewhat unusual as she was not actually a major regular character in "NCIS" but rather part of the main cast of spin-off series "NCIS: Los Angeles." "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Louise Lombard portrayed her across both series, with Macy making occasional appearances in the main show as part of special crossover events. A former military police officer, she had hidden important evidence about the death of Pedro Hernandez (Thomas Rosales Jr.) — a Mexican drug lord who had murdered Leroy Gibbs' wife — in order to protect Gibbs.

Having left her team in Los Angeles to head up an undercover operation in the French city of Marseille, she was subsequently killed upon returning to the U.S. Her actual murder was not shown at the time but the Season 7 episode "Patriot Down" revealed that burnt and mutilated remains found by the NCIS team belonged to Macy. She had been killed by men associated with Hernandez who wanted revenge against Gibbs and those who had worked with him.

One of the most short-lived characters in "NCIS" was Special Agent Gayne Levin. He joined the show around the time of former NFL player Matt Willig, who portrayed Simon Cade. Played by Alimi Ballard, Levin worked closely with Jane Barret (Sarah Jane Morris) as part of her Major Crime Response Team. Along with Cade, the small group worked to track down the Port-to-Port Killer. Before joining NCIS, he was formerly a member of the covert black ops organization known as Phantom Eight.

Only present for three episodes of the series, Kevin was shot and killed by the Port-to-Port Killer — whose real name is Jonas Cobb — in a gunfight during the episode "Swan Song." The rest of the NCIS members investigating the criminal avenge his death in the very next episode "Pyramid." Actor Alimi Ballard is no stranger to police procedurals, having appeared extensively as an FBI agent in "Numb3rs" and as a different character in "NCIS: Los Angeles" in 2020.

Eli David, the Mossad Director played by Michael Nouri — and also Ben Morrison as a younger version of the character — was first introduced in the Season 6 episode "Last Man Standing." As the leader of Israel's intelligence agency, he interacts with members of NCIS as they collaborate to track down terrorist threats and moles leaking information to other foreign powers. David played a major role in the series not only through his actions but also because of his influence. After all, he was the father of three other important figures in the series: Ziva David, Tali David, and Ari Haswari.

The character is shot and killed during a shootout in the Season 10 episode "Shabbat Shalom." Attending a secret meeting with Iranian ambassador Arash Kazmi (Nasser Faris) to try and find a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. He is killed during the gunfire along with Jackie Vance, with his daughter Ziva pursuing the perpetrator — who then dies by suicide as a result of taking cyanide before he can be questioned.

Among the many deaths in the fictional "NCIS" universe, Clayton Jarvis' stands out as he was not part of the military but rather the government as he acts as Secretary of the Navy in the United States. Actor Matt Craven plays the senior figure, who made his debut in the crime drama in the Season 8 episode "Pyramid." He is a friend of NCIS Director Leon Vance and has a major role throughout the mole storyline involving Simon Cade and Jane Barrett. Jarvis was also the man responsible for appointing Anthony DiNozzo to investigate the NCIS leaker.

Making infrequent appearances in the series following his introduction, Jarvis eventually met his end in Season 11, Episode 1. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" opened with a bomb detonating in Washington D.C. and killing several people, among them the Secretary of the Navy. The attack was perpetrated by a terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood of Doubt who are targeting Leroy Gibbs and his associates.

Diane Sterling — played by "Mad Men" actor Melinda McGraw — is in a unique position within the "NCIS" universe due to the fact that she has close connections with a number of important characters. Most notably, she is the ex-wife of series protagonist Leroy Sterling but she had also been married to FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell — with whom she has a child called Emily — and Homeland Security Agent Victor Sterling. Viewers first get a chance to see Diane in "Devil's Triangle" during Season 9 when it is revealed she had previously worked for the IRS.

In later seasons, Sterling returns to the IRS, this time as a criminal investigator. Yet, her new career comes to an end in the Season 12 episode "Check." Sterling visits Gibbs at a crime scene and is shot and killed in a very similar way to how Special Agent Caitlin Todd had been murdered in Season 2. This is part of a spate of copycat killings that the NCIS investigates.

NCIS Director Thomas Morrow is first introduced to viewers during the two "JAG" episodes that acted as a backdoor pilot for "NCIS." As the director, he has overall responsibility for the operations of the entire NCIS division and is the superior that all the other Special Agents report to. Alan Dale played the character throughout his entire run on the show — although Morrow stepped back from his role to take up a position within the Department of Homeland Security. A former Rear Admiral in the Navy, he returns to the show in Season 10 following a long absence, reprising his Homeland Security role in the episode "Chasing Ghosts."

The former NCIS Director was almost killed during an attack in the Season 11 episode "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," when a bomb planted by the Brotherhood of Doubt explodes and kills Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis. Two episodes later, in "Return to Sender," the NCIS discovers Morrow's corpse, which has been shot in the head by a sniper rifle. Jacob Scott is initially blamed for the death but it becomes clear in later episodes that it was actually a former CIA agent known as Trent Kort who pulled the trigger.

Damon Dayoub's character Adam Eshel is a figure that is first seen in the Season 10 episode "Berlin." His appearance makes sense as the team is investigating the death of a Mossad agent and Eshel works for Shin Bet, Israel's own internal secret security service. Ziva David contacts him for information and he becomes a close ally of hers. Due to the fact that he knows David well, he is able to assist the NCIS team somewhat when they are trying to track her down during Season 11.

Despite only making sporadic appearances in "NCIS," he had a significant part to play in several key events before finally meeting his end in Season 17. The episode "The North Pole" sees Eshel being captured and tortured by allies of a terrorist known as Sahar who is trying to find the location of Ziva David. The character dies shortly after being found by David and Leroy Gibbs but passes on vital information about the identity of Sahar.

Although Breen Palmer (Michelle Pierce) was never part of the main cast of "NCIS," she did appear in seven episodes of the police procedural. Viewers were introduced to the character in the Season 7 episode "Mother's Day" when the rest of the NCIS team meet her as the girlfriend of James Palmer. A mortician, she is related to several other characters seen on the show, including Ed Slater, Stevie Slater, and Victoria Elizabeth Palmer.

Palmer's death is unique in that her death was not depicted in "NCIS" due to any sort of violence. Instead, the character died as a result of being infected with COVID-19. According to the writers of the show, they wanted to use the death of the character to help drive new storylines forward and act as a way of adding more depth to medical examiner James Palmer as he deals with life as a single parent while grieving (via ET).