In 2014, Adam Campbell guest starred in the NCIS Season 12 episode “So It Goes” as Donald “Ducky” Mallard in his younger years. He reprised the character originated by the late David McCallum three more times on that series, then returned to the role earlier this week on NCIS: Origins. I spoke with Campbell on behalf of CinemaBlend prior to “The Edge” premiering on the 2025 TV schedule, and he told me a sweet story about when he met McCallum after first being cast as the younger Ducky.
Much like how Austin Stowell, who plays NCIS: Origins’ Leroy Jethro Gibbs, has spent time with Mark Harmon, Adam Campbell had multiple encounters with David McCallum before the latter passed away in September 2023. This came up when I asked Campbell about if he felt the need to more closely emulate McCallum’s Ducky performance as his version of the character gets older, which led to him recalling:
That’s a really good question. When I first got the job… David, first of all, he was brilliant. He phoned me immediately the minute I got the job and said, ‘Let’s have lunch.’ So we talked for a long time about how I should do the role compared to how he does it, and he was very keen on me not doing an impression of him, which was a really helpful thing to hear. He was like, ‘I don’t think it’s worth you doing an impression of David McCallum playing Ducky. Let’s try and find what the essence of Ducky is, and then you, Adam, bring your own personality into it.’
By the time Adam Campbell made his first appearance as Ducky, David McCallum had already been playing the eccentric medical examiner for over a decade. He debuted alongside Mark Harmon’s Gibbs, Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo and Pauley Perrette’s Abby Sciuto in the JAG episodes “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown,” which functioned as the NCIS backdoor pilot. So because McCallum been inhabiting the role for so long, he felt comfortable telling Campbell not to just simply mimic what he’d been doing as Ducky.
That said, Adam Campbell went on to tell me that there were still a few guidelines that David McCallum instructed him to follow when playing Dr. Donald Mallard. Campbell continued:
It was a very kind thing for him to say because it took a lot of pressure off me, and it was also very respectful to me to say, ‘Hey, listen, Adam, bring your own instincts, do how you want to do it.’ But there were a few non-negotiables that David said I need to find, and I think some of that is, don’t forget his background, but then also remember that he does like to find the comedy in things. He likes to find a lighter side in things, so don’t be afraid to look for the humor in a heavy scene. So that was something that David encouraged in me.
Five months after David McCallum died, NCIS aired a tribute episode to both honor him and bid farewell to Ducky, who passed away in his sleep. The character is now honored on the show by his old office becoming the Dr. Donald Mallard Memorial Multi-Purpose Room. But that doesn’t mean we can’t see more of Adam Campbell playing Ducky. NCIS: Origins is currently set in 1992, so there’s an 11-year gap between “The Edge” and the aforementioned JAG episodes. Let’s hope the prequel series finds more ways to bring Campbell back, having him keep wearing McCallum’s original Ducky hat and shed more light on his pre-NCIS life.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, sandwiched between NCIS and NCIS: Sydney. The next episode will introduce Mike Franks’ brother, Mason, and the week after, the series will briefly switch to the 8 p.m. ET timeslot for its crossover with NCIS.
