Anthony DiNozzo
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| NCIS character | |
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| Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Senior Special Agent (NCIS) former Detective (BPD)[1] |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Home city | Long Island |
| Actor | Michael Weatherly |
| First appearance | Ice Queen (JAG) |
| Last appearance | Current Character |
Anthony "Tony" D. DiNozzo is a senior investigator on the television series NCIS on CBS Television. He is portrayed by actor Michael Weatherly.[2]
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[edit] Character
Anthony DiNozzo is a streetwise former homicide detective[3]. He is well known for his constant flirtation with nearly every woman he encounters. Some may consider his behavior to be borderline chauvinistic and he is not a respecter of boundaries, thinking nothing of rifling through his colleagues' possessions and confidential information if he thinks this could be used as a source of amusement (for example, downloading details from a colleague's personal organizer without permission). He has an expensive taste in clothing evidenced by his love for designer names, particularly Ermenegildo Zegna. Though he is currently in his mid 30s,[4] he typically shows teenage behavior. [1] He is considered to be very loyal to his co-workers at NCIS, particularly his supervisor, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Tony delights in quoting movies in everyday life, often finding parallels between them and current situations. He often mimics the original actor when quoting them, such as Sean Connery's James Bond. Tony is a fan of the shows Magnum, P.I. and Airwolf, both also Donald Bellisario productions. In the episode "Dead Man Talking", he claimed his name was "Stringfellow" when meeting with a suspect. Stringfellow was a character from the Bellisario series, Airwolf played by Jan Michael Vincent.
Although his often-immature behavior has gotten Tony into his share of hot water, he has also demonstrated himself to be an insightful agent when the need arises, and on more than one occasion has surprised Gibbs and his teammates when an apparently immature action on his part actually causes (more often by design than by accident) new evidence to be uncovered.[5] He is fairly adaptable and practical, and is fluent in Spanish. Tony is heard speaking Spanish[6] in the NCIS episode "Marine Down" when Gibbs has Tony read a Spanish language newspaper. Tony translates Spanish e-mails while McGee reads from English replies in the episode "An Eye for An Eye".[7]
Tony stated a few times that he was on the varsity basketball team at Ohio State. This team was apparently good, as he stated that they made it to the Final Four at one point before losing to UCLA. [8] He also discusses a football game (episode "SWAK" 2005) which he played between his team (Ohio State) and his doctor's (Dr. Brad Pitt) team (Michigan). He comments that "we kissed our sisters", meaning that the game ended in a 13-13 tie. This would seem to reference the 1992 Michigan-Ohio State game which ended in a 13-13 tie. He also mentions having broken his leg during the game.
Tony claims to have 20/10 vision in "Left For Dead" but in the early first season episode "The Curse", he can be seen wearing glasses at his desk before promptly taking them off to talk to Gibbs. He also once donated to a sperm bank (but no one wanted to use his sperm). He also drives a manual car.[9]
The character is played as a "technophobe", who like his superior has limited patience with scientific method and technical terms.
At the end of the Fifth Season finale, Judgement Day (Part 2) Tony was reassigned by Director Vance as Agent Afloat to the USS Ronald Reagan because of his part in the death of Director Shepard, the resulting coverup and he blames himself for Jenny's death.
As seen in the finger print report on Abby's computer in Frame Up, his middle initial is D, making his full name Anthony D. Dinozzo.
[edit] Education and Work History
- Prep School - Rhode Island Military Academy
- Ohio State - BA in Physical Education
- Peoria, IL Police Department - 2 years
- Philadelphia, PA Police Department - 18 months
- Baltimore, MD Police Department - 22 months
- Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Washington D.C. - 7 years (as of season 5)[10]
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Women
Tony is almost constantly talking about his latest girlfriend... or his latest one-night stand. He pursues girls on a regular basis, typically indiscriminately (though he has shown an aversion to women who don't shave). Most of these relationships fail to progress past a certain point and he has admitted to have commitment issues.
One of the women he has dated turned out to be a terrorist working with Ari Haswari; another he was attracted to, and kissed, turned out to be a pre-operative transsexual who murdered one of his co-workers. He once dated a social worker named Michelle, who after he ended their relationship broke into his apartment and filled his closet with dog feces. Apparently Gibbs met Michelle once and gave Tony the advice to "run while he still had the chance". He also had a short relationship with NCIS Special Agent Paula Cassidy and once dated his high school music teacher.
[edit] Dr. Jeanne Benoit
In Season 4 we are introduced to Tony's new girlfriend, Dr. Jeanne Benoit (played by Scottie Thompson). Her name is pronounced "Zhahn Ben Wah." The name is French although Jeanne does not speak with an accent. Tony seems genuinely interested in her and has even told her that he is quietly searching for the right woman.
In "Twisted Sister" it is revealed that he and Jeanne have not consummated their relationship, because he wants to take it slow out of fear of this relationship becoming like his earlier ones. He even visits Director Shepard for advice on his relationship (her final advice is "What's stopping you?" and "Good luck."). Tony and Jeanne subsequently have sex in the episode "Smoked". He is really serious about this relationship and goes to great lengths, though often with a lot of inspiration from films, to make it special.
In the episode "Friends and Lovers", he shows how serious he is about the relationship when he confronts Jeanne about her previous boyfriend. Tony is suspicious of his constant calls and emails. Tony met this old boyfriend/ex-fiance, who was in fact a Metro Police Officer named John, though neither of them knew about the other's relationship with Jeanne. They bonded rather quickly through the fact that they were very similar in character, sharing many habits and traits, showing what taste Jeanne has in men and how serious this relationship could become. Unbeknownst to either Tony or Jeanne, John said good-bye to Jeanne in an email and died in Tony's arms.
In "Iceman", Tony and Jeanne go wall climbing. Jeanne makes a bet that the one that reaches the top first gets to say "I love you". Tony wins but fails to tell her. Jeanne later refuse to answer Tony's phone calls, which makes him worried. He goes to visit Jeanne, who is crying. She tells him that she loves him, but that he needs to figure out if he feels the same way about her and what it is he wants for their relationship.
In "Grace Period", Tony is told by his earlier love interest, Paula Cassidy, who had just lost two of her agents and blamed herself for their deaths, that if he loves someone, he should tell them while he still can. Cassidy throws herself into the path of a suicide bomber to save Gibbs' team. Tony is left standing distraught. He later goes to see Jeanne and tells her he loves her. The last shot we see is of Tony embracing Jeanne and crying on her shoulder, while REM's 'Everybody Hurts' plays in the background.
In "In The Dark", Jeanne gets evicted from her apartment. While Jeanne is having a melt down about finding a new place, Tony suggests that they get an apartment together.
In Season 4's finale, "Angel of Death", we learn that Jeanne's father is La Grenouille, the French arms dealer that NCIS Director Jenny Shepherd has been obsessively trying to capture for years.
However, by the end of the Season 5 opener, we come to find out that Tony was lying to Jeanne as part of an NCIS assignment (with a tie in to the CIA's operation LODESTONE) to infiltrate an arms smuggling network. Jeanne leaves Tony a greeting card in her apartment, as she has apparently left the Washington, D.C. area (perhaps aided by her father, before he was killed), while the card is never read out loud, it is clear from the interaction between Tony and Ziva that his relationship with Jeanne is probably over.
In the episode "Family", Tony is struggling with how his relationship with Jeanne ended and throughout the episode has flashbacks on the relationship. Ziva tries to console Tony but he rejects her attempts insisting that he is "fine". At the end of the episode we see what was in the greeting card Jeanne left for Tony and it says "I am not coming back. You need to choose." After looking at a family reunited with their newborn baby, Tony tosses the card into the fire and joins the team, seemingly picking the team over any chance he had at all with getting back together with Jeanne.
She makes a reappearance in "Internal Affairs" when she accuses Tony of murdering her father. It is later revealed she just blamed him. At the end of the episode, though Tony was mad at her for accusing him, Ziva tells him to be a man and tell her what she needs to hear. He pulls Jeanne aside, and apologizes for her getting caught in the middle of something that wasn't her fault. She asks him if any of it was real, after a pause he answers, "No." She then tells him she wishes she had never met him.
[edit] Special Agent Caitlin Todd
Tony's relationship with Kate Todd was in many ways a sibling relationship, but with a constant undertone of flirtation and the possibility of something more. Tony and Kate constantly competed, very similar dynamics to his relationship to Ziva David. However, on many occasions he is shown being considerate, kind and even borderline romantic to Kate. He buys her flowers as a peace offering after annoying her (even if he did go through her purse and get the number for the florist from her PDA to do so) in the episode "Vanished". He shows concern for her after the episode "Bete Noire", when Kate was held hostage by Ari (in the same episode he also talks about falling in love while talking to Kate, hinting that he may have feelings for her). In the episode "The Bone Yard", Tony is almost possessive of Kate when McGee poses the idea of pretending to be Kate's partner to get into a paternity clinic to photograph evidence for Abby; saying he will do it instead of McGee (his typical DiNozzo excuse being 'Do you think anyone would really believe you slept with Kate?'). Later in the same episode, he tells Kate he thought they made a good couple; to which she replied 'Maybe for the Jerry Springer show'. Their relationship is built on gentle teasing and flirtation, though they bicker when competing (usually for Gibbs' attention, in a sibling rivalry manner). In extras seen on Season 2 DVD Box Sets, it is shown that the producers intended for there to be a relationship between these two characters.
In the episode "Witness", Tony tries to strangle Kate whilst doing an experiment.
After Kate's death, like the other characters, DiNozzo also had a vision of her postmortem. To him, she appeared in the Catholic schoolgirl uniform that he had been asking about (A reference to an earlier episode in which Tony teases Kate with a wet t-shirt contest photo) and tells him about how she's dead and all he can think about are his own sexual fantasies. At this point, Tony points out that he once dreamed of her naked and presumably, she does become naked (off-screen) as we hear a scream.
[edit] Mossad Officer Ziva David
His relationship with Kate's successor, Ziva David, has been sort of a cat and mouse relationship with an unspoken attraction between them. The two also often try to outdo each other in verbal and physical competitions. Ziva taunts Tony in much the same way Caitlin Todd did before she was killed. Some aspects of Ziva's personality disturb him, such as the fact that she sleeps with a gun in her hand (in addition to snoring very loudly, as shown in the Season 3 episode "Under Covers). Ziva also intimidates Tony; she is the only one other than Gibbs who can sneak up behind him without him realizing it.
In "Shalom", Ziva learns that Mossad, apparently on her father's orders, has been spying on her for several months; the surveillance reveals that Tony has been visiting Ziva at her apartment at least once a week for the past 3 months, leading to suggestions that the two have become intimate. She neither confirms nor denies the implication in the episode. The reason for his frequent visits are unrevealed as yet.
In the Season 4 episode entitled "Singled Out", Ziva questions Tony about an unidentified girlfriend. Subsequent episodes have established that Tony is building a relationship with medical doctor Jeanne Benoit and no apparent romantic link exists between him and Ziva. Nonetheless, it was suggested in several episodes that Ziva might be jealous of his new girlfriend, until the episode "Driven" revealed that Ziva was in fact unaware of Tony's romance, and she has been misreading some of his secrecy. Due to Tony's frequent clandestine visits to a hospital (where his girlfriend works) and his claim that he's undergoing tests, Ziva indicates to Gibbs that she is worried that he might be having a medical problem related to his exposure to Y. pestis from Season 2 episode "SWAK". In "Suspicion", she repeats her concern to Gibbs, who surprises her by suggesting Tony might have "other reasons" for the secrecy.
[edit] NCIS Director Jenny Shepard
In the fourth season, Tony's relationship with Jenny Shepard appears to have warmed considerably in comparison to the end of the third season, with DiNozzo occasionally being caught referring to her by her first name. The main reason for warming of their relationship is the fact that Tony is involved in an ongoing operation run by Shepard, which is of personal importance to her. As they are keeping secrets, they develop a strong level of trust, which is hard to do without faith in the other person. The absence of Gibbs also allowed Tony to become closer because he interacted with the director much more when he took Gibbs' job. Tony was particularly upset at director Shepard's death in the 5th season finale.
[edit] Fellow Male Officers
[edit] Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs
He greatly respects Gibbs and claims to have a father/son-type relationship with him, a feeling supported by the "tough love" Gibbs often demonstrates "((Sandblast) 'my son Tony')". Tony is easily riled when it seems that Gibbs has a new favorite (though this may stem from his competitiveness) and tries desperately to win back favor. Gibbs has the tendency to smack Tony on the back of the head whenever he says or does something inappropriate, however Gibbs told Tony that he was 'irreplaceable' in "Missing". Although being smacked annoys Tony, it also appears to be something he has come to expect from his boss; when Kate gives him a similar smack in the season 1 finale "Reveille" he reacts with momentary anger indicating only Gibbs is allowed to do that.
Tony is very fond of Gibbs' odd interrogation technique, placing the suspect in a cold, dimly lit interrogation room for an extremely long time, then just as the guy starts to zone out, he bursts in the door and rifles off some questions. Tony has even named the technique, calling it "Rock The Baby."
After Gibbs left at the end of season 3, Tony took his place as team leader. As leader, he tried to emulate Gibbs' leadership style, but he did make some changes. These included calling "Campfire" discussions (an impromptu sharing of current information among his fellow agents, which his peers found annoying), and reorganizing the equipment in the field truck. In season 4, Gibbs returns initially to close some loose ends from previous encounters of his, but eventually returns to run the team again. When Tony is offered his own team in Rota, Spain, he turns the offer down. He claims he wants to keep an eye on Gibbs, whose memory is still sketchy after the blast at the end of season 3. Gibbs indicates his belief that Tony is ready for his own team, even though he is unaware of the fact that Tony was offered his own team in the first place.
During the time Gibbs was away, Tony began working on an undercover operation with Director Shepard. Gibbs, unaware of the operation and noticing an unusual closeness between Tony and the director, questions the relationship. In "Blowback", the undercover op is revealed to Gibbs and Tony apologizes to him for not telling him about it.
[edit] Special Agent Timothy McGee
Tony, himself, considers his relationship with Timothy McGee to be abusive. Part of this could be considered hazing, as McGee is the least experienced member of the NCIS team and ranks only as a junior field agent. For example, when McGee joined the team as a probationary Special Agent, Tony began calling him "Probie" (including takeoffs on "Probie", such as "Probie wan Kenobi" and "Probalicious".) Others of his nicknames for McGee are "McGeek", "McBarfbag", "McNerd", "McGoogle", "McFlower Power", "McSneaky", "McFreaky", "McGruff" or "McGoo". In later episodes Tony has referred to McGee as "McTardy" (a reference to McGee being late) and "McCheat" (a reference to McGee supposedly cheating at Scrabble.) In one episode, (under the influence of painkillers) Tony referred to him as "McGiggle","McObie Wan Kenobi", and, on another occasion, "McProbious", as well as "McZero". In one episode he also refers to McGee as "McRomeo". In the episode "Judgement Day" Tony refers to McGee as "The Great McGauz" after McGee agrees with Tony on a subject that he and Ziva were arguing about.
Contrary to appearances, though, Tony really does care for him on some level. In an episode from the third season called "Probie", Tony goes out of his way to support McGee and makes an effort to cheer him up. At one point, after McGee has expressed his chagrin at being called "Probie", Gibbs tells him that his first senior agent still calls him "Probie" and suggests that it is not a sign of distaste or disrespect.
[edit] Family
Tony comes from a wealthy family from Long Island, New York. He is an only child and cut off from his family's fortune (a nod to Weatherly's own father cutting him off when he went into acting). His mother is dead and his father has remarried several times.
His mother went through a "Louis XV phase" when he was five, made him take piano lessons and dressed him as a sailor until he was ten years old. She also drank Tony's Sea Monkeys, confusing their sea castles with her mint julep.
In a second season episode season entitled "Chained" it is insinuated that his father is an alcoholic. A fourth season episode titled "Witch Hunt" had Tony telling McGee that after his father found out that he used one of his expensive ski suits to make a Halloween costume "he couldn't sit down until Christmas", indicating that his father spanked him badly as part of the punishment.
His father is an American Civil War reenactor, and during reenactments Tony carried the "poop bucket". He now is upset by anything to do with the Civil War, according to the third season episode "Silver War").
Tony's Uncle Vincenzo is a butcher on Long Island, also according to a third season episode "Head Case"). Another uncle was a successful businessman, but was found at a golf course looking for mole people [11].
[edit] References
- ^ USA Network -Character Profile: Anthony Dinozzo
- ^ CBS Bio of Michael Weatherly
- ^ "Ice Queen". JAG. CBS. 2003-04-22.
- ^ "UnSEALed". NCIS. CBS. 2004-04-06.
- ^ "Heart Break". NCIS. CBS. 2004-10-30.
- ^ "Meltdown". JAG. CBS. 2003-04-29.
- ^ "Witness". NCIS. CBS. 2005-02-15.
- ^ "Dead Man Talking". NCIS. CBS. 2004-04-27.
- ^ "Bury Your Dead". NCIS. CBS. 2007-09-25.
- ^ "The Curse". NCIS. CBS. 2003-10-28.
- ^ "Conspiracy Theory". NCIS. CBS. 2005-04-12.
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