Jamie Lee Curtis' NCIS Character Explained

Summary Jamie Lee Curtis played Dr. Samantha Ryan on NCIS, a headstrong character who is not afraid to bend the rules to get what she wants.

Curtis and Mark Harmon, her co-star from Freaky Friday, reunited on NCIS, showcasing their excellent chemistry once again.

Curtis had a short but impactful character arc on the show, bringing an important romantic storyline to Gibbs' character and providing a contrast to his gruff demeanor.

Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis appears in NCIS for a small but notable role. NCIS is one of the longest-running TV shows of all time and is a classic of procedural TV. Following the special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS depicts a fictional group of law enforcement agents who investigate and prosecute criminal activities involving the US Navy and Marines. NCIS first premiered in 2003, and throughout its 20 seasons, dozens of guest actors have appeared for small arcs and scenes.

Jamie Lee Curtis has been acting in television and movies since 1977, first appearing in an episode of the medical mystery Quincy, M.E. A year later, Curtis would be cast in John Carpenter's Halloween and immediately become one of the premiere final girls in horror history. Her career was off to a hot start, and roles in Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Freaky Friday, and Knives Out followed. In 2022, she won a long overdue Academy Award for her supporting role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Between these, she found time for guest spots on TV shows like NCIS.

Related NCIS Season 22: Confirmation & Everything We Know NCIS has become a bona fide TV institution in its two decades on the air, and now the beloved procedural is slated to return for season 22.

Jamie Lee Curtis Played Dr. Samantha Ryan On NCIS

Samantha Ryan Appears In Five Episodes Of NCIS

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Jamie Lee Curtis appears in season 9 of NCIS, first in episode 16, "Psyche Out". Curtis plays Dr. Samantha Ryan, the head of the Department of Defense's PsyOps Division, and appears to go back a long time with some of the other NCIS characters. While Samantha is happy to help Leroy Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team, she also is not above some covert operations to keep herself in the loop.

Curtis' smart, cheeky acting gives a nice contrast to the more gruff Gibbs.

She even bugs Gibb's home to stay abreast of a murder investigation the agents are not giving her the full story on. But Samantha and Gibbs develop a rapport during her stay on the show. At first, Samantha doesn't necessarily trust the Special Agent in Charge, but she eventually decides that he "makes people feel safe."

She appears in four more episodes in season 9, all the while getting closer to Gibbs. However, her final appearance in season 9, episode 24 "Till Death Do Us Part", sees her violent ex-husband released from jail, forcing Samantha to flee with her young son. It was a short character arc, but it gave an important romantic storyline to Gibbs' character and Curtis' smart, cheeky acting gives a nice contrast to the more gruff Gibbs.

Curtis Reunited With Her Freaky Friday Co-Star Mark Harmon For NCIS

A Sequel To Freaky Friday With Curtis And Lindsay Lohan Is In Development

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NCIS was not the first time Curtis and Harmon had acted together. In Freaky Friday, Curtis plays Tess Coleman, the mother (and also a psychologist), and Harmon plays Tess' fiancé, Ryan, and the pair once again had excellent chemistry. When Harmon announced his retirement from NCIS in 2021, Curtis took to Instagram to congratulate her friend. In her post, she had nothing but good things to say about Harmon and her time on NCIS, fondly recalling her favorite line with him, "Practice makes perfect," an apt line for either of these talented and prolific actors.

Curtis is actually set to reprise her role in a Freaky Friday sequel. She and Lindsay Lohan are the only original cast members confirmed to reprise their roles in the movie sequel so far, but it's possible Harmon could make an appearance there, reuniting the two cast members again. Curtis and Lohan are set to swap places with Lohan's character's daughter and her best friend in a movie set decades after their first movie.

Related 10 NCIS Spinoffs We Want To See After The Tony & Ziva Show The upcoming Tony & Ziva NCIS spinoff is an exciting prospect for fans of the show, and it opens the door to many more potential series.

Jamie Lee Curtis' Recent Return To TV Might Be Her Best Work

Curtis Guest Stars In The Bear

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Though Jamie Lee Curtis is best known for her roles in movies, NCIS isn’t her only TV role as of late. Curtis also appears in the hit drama The Bear which follows Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a man who returns to his hometown of Chicago after training to be a chef and working in Michelin-star restaurants. He returns due to the death of his brother to take over his brother’s long-running restaurant. Curtis plays Carmy's mother in flashbacks, and the role is some of her best work.

She is, however, the storm that the family revolves around in the flashback episode...

Curtis has often played the heroine or the successful parent in her past roles. It’s very rare for her to play a villain or an antagonist of any kind. That’s not to say that Carmy’s mother Donna is a villain. She is, however, the storm that the family revolves around in the flashback episode that gives a look at The Bear holiday dinner in which she crashed her car into the house.

Donna gets a lot of mentions in the show before Curtis makes her debut as the character, giving the actor a lot to live up to, and she delivers. Donna’s substance use and mood swings caused a chaotic environment for her children who desperately tried to keep an eye on her and avoid making her angry. In flashbacks, it looks as though Sugar bore the brunt of that, but her brothers dealt with their fair share of Donna’s stormy nature as well.

Curtis plays the character as a loving mother who is also sitting just on the edge at all times. The more she drinks while preparing dinner, the louder she becomes, the more erratic her behavior is, and the less patience she has for any of the family members. Curtis always feels like a woman just about to blow, and she manages to make the character feel real instead of like a caricature of someone in a fragile state.

Curtis’ performance in the series has made The Bear fans eager to see the former NCIS guest star in the role again.