Donald "Ducky" Mallard

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Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard is a fictional Chief Medical Examiner in the NCIS television series by CBS Television, portrayed by David McCallum. Ducky is the British chief medical examiner who assists the team and has an eccentric habit of talking to the dead bodies upon which he performs autopsies.

He was educated at Eton and graduated from Edinburgh Medical School - he played cricket at both institutions.

Dr. Mallard worked for the British Police and many others before NCIS. He has many long and complicated stories about his long working experience and besides talking to dead bodies, his other idiosyncrasy is his tendency to ramble on about what he calls his "salad days" to anyone within earshot; in a season one episode it's revealed that one of his assistants (Gerald) has taken to wearing earplugs or MP3 player earphones when working with Mallard.

Mallard lives with his 96 year old mother, who suffers from Dementia. He never married and has no children; his only recorded date within seasons one and two ended with his date's arrest for manslaughter.

Ducky is very particular about crime scenes; he once pushed a French police officer off a cliff for disturbing a body before Ducky could attend to it. Fortunately, the cliff wasn't too steep and the nearby lake broke the officer's fall.

Ducky has a long unspoken history of friendship with Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, as demonstrated by the fact Ducky is the only one to call him "Jethro", and has stitched Gibbs up after violent attacks from ex-wives. He bonds well with rest of the team; particularly forensics specialist Abby Sciuto. He was assisted by Gerald who was later wounded in a shoot-out in the episode "Bete Noire"; he is now assisted by Jimmy Palmer.

Ducky drives a vintage Morgan roadster that he restored himself.

David McCallum's earlier portrayal of the Russian agent Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was brought up in a second season episode between two of the other characters:

Kate: "Gibbs? What did Ducky look like when he was younger?"
Gibbs: "Illya Kuryakin!"

Similarly, in a first season episode Abby is shown creating a computer-generated reconstruction of what Mallard might have looked like when he was younger; the image created was based upon a publicity photograph of McCallum from Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Ducky's age is uncertain. In one third season episode he is shown wearing medals on his dinner jacket, however they all appear to be of World War II vintage.

In the fourth season, it is revealed that Ducky is taking a course in forensic psychology and graduates prior to the third episode of the season in which he is shown using his new knowledge to profile a missing woman. Gibbs' sudden resignation at the end of season 3 and subsequent reinstatement led to a marked cooling off of the friendship between the two men, however they finally reconciled their differences in the episode "Smoked" in which it was revealed that Ducky's upset was due to Gibbs never telling him about his deceased first wife and daughter.

NCIS
Main Page | Episode List | Official website Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Current Characters
Leroy Gibbs | Tony DiNozzo | Ziva David | Timothy McGee | Abby Sciuto | Ducky Mallard | Jenny Shepard
Former Characters
Caitlin Todd | Ari Haswari | Chip Sterling