Anthony DiNozzo

Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo
Michael Weatherly as Tony DiNozzo
First appearance	"Ice Queen" (JAG)
Portrayed by	Michael Weatherly
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Senior Special Agent (NCIS) former Detective (BPD)

Anthony "Tony" D. DiNozzo is a fictional character from the NCIS television series by CBS Television. He is portrayed by Michael Weatherly.

Biography

Anthony DiNozzo is a streetwise, promiscuous former homicide detective. He is well known for his constant flirtation with nearly every woman he encounters. His behavior is chauvinistic. 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.

Although Tony is in his mid 30s (32 as of the episode "Split Decision"), he typically shows teenage behavior.He is 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, as can be seen in many episodes throughout the 6 seasons of the show. He often mimics the original actor when quoting them, such as Sean Connery's James Bond. He is also known to recite Tommy Lee Jones's speech from The Fugitive whenever they are looking for someone. Tony is a fan of the shows Magnum, P.I. and Airwolf, both also Donald Bellisario productions. In the episode "Dead Man Talking", he claims his name is "Stringfellow" when meeting with a suspect; Stringfellow was a character from the Bellisario series Airwolf, played by Jan Michael Vincent.

Although his immature behavior often gets Tony into trouble, he also demonstrates himself to be an insightful agent when the need arises, and on more than one occasion surprises 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. He is fairly adaptable and practical and is fluent in Spanish. Tony is heard speaking Spanish 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".

Tony was on the varsity basketball team at The Ohio State University. This team was apparently good, as he stated that they made it to the Final Four at one point before losing to UCLA. 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. He also mentions having broken his leg during the game. In the episodes "Bikini Wax" and "Trojan Horse", he mentions he is in Ohio State Alpha Chi Delta fraternity, class of 1989.

Tony claims to have 20/10 vision in the episode "Left for Dead", however, in the 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 drove a 1966 Ford Mustang until it was bombed.

The character is initially portrayed as a "technophobe", who like his superior has limited patience with the scientific method and technical terms. However, he can be seen to develop an aptitude for technology in later episodes, and is occasionally depicted hacking into computer systems.

At the end of the fifth season, Tony was reassigned by Director Vance as "Agent Afloat" to the USS Ronald Reagan and later to the USS Seahawk. Tony assumed that this was due to his involvement in the death of Director Shepard and the resulting cover-up, but was actually part of Director Vance's covert plan to uncover a mole within the agency; he was ultimately reassigned back to Gibbs' team. Because he blamed himself for Jenny's death, due to his respect for her privacy early in the episode "Judgment Day", he had a brief problem with alcohol abuse.

As seen in the fingerprint report on Abby's computer in the episode "Frame Up", his middle initial is "D" and his bloodtype is A+. In the episode "Blowback", when confronting "Goliath" on the plane about "ARES", Tony revealed that he was a Cancer.

In the episode "Aliyah", he, Gibbs and Ziva head to Israel after Tony kills Ziva's undercover boyfriend Michael Rivkin. This results in both Ziva and Tony no longer trusting one another.

Relationships

Women

Tony speaks at great length about women. 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 was attracted to 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. It is stated in the episode that 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. He also broke up with a Navy lieutenant (who had left her then fiance for him), shortly after Tony broke up with her, she posted his name, identity, and information on a herpes alert website.

The NCIS writers make reference to one of Michael Weatherly's real life relationships in the episode "Hiatus (Part 1)" when he states, "I’ve got a better chance of hooking up with Jessica Alba...". Weatherly's real life relationship with Alba occurred during his tenure on the television series Dark Angel.

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 that, she also snores very loudly in the 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; although Tony often senses that she is behind him when he doesn't see her at her desk.

In the episode "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 through season 5.

In the Season 4 episode "Singled Out", Ziva questioned Tony about an unidentified girlfriend. Subsequent episodes have established that Tony was 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 had been misreading some of his secrecy. Due to Tony's frequent clandestine visits to a hospital (where his girlfriend worked) and his claim that he was undergoing tests, Ziva indicated to Gibbs that she was worried that he might be having a medical problem related to his exposure to Y. pestis from the episode "SWAK". In the episode "Suspicion", she repeated her concern to Gibbs, who surprised her by suggesting Tony might have "other reasons" for the secrecy.

We also see that Ziva seems to be dropping hints seen in such episodes as "Identity Crisis" when she states that she thought Tony was ready for a "real" woman. There is a lot of tension between the two characters which only seems to build throughout the series.

In the episode "In The Zone", Ziva gets rather frustrated at the idea of Tony sharing a room with a fellow female agent.

In the episode "Agent Afloat", Ziva David hints to the fact that she misses him and then sees that Tony has three pictures of her in a bikini in his room. In the episode "Nine Lives", Tony shows an interest in Ziva's vacation to Israel despite the fact that she's only just returned. Upon finding a picture of a man on her desk, Tony's interest is deepened; not knowing that the man in the picture was Ziva's Mossad partner. Tony also tells her to have a good trip (Nisiya Tova) in Hebrew demonstrating his need to win her over. The episode "Cloak" reveals more about their relationship. When placed in a war game, Tony attempts to save Ziva from being shot (not knowing the bullets were fake) by guards who were confronting them. In doing so, Tony is set upon by the guards. When Tony was knocked unconscious in the fight, Ziva assaulted the guards before being knocked unconscious. They share an angry conversation in the elevator later on in the same episode, where Tony accuses Ziva of disobeying Gibbs' orders by engaging in combat. Defending her actions, Ziva more or less reveals that she only fought because she saw that Tony was injured. They both reveal that they are "tired of pretending". Tony explains that he is talking about the mole hunt, which required the team to withhold information from each other, but Ziva states no such modifiers. In the episode "Dagger", Tony reveals he has knowledge of a tattoo Ziva has that is in an intimate place on her body.

In the episode "Road Kill", Tony asks Ziva to see a midnight screening of Goodfellas with him; but she declines, instead staying behind and practicing her air guitar, privately.

Their relationship is seriously tested in the episode "Legend (Part 1)" when Tony suspects Ziva is being less than truthful with him; and in "Legend (Part 2)", he discovers Ziva is in a relationship with Mossad officer Michael Rivkin, an assassin who plays an important role in the story events. The penultimate episode "Semper Fidelis" sees a fight between DiNozzo and Rivkin, which ends with Rivkin's death. Although Tony claims self-defence, Ziva is furious, and the two have a confrontation of their own in the episode "Aliyah". Ziva elects to return to the Mossad, claiming she can no longer trust Tony; at the end of the episode, DiNozzo is seen considering calling her, but resigns himself to the fact that she is gone and "will call when she is ready."

Dr. Jeanne Benoit

In Season 4 we are introduced to Tony's new girlfriend, Dr. Jeanne Benoit (played by Scottie Thompson). 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 the episode "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. When questioned by Jeanne, Tony explains, "When you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." 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 the episode "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 refuses 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 the episode "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 the episode "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 the episode "Angel of Death", we learn that Jeanne's father is La Grenouille, (The Frog) the French arms dealer that NCIS Director Jenny Shepherd has been obsessively trying to capture for years.

However, in the episode "Bury Your Dead", 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, 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. The actual card with Jeanne's written missive is shown in the episode "Family."

In this episode, 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.

Jeanne makes a reappearance in the episode "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.

In a conversation with Tara Cole, Tony admits that since his relationship with Jeanne ended, he's been in a major slump with women, despite his continued bravado to his co-workeers; "real doctor, real love, real bad breakup".

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. In fact their bickering got so bad in the episode "Pop Life" that they sought counseling from Ducky (Gibbs and Abby turned them down and they have no respect for McGee). 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 (although he did go through Kate's 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 "Bête 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 full of gentle teasing and flirtation, and they bicker when competing (usually for Gibbs' attention, in a sibling rivalry manner). In extras seen on the Season 2 DVD Box Set, the producers stated it was 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 sometimes imagined her naked and presumably, she does become naked (off-screen) as we hear a scream.

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 was 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. The absence of Gibbs also allowed Tony to become closer because he interacted with the director much more when he took Gibbs' job, as seen in the episode "Shalom". Tony was particularly upset at director Shepard's death in the episode "Judgment Day (Part 1)". He considered the event to be his fault because he had followed the director's instruction to abandon her protection detail. In the episode "Agent Afloat", Ziva reveals that, in the aftermath of Jenny's death, Tony had been drinking out of guilt.

Fellow Male Officers

Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Tony greatly respects Gibbs and claims to have a father/son-type relationship with him, a feeling supported by the "tough love" Gibbs often demonstrates, like in the episode "Sandblast", when he said "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 the episode, "Missing". Although being smacked annoys Tony, it appears to be something he only allows from Gibbs; When Kate gives him a similar smack in the episode "Reveille" he reacts with momentary anger indicating only Gibbs is allowed to do that, and reacted in the same way when Ziva did it in the episode "Probie".

In the episode "Kill Ari (Part 1)", Gibbs starts "being nice" for about half the episode. The change in his demeanor bothers Tony, and he tells McGee: "He's not Gibbs if he's nice." Tony then makes up his mind to tick Gibbs off so that he will return to the way he previously was; upon his success at making an inappropriate comment towards the Director (at which Gibbs slaps him in his typical way), he welcomes Gibbs back, pleased.

Tony is very fond of Gibbs' odd interrogation technique, and has even named the technique, calling it "Rock The Baby", the suspect is placed 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.

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 (e.g. he called Ziva "Kate"). 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 the episode "Blowback", the undercover operation is revealed to Gibbs and Tony apologizes to him for not telling him about it.

Special Agent Timothy McGee

Tony's relationship with Timothy McGee could be considered 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 versions of "Probie", such as "Probie wan Kenobi", "Probie Pan", "Probie-san", and "Probalicious"). Some of Tony's other nicknames for McGee are plays on his name such as "McGeek", "McGoogle", "McKill Joy","McGoo" and "McNerd". In some cases the names refer to aspects of McGee's character, such as "McTardy", a reference to McGee being late, and "McCheat", a reference to McGee supposedly cheating at Scrabble. The only nickname that the rest of the team adopts, though, is "Elf Lord", noting McGee's fondness for online gaming. In the episode "Nine Lives", when McGee is having trouble researching the suspect's phone records, DiNozzo asks, "What are you McDoing, McGee" and "I thought you already McDid that McGee".

Contrary to appearances, though, Tony really does care for him on some level, as seen in the episode "Probie". Tony goes out of his way to support McGee and makes an effort to cheer him up; when McGee accidentally shoots an undercover police officer, Tony is the first one to try and make him feel better. 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. During Gibbs' absence however, McGee becomes the senior field agent as Tony is now team leader. At this time, Tony shows much more respect for McGee and confidence in his abilities.

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 (Maiden name Paddington) 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. It was the Louis XV inspired decor of his bedroom (canopy bed) that gave him nightmares of vampires when he was a child. She also drank Tony's Sea Monkeys, confusing their sea castles with her mint julep.

In the episode "Chained", he insinuates that his father is an alcoholic. Before telling his father about his day at school, he'd pour him three fingers of Macallan 18 (a Scotch) with one ice cube. In the episode "Witch Hunt", Tony told 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, as shown in the episode "Silver War".

His grandfather collected buttons (as a hobby) which were left to his cousin. He bequeathed Tony one thousand shares in a dot-com.

Tony's Uncle Vincenzo is a butcher on Long Island, as mentioned in the episode "Head Case". Another uncle was a successful businessman, but was found at a golf course looking for mole people. In the episode "South by South West", we hear about Tony's wealthy uncle Clive Paddington.