Very Special Agent Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo, played by Michael Weatherly, was a staple of the crime drama NCIS for the first thirteen seasons of the show. He was well known for his goofy nature, for being somewhat of a womanizer, and for his near-constant stream of movie references.
Tony generally maintained close relationships with his colleagues, though his family life for a time was strained. He tended to be more interested in snooping around in other people’s lives, but he also was fairly open about his personal life, with the exception of his relationship with his father for the first seven seasons. Nonetheless, here are ten facts you may not know about DiNozzo.
His Mom Died When He Was Eight
Like his boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, he lost his mother at a young age. And again, like Gibbs, the death of his mother resulted in a strained relationship with his father. During a confrontation with his father, Anthony DiNozzo, Senior, in the twelfth episode of season seven, DiNozzo mentioned that his father shipped him off to various boarding schools and summer camps.
In the same episode, it is revealed that his father apparently also left him in a hotel room in Maui for two straight days while he left for the mainland to close a business deal.
He Was Rejected More Times Than He Knows
In the tenth episode of season three, DiNozzo told Ziva David that he donated sperm during his freshman year of college because “it was easier than giving blood.” Before the start of the episode, he received a letter from the sperm bank asking him to contact them as soon as he could. He spent a good part of the episode attempting to contact them, and when he finally got through, he learned that no one had used his sperm and the bank has decided to get rid of it.
The bank did not provide an exact number, but since DiNozzo was in his thirties, he had nearly two decades of women reject him without even knowing about it.
He Played Varsity Basketball In College
In the sixteenth episode of season one, while DiNozzo flirted with a woman named Amanda Reed, a potential witness or suspect for the case the team was working, he mentioned being in the Final Four during his time at Ohio State.
He brought up his time on the basketball team at Ohio State when he met Dr. Brad Pitt (no relation) in the twenty-second episode of season two, during which Dr. Pitt treated DiNozzo for Y. Pestis, or pneumonic plague. He and Dr. Pitt talked about their time on their college basketball teams, and it is revealed that Dr. Pitt broke DiNozzo’s leg during a game between their two schools.
He Had An Aversion To Civil War Reenactments
In the fourth episode of season three, the team solved the death of a marine who was encased in a Civil War-era tomb. The case required the team to investigate civil war artifacts at the Smithsonian, where the case was held, and investigate the site of a Civil War reenactment.
During their time investigating these places, DiNozzo mentioned that his father also participated in Civil War reenactments and forced him to carry the poop bucket for the reenactments, which resulted in his dislike for the Civil War, particularly its reenactments.
He Had Nightmares About Vampires As A Kid
In the sixteenth episode of season one, he and Kate Todd discussed nightmares they had as kids. DiNozzo said that he only had nightmares about vampires, and credited his mother’s Louis XV style furniture for the nightmares. These nightmares fueled his childhood fear of vampires.
Because of his womanizing nature and the lore of vampires being seducers and seductresses, Kate teased him by saying the vampires must have been all been women. DiNozzo neither confirmed nor denied the gender of the vampires, which likely had no influence on his fear in spite of what Kate said.
He Had Pet Sea Monkeys
In the twentieth episode of season three, DiNozzo and Ziva discussed pets, as the victim in the case they were working had a cat whose fur got all over DiNozzo’s jacket. DiNozzo told Ziva that the only pets he had were sea monkeys. He implied that he didn’t think they counted because they were just brine shrimp that swam around in green water. He added that his mom drank the sea monkeys, mistaking them for her mint julep.
Later in the episode, Ziva referenced DiNozzo’s mom accidentally drinking his sea monkeys by saying that the barbecue sandwich she ordered tasted like a monkey.
He Got His Nice Apartment For Cheap
At the beginning of the twenty-first episode of season thirteen, McGee was apartment hunting for himself and his then-girlfriend, (later wife) Delilah. He complained of the price of apartments to Ellie Bishop, who had also recently had to apartment hunt. DiNozzo did not share their grievances, which made the two suspicious about what he paid for his place.
McGee and Bishop then spent the rest of the episode, alongside apartment hunting and case solving, trying to figure out how and why DiNozzo got his apartment for way under its market value. Due to Gibbs, Abby, and FBI Agent Tobias Fornell knowing about the apartment, McGee was able to learn about the triple homicide that occurred in the apartment. DiNozzo confirmed this fact upon McGee confronting him.
The Show Referenced Michael Weatherly’s Personal Life
In the twenty-third episode of season three, DiNozzo led the team’s investigation of a terrorist group and the bombing of a ship while Gibbs was in a coma. While briefing Special Agent Sam Stevens in MTAC, DiNozzo commented that he had a better chance of “hooking up with Jessica Alba” than the terrorist group did of infiltrating SeaLift.
Michael Weatherly once costarred in the series Dark Angel alongside Jessica Alba, who played his love interest on the show, and who he also dated in real life. However, this reference was made long after Weatherly and Alba’s relationship had ended.
He Left Baltimore P.D. Because Of His Partner
In the twenty-second episode of season eight, DiNozzo and the rest of the team had to solve the murder of his old partner, Danny Price, from Baltimore P.D. The episode showed a series of flashbacks of the last case he and Price worked together.
The last homicide the two worked involved a money laundering scheme that Gibbs happened to be working, and DiNozzo eventually figured out that Price was involved in the laundering. DiNozzo refused to turn his partner in, but also decided to leave the department because he didn’t want to be around a dirty cop. Gibbs immediately offered him a job at NCIS.
Tate Could Have Been Canon
When Kate Todd was still on the team, some of the fans shipped her and DiNozzo, resulting in the ship’s name, Tate, for the sake of brevity. Hopes for the pairing her dashed when she was killed by Ari Haswari in the season two finale. However, there was apparently potential for the pairing to happen, at least temporarily, had she lived.
In the fourteenth episode of season nine, Gibbs had a near-death experience, which resulted in several flashbacks and visions of potential scenarios for his life. In one such scenario, Gibbs saw Kate, still alive, and giving birth to her and DiNozzo’s child, to whom she married.
Next: NCIS: 10 Worst Episodes, Ranked (According to IMDb)
