Anthony DiNozzo

Special Agent Anthony "Tony" D. DiNozzo is the Senior Agent on Gibbs' team. He was a homicide detective before he was part of NCIS. DiNozzo has a bad record with women and is a lover of movies. He quotes them and names characters that are somehow involved with the case.

Tony is a streetwise former homicide detective. He is well known for his constant flirtation with nearly every woman he encounters. He has an expensive taste in clothing evidenced by his love for designer names. Though he is in his early 30s (32 in the first season), he typically shows teenage behavior. He is considered to be very loyal to his coworkers at NCIS, especially his supervisor, Gibbs.

DiNozzo's Character
Anthony DiNozzo is a streetwise former homicide detective. He is well known for his constant flirtation with nearly every woman he encounters. Some may consider his behavior to be borderline chauvinistic. He has an expensive taste in clothing evidenced by his love for designer names. Though he is in his early 30s, he typically shows teenage behavior. He is considered to be very loyal to his coworkers at NCIS, especially his supervisor, Gibbs. Tony frequently quotes movies, drawing parallels between them and current situations, and often mimicking the original speaker.

Although his often-immature behavior has gotten Tony into his share of trouble, he has also demonstrated himself to be an insightful agent when the need arises, and on more than one occasion surprised Gibbs and his teammates when an apparently immature action on his part actually causes new evidence to be uncovered.

He is the main target for Gibbs' head slaps.

On rare occasions, Tony is shown wearing glasses, such as at the start of the episode "The Curse". (They are in fact Michael Weatherly's own glasses, however Michael has since had LASIK and neither he nor Tony appear to require glasses any longer.)

In the episode "Bury Your Dead", his car explodes and the team believes that he was killed while spying on La Grenouille (this makes the director feel that his death was her fault). It was later proven in autopsy that it wasn't DiNozzo because the body has minimal scarring on his lungs and DiNozzo's were scarred because of the Y-pestis he had earlier in his career. He was found and he revealed that the car's driver was one of La Grenouille's butlers.

Education and Work
Prep School - Rhode Island Military Academy

Ohio State - BA in Physical Education Class of 1989

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. - 8+ years

Family
Tony comes from a wealthy family which is based on Long Island. He is an only child and cut off from his family's fortune. 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, an alcoholic drink, distinctive to the southern United States. In episode 6.17 "South by Southwest" Tony mentioned that her maiden name was Paddington.

His mother had a brother named Clive Paddington who was extremely weathy in his own right who died a month before the events chronicled in "South by Southwest" leaving a fortune valued at 35 million pounds sterling. The fortune was left to Tony's cousin Crispian who found an IOU among Clive's papers from some twenty years earlier stating that Tony owed him 10,000 dollars. The lawyer from the estate called Tony to inform him that his cousin demand repayment of the note plus compound interest.

In the episode "Chained", it is insinuated that his father is an alcoholic. In "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 hard 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, revealed in the episode "Silver War".

Tony's Uncle Vincenzo is a butcher on Long Island. Another Uncle was a successful businessman, but was found at a golf course looking for mole people.

Relationships with Women: Generally
Tony is almost constantly talking about his latest girlfriend - or one-night stand, however, he tries to hide his current one. He pursues girls on a regular basis, typically indiscriminately, although 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. He once dated his 26 year old dry cleaner.

One of the women he has dated turned out to be a terrorist working with Ari Haswari; another 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 crap. 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.



Dr. Jeanne Benoit
In Season 4 we are introduced to Tony's new girlfriend, Dr. Jeanne Benoit. 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. He once says, "I would've gone to Gibbs, but his track record with women sucks." Tony and Jeanne subsequently have sex in the episode "Smoked". He is really serious about this relationship and goes to great lengths, though with a lot of inspiration from film, 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, who was in fact a Metro Police Officer, 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. Unknown to either Tony and Jeanne, John said Goodbye 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 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 realizes that life is too short to not tell Jeanne that he loves her. 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.

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. He both avoids, because of commitment issues, it and wants it.

In Season 4's Finale, we learn that Jeanne's Father is La Grenouille (also called Le Frog or The Frog) which can lead us to believe he is with her in an undercover operation to arrest her father.

Finally in season 5's "Internal Affairs" an angry and bitter Jeanne accuses Tony of having killed her father. However under further questioning by Director Shepard, she admits that he did not. Tony, pressed by Ziva, went to apologize when she asked him if any of it was real. After pausing he said no and she replied that she wished they had never met, officially ending any relationship between the two.

In season 6's "Knockout" Tony reveals to Tara Kole that after Jeanne he has had trouble in relationships--he has been trying to go back to his old ways, but it isn't working because he really did fall in love with Jeanne.

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. Gibbs has the tendency to smack Tony on the back of the head whenever he says or does something inappropriate, Although this 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. He reacted in a similar fashion when Ziva smacked the back of his head, and he told her that she better not "Gibbs-slap" him again. After Gibbs left at the end of season 3 Tony took his place as team leader and as leader he tried to emulate Gibbs' leadership style. But he did make some changes to make things run smoother such implementing the "campfire"(the name for the team's conferences) and reorganizing the equipment in the field truck so everything is easier to find. 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 the director offers him his own team in Rota, Spain, Tony turns the offer down. He claimed one of the reasons for doing this is because he wants to keep an eye on Gibbs, whose memory is still sketchy after the blast at the end of season 3. Gibbs indicates that Tony is ready for his own team when he says, "I wouldn't have left if I didn't think he was ready", but doubts his maturity or else "everyone would know."

During the time Gibbs was away Tony started working on a undercover operation with Director Shepard that Gibbs doesn't know about, which leads Gibbs to openly ask questions DiNozzo's relationship with the director, as he has occasionally being caught referring to her by her first name. In "Blowback", the undercover operation is revealed to Gibbs and Tony apologizes to him for not telling him about it.

In episode 6.16 "Bounce" the first case Tony supervised as team leader during Gibbs' temporary retirement was reopened when one of the witnesses in the case was murdered. For a brief time Tony was considered a suspect in the murder. Since, the case had been supervised by Tony, Gibbs invoked his Rule number thirty eight and transferred leadership of the team to Tony during the investigation. After closing both the murder case and the reopened embezzelment investigation Tony reverted again to the position of senior agent.

Caitlin Todd
Tony's relationship with Kate Todd was sisterly, but with a constant undertone of flirtation and the possibility of something more. Tony and Kate constantly competed, very similar to his relationship to Ziva David.

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. The closeness of their relationship alluded to on the DVD's was highlighted in the second season episode, "SWAK" especially, the conclusion of the episode, when Kate stayed with Tony in the isolation unit despite knowing that he would survive the exposure and infection. Another example occurred the episode "Witness" when Tony jokingly tried to strangle Kate, while, doing an experiment.

Paula Cassidy
Tony's relationship with Paula was similiar in many respects to the relationship that he had with Kate in the sense that it was generally sisterly, but, with a stronger element of intimacy as demonstrated by their brief intimate relationship that occured prior to her brief tenure as Tony's interim partner in the aftermath of Kate's death, before, Ziva joined the team. The relationship developed more sisterly characteristics while, she was working with Tony. She is also the only person (besides Director Shepard) that Tony told that he loves Jeanne. He openly wept after she sacrificed herself to save the team and four Muslim clerics.



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. They do this in verbal and physical competitions. Ziva taunts Tony in much the same way Kate 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. 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 her 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 or denies the implication in the episode. The reason for his frequent visits are still unrevealed.

In "Singled Out", we see Ziva questioning Tony about an unidentified girlfriend. Subsequent episodes have established that Tony is building a relationship with medical student 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", which revealed that Ziva was in fact unaware of Tony's romance, and 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 in the episode "SWAK". In "Suspicion", she repeats her concern to Gibbs, who surprises her by saying that Tony might have other reasons for the secrecy.

We also see that Ziva seems to be subtlely and unobtrusively attempting to convey her own attraction and romantic feelings towarads Tony 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.

During the second episode of season six 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.

During the season six finale it was reveled that he was willing to lay his career on the line to protect her if she needed it.

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". Other nicknames he has used include "McGeek," "McTardy," "McNerd," "McKill Joy," "McCheat," "McTimex," and "Probie-Wan Kenobi".

Contrary to appearances, though, Tony really does care for him on some level. In episode "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.

Director Jenny Shepard
In the fourth season, Tony's relationship with Director 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 operation run by Shepard, which is of personal importance to her. As they are keeping secrets, they develop a strong level of trust in each other, and his interactions with the Director showcase his more mature and thoughtful side. The absence of Gibbs also allowed Tony to become closer because he interacted with the director much more when he took Gibbs' job rather than when he was an agent.

It is Tony who makes the call to follow Shepard's orders and abandon her protection detail in "Judgment Day." This nearly crushes Tony with guilt, as he respected her very much and they became very close over the course of Gibbs' absence and even more so during his undercover investigation on La Grenouille. After her death and the breakup of Gibbs' team he begins to drink heavily, fueled mostly by his guilt over her death; however, by the start of the sixth season, he appears to have regained some control over his drinking.

Stan Burley
Tony's relationship with Stan was a competitive one, he felt need to compete with Stan for Gibbs attention and approval. Much in the same way that two siblings often compete for the approval of a parent. It was only at the conclusion of the narrative that Stan adopting the role of elder brother pointed out all that Tony had accomplished as illustrated in the following scene:

Tony commented to Stan that Gibbs has never shaken his hand; at which point Stan told Tony that I worked under Gibbs for five years and that it was two years before Gibbs looked him in the eye, three before he called him by name and four before he got the name right. Then Stan told Tony that Gibbs must really like Tony to have gained such respect from Gibbs in only two years