Michael Weatherly is internationally recognized for portraying lovable rogue, Tony DiNozzo. After signing on to NCIS in 2003, the actor made waves as the obnoxious, yet charming agent, a role he inhabits perfectly.

Like Tony, Michael has a golden sense of humour, something he’s always possessed. On his official website, the TV star explained: “I was the middle child, so I was a natural peacemaker and clown. I was a bad student, a dreamer, and a procrastinator.”

Well-suited to the role, Michael put a unique spin on the character, taking inspiration from a former co-star. Any guesses? As it turns out, after working on Dark Angel from 2000 to 2002, the father-of-three used Jensen Ackles as a template for Tony.

“He was so loose and free and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll imitate him a little bit’ and I’m such a bad mimic it doesn’t matter because no one will ever recognise that I’m doing Jensen Ackles,” Michael said on the NCIS: Off Duty podcast.

“I started coming in with all these ideas, watching all these movies with Cary Grant and thinking, ‘What did he do? How do I do that?’ and applying so many things to it.”

For Michael, it took “years of experimentation” to get to the core of his character, but as most NCIS fans have agreed, he’s the only man for the job.

During the star’s tenure on the flagship NCIS, it was Tony’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic with Ziva David that showed fans a softer side to the character. Coincidentally, like Tony and Ziva, Michael and Cote de Pablo didn’t exactly get on when they met, sparking a one-of-a-kind dynamic.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2009, Cote said: “Michael and I clicked immediately. We sort of hated each other immediately, and loved each other immediately.

“I walked into the audition and he thought, ‘Oh my god, she’s gonna be so hard to work with. She’s so complicated.’ And I thought, ‘This guy’s so incredibly unprofessional.’

“During the audition, he grabbed my hair. He would not follow the lines. He totally went off script and started improvising, and this was my final audition with the heads of CBS. I thought, ‘This guy is sabotaging my audition.’ So immediately I went, ‘Oh, I’m gonna show this guy. I’m gonna show him.’

“So he tried touching me, and I literally like [mimes slapping his hand away],” she continued. “That relationship was established the moment that we met. Nothing changed, it was just enhanced. And we loved each other as well. We realized we’re so drastically different and so much alike that there was an immediate attraction.”