NCIS star Joe Spano made an ultra-rare appearance with his adopted daughter, Meili, at the premiere of Hoppers on Monday, looking dapper in a dark three-piece suit.
The 79-year-old added a collared white shirt and a colorful, undone bowtie underneath, and completed the look with black dress shoes and a stylish straw hat. By Joe’s side was his daughter, Meili Spano, who was ethereal in a flowing, floral blue dress with a white cardigan over the top and her dark hair tied back in a tight bun.
The Hoppers premiere marked Joe’s first red carpet appearance since October 2024, when he attended the New York Film Festival. He will voice a character in the upcoming film, two years after his last onscreen appearance in NCIS.
Joe got his start as an acclaimed theater actor in the ’70s, before landing roles in Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Murder One. Perhaps his most famous role is that of FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell in NCIS, a role which he has held since 2003.
He has appeared in more than 50 episodes of the hit show, spanning more than 20 years, yet never wished to be a series regular, as he shared on the Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch podcast. “I didn’t want to have to do what you guys were doing,” he told the hosts, Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly, who portrayed Ziva David and Anthony DiNozzo, respectively, on NCIS.
“Not so much the time, but what it does to you…I could see it. It’s unspeakable, actually, ’cause you’re turned into something, and you have to be that to a certain extent,” Joe continued.
© Getty Images for Disney“Promoting the show, reacting to people who see you in a certain way. That’s not really who you are, but you want to cater to it for your job and for them, but doing that over and over again, I think you lose track of who you are.”
“Not that anybody knows who they are at all, but sometimes you have some leeway, right, just to finding something new for yourself,” he added. “But in that, it’s always being pushed on, and pushing back or not pushing back, and being crushed by it.”
© CBS via Getty ImagesOutside of Joe’s work onscreen and onstage, he has a happy home life with his wife and two daughters, Liana and Meili, the latter of whom joined him at the premiere event on Monday.
© NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal viaJoe met his wife, Joan Zerrien, while they were working at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, of which he is a founding member. The couple married in 1980 and went on to adopt their daughters from China after being inspired by a documentary.
© Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag“We were in a place in our lives, well off, living in a great house, and we said to ourselves, ‘What is this for? We should have kids and take advantage of our great school district,'” he shared in a speech to the Families with Children from China organization.
He continued, “We saw a television program that outlined the plight of Chinese little girls, so we investigated it. We decided it wasn’t about passing them off as our own. We wanted more the opportunity to parent.”
Read the full article here
