Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American
actor and film producer. He is best known
for his starring role as the private investigator
Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum,
P.I., based in Hawaii. He also plays Police
Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV
movies based on Robert B. Parker novels. Since
2010, he has appeared as NYPD Police Commissioner
Frank Reagan in the drama Blue Bloods on CBS-TV.
Selleck has appeared in more than fifty film
and television roles since his initial success
with Magnum, P.I., including a co-starring
role in the highest-grossing movie of 1987,
Three Men and a Baby. He also held top billing
in Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter,
to name a few. Selleck has also appeared as
Dr. Richard Burke on Friends, where he played
the on-again, off-again love-interest of Monica
Geller. He played A.J. Cooper on the TV series
Las Vegas.
Early life
Selleck was born in Detroit, Michigan, the
son of Martha S., a housewife, and Robert
Dean Selleck, who was an executive and real
estate investor. His father was of English,
and distant Scottish, German and Irish, ancestry,
while his mother was of English descent. Selleck's
family moved to Sherman Oaks, California,
during his childhood. Tom's siblings include
brother Robert, sister Martha and brother
Daniel. Selleck graduated from Grant High
School, in 1962.
While working as a model, Selleck attended
the University of Southern California on a
basketball scholarship where he played for
the USC Trojans men's basketball team. He
is a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and a
member of the Trojan Knights. While majoring
in business administration, a drama coach
suggested Selleck try acting. He then studied
acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, under
Milton Katselas.
Selleck served as a soldier in the 160th Infantry
Regiment of the California Army National Guard
and his unit was activated for the Watts Riots
in Los Angeles.
Career
Early work and Magnum P.I.
Selleck's first TV appearance was as a college
senior on The Dating Game in 1965, and again
in 1967. Soon after, he appeared in commercials
for products such as Pepsi-Cola.
He began his career with bit parts in smaller
movies, including Myra Breckinridge, Coma,
and The Seven Minutes. He also appeared in
number of TV series, mini-series and TV movies.
Selleck also had a recurring role in the 1970s
as "too good to be true" private investigator
Lance White in The Rockford Files. Lance was
very trusting and always lucky, much to the
annoyance of Jim Rockford, the show's star
private eye played by James Garner. White
would frequently say to Rockford, "Don't worry
Jim, clues will turn up" and then a clue would
just turn up, much to Rockford's consternation,
for whom obtaining clues required hard work
and hard knocks. Selleck's character was based
on one played in Garner's earlier TV series
Maverick by Wayde Preston in the episode "The
Saga of Waco Williams".
Selleck, an accessible but relatively untested
actor, spent years receiving little interest
from the entertainment industry. His big break
came when he was cast in the lead role as
Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I.. The producers
would not release the actor for other projects,
so Selleck had to pass on the equally enticing
film project for the role of Indiana Jones
in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which then went
to rising star Harrison Ford. The choice between
the roles of Indiana Jones and Magnum actually
haunted Selleck so much that before making
the decision, he consulted his best friend
on what to do. Together they came to the conclusion
taking the high road and honoring the first
contract with Universal Studios was the career-savvy
direction. It turned out shooting of the pilot
for Magnum was delayed for over six months
by a writers' strike, which would have enabled
him to complete Raiders.
Film
Selleck starred in the 1979 TV movie Concrete
Cowboys with Jerry Reed. He starred in a number
of film roles during and after Magnum; among
the most notable were as an acrophobic police
detective in Runaway; as a stand-in father
in Three Men and a Baby; and as an American
19th century sharpshooter in the Australian
western Quigley Down Under – a role and
film that he considers one of his best. His
other films include Three Men and a Little
Lady; High Road to China; Lassiter; Coma;
Her Alibi; An Innocent Man; Folks!; Christopher
Columbus: The Discovery; Mr. Baseball; In
& Out and The Love Letter.
Selleck is an avid outdoorsman, and a marksman
and knowledgeable firearms collector. These
interests led him to leading-man cowboy roles
in Western films, starting with his role as
cowboy and frontier marshal Orrin Sackett
in the 1979 film The Sacketts, opposite Sam
Elliott, Jeff Osterhage, and Western legends
Glenn Ford and Ben Johnson. He followed The
Sacketts with The Shadow Riders in 1982, then
portraying a cat burglar in 1930s London in
Lassiter in 1984. Quigley Down Under is probably
one of his best known Western films, although
he also won a "Western Heritage Award" for
his 1997 role in Last Stand at Saber River.
His last two cowboy roles to date were in
the 2001 TNT movie Crossfire Trail, and the
2003 motion picture Monte Walsh.
He most recently appeared in the film Killers,
along with Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher.
Television
Magnum P.I.
Selleck played the role of Thomas Magnum in
1980 after six failed TV pilots. Magnum was
a former U.S. Navy Officer, a veteran of a
special operations unit in the Vietnam War,
who had resigned his commission with the Office
of Naval Intelligence and become a private
investigator living in Hawaii. The show would
go on for eight seasons and 162 episodes until
1988, winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1984. Selleck
was famous for his mustache, a Hawaiian-style
aloha shirt, a Detroit Tigers baseball cap,
and the Colt Model 1911A1 .45 ACP Caliber
pistol his character carried. Magnum drove
a Ferrari 308GTSi in the series. The model
became so identified with the role that Ferrari
fans now refer to the red-painted model as
a "Magnum" Ferrari.
Selleck has confirmed that he is the most
popular choice by fans to play the role of
Magnum in the rumoured upcoming Magnum P.I.
movie.
Friends
In the late nineties, Selleck played the role
of Richard Burke, Monica's boyfriend, at the
end of the second season of the hugely successful
TV series Friends. Richard was a divorced
ophthalmologist who was a friend of Monica's
parents, and at first the relationship was
hidden from her parents. The relationship
eventually ended over Richard's reluctance
to commit to raising a family, though Selleck
did make a few extra appearances in later
shows.
The Closer
In February 1998, Selleck accepted the lead
role in a sitcom for CBS called The Closer.
In it he played Jack McLaren, a legendary
publicist heading up a brand new marketing
firm. His costars included Ed Asner, David
Krumholtz, and Penelope Ann Miller. Despite
the high pedigree, and the expectations for
his first series since Magnum, P. I., low
ratings caused the show to be canceled after
ten episodes.
Jesse Stone series
Since 2005, Selleck has starred in the role
of transplanted lawman Jesse Stone in a series
of made-for-TV movies based on Robert B. Parker's
novels. To date, the series comprises eight
films, with the most recent released on May
20, 2012. In addition to his portrayal of
the films' protagonist, Selleck now also acts
as producer for the series. The fifth film,
Jesse Stone: Thin Ice, was not adapted from
Parker's novels, but rather an original story
by Selleck.
Las Vegas
He joined the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas
in the season-five premiere on September 28,
2007. He played A.J. Cooper, the new owner
of the Montecito Casino. He replaced James
Caan, who left the cast in the same episode.
This was Selleck's first regular role on a
drama show since he played Thomas Magnum on
Magnum, P.I..
Blue Bloods
Blue Bloods is an American police procedural/drama
series on CBS, filmed on location in New York
City. Frank Reagan is the Police Commissioner;
the series follows the Reagan family of police
officers with the New York City Police Department.
The show premiered on September 24, 2010.
Other work
Selleck has also appeared in a number of made-for-TV
movies in recent years. In particular, he
has sought to help bring back to popularity
the western, often playing one of that genre's
typical characters but thrust into a modern
context.
Selleck was offered the lead role of Mitch
Buchannon in Baywatch, but turned down the
role because he did not want to be seen as
a sex symbol. The role eventually went to
David Hasselhoff.
Surprising many of his fans, Selleck unexpectedly
played the role of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
in A&E's 2004 made-for-TV movie Ike: Countdown
to D-Day. The movie showed the planning, politics,
and preparation for the 1944 Invasion of Normandy,
and Selleck was critically lauded for playing
a cool, calm Eisenhower.
Selleck appeared in a recurring role on the
acclaimed ABC drama Boston Legal as Ivan Tiggs—the
troubled ex-husband of Shirley Schmidt—and
as novelist Robert B. Parker's character Jesse
Stone in several CBS made-for-TV movies, earning
a 2007 Emmy nomination for Jesse Stone: Sea
Change.
Broadway
In 2001, Selleck played the lead role of Murray
in a Broadway revival of Herb Gardner's comedic
play A Thousand Clowns. It ran for only two
months. Critics, though far from uniformly
negative about Selleck's performance, generally
compared it unfavorably to that of Jason Robards,
Jr., who won awards in the 1960s for playing
the character on the stage and in a movie
version. Playwright Gardner, however, actually
preferred Selleck to Robards in the part,
and even said that Selleck was the way he
had always envisioned Murray.
Commercials
Selleck did the voice-over for the 1993 AT&T
advertising campaigns titled "You Will." These
advertisements had a futuristic feel, and
posed the question of, "What if you had the
technology to ______ ? Well, you will ... and
the company that will bring it to you? AT&T."
As of December 30, 2007, he began doing commercial
voice-overs for Florida orange juice, a move
that one writer quipped would have a "magnum"
impact on sales. As of March 2012, Selleck
is featured in Coldwell Banker's new television
ad campaign focusing on the deepest, most
personal meanings of homeownership.
The Practical Guide to the Universe
In the mid-1990s, Selleck hosted a special
series on TLC called The Practical Guide to
the Universe, in which he talked about the
stars, planets, galaxies, and other things
in the universe.
Awards and accolades
On April 28, 2000, he received an honorary
doctorate from Pepperdine University. He was
chosen because of his outstanding character
and ethic. He is a board member of the non-profit
Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics
and co-founder of the Character Counts Coalition.
Selleck received a Star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame in 1986. The star is situated at 6925
Hollywood Blvd.
Golden Apple Awards – 1982 Male Star of
the year
Golden Apple Awards – 1983 Male Star of
the year
People's Choice Award – 1984 Favourite
Male TV Performer
Emmy Award – Outstanding Lead Actor in a
Drama Series
People's Choice Award – 1985 Favourite
Male TV Performer
People's Choice Award – 1985 Favourite
All-Round Male Entertainer
Golden Globe Award – Best Performance by
an Actor in a TV-Series-Drama
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum –
2010 Inductee into the Hall of Great Western
Performers
In 1993, during the brief run of the late
night The Chevy Chase Show on Fox, Selleck
guest-starred. As a gag, he asked to be presented
his 1992 Worst Supporting Actor Razzie award
for his performance as King Ferdinand of Spain
in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. When
the Razzie was presented to him on the air,
Selleck took it in stride and asked the entire
studio audience to "blow me a raspberry."
Thus Selleck became the third person in Razzie
history to voluntarily accept one of the Worst
Achievements in Film statuettes.
Personal life
From 1971 to 1982, Selleck was married to
model Jacqueline Ray. During that time, he
adopted her son, Kevin Shepard.
On August 7, 1987, Selleck married Jillie
Mack. They have one daughter, Hannah Margaret
Selleck. The family lives in Fallbrook, California,
Freedom, California, and Thousand Oaks, California.
Selleck has a summer residence in Jonesboro,
Maine. In the 1980s—specifically around
the time of filming Three Men and a Baby—Selleck
also owned a home on upscale Lakeshore Road
in Burlington, Ontario, a city southwest of
Toronto.
Selleck lives on an avocado farm. In an interview
with Good Housekeeping, Selleck talked about
living and working on his farm, "So I like
to get outside and work on the farm, from
fixing roads to clearing brush. I hate going
to the gym, so sweating outdoors sure beats
sitting on a stationary bike staring at my
navel. And I work cheaper than anyone I could
hire to do it."
He is an accomplished indoor and beach volleyball
player playing the outside hitter position
for the Outrigger Canoe Club, Honolulu. Outrigger
Canoe Club team mate Dennis Berg, in the summer
2011 issue of Volleyball USA magazine, said
of Selleck, "Tom was a great team mate, appreciative
of being included with such a talented and
experienced group, practicing and playing
hard when his Magnum schedule permitted....
He was very patient with all of us, and we
relished the big crowds that replaced the
usual sparse number of players' friends and
spouses at the national tourney matches."
Selleck is an avid ice hockey fan and has
been seen attending Los Angeles Kings games
at the Staples Center. He lists Anze Kopitar
and Alexander Frolov as two of his favorite
players. He was once a minority owner of his
favorite baseball team since childhood, the
Detroit Tigers.
One of Selleck's Magnum co-stars, Larry Manetti,
in his 1996 memoir Aloha Magnum, was lavish
in his praise of Selleck. Manetti lauded Selleck
for his extraordinary work ethic on a gruelling
show, Selleck's work with Hawaiian charities
and his willingness to go to bat for the program's
cast and crew members.
In February 2009, Selleck joined the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Fund as national spokesman
for the new Education Center being built on
the National Mall.
Political views and the NRA
To promote his film The Love Letter, Selleck
was invited to be on The Rosie O'Donnell Show
on May 19, 1999. However, he found himself
defending an ad in which he appeared supporting
the National Rifle Association and his position
on gun ownership. Selleck said, "It's your
show, and you can talk about it after I leave."
O'Donnell was highly criticized; it was criticism
which led her to make a statement to Selleck
by saying, "For him feeling embarrassed and
humiliated by me, I strongly do apologize
to him personally, but I do not apologize
for my feelings about the issue of gun control."
Selleck is a member of the Board of Directors
and public spokesman of the NRA. After close
friend Charlton Heston stepped down—due
to failing health—as the highly visible
public spokesman of the NRA in 2003, Selleck
has stepped up in comparable manner to succeed
him. In 2002, Selleck donated the rifle he
used in Quigley Down Under, along with six
other firearms from his other films, to the
National Rifle Association, as part of the
NRA's exhibit "Real Guns of Reel Heroes" at
the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.
For a number of years, Selleck appeared in
television advertising for National Review.
He endorsed Senator John McCain in the 2008
presidential election. Selleck describes himself
politically as "a registered independent with
a lot of libertarian leanings." In a 2012
magazine article about his career, he mentioned
that he likes the fact that his character
on Blue Bloods and his family are visibly
practicing Catholics, while adding that he
is not very religious himself.
Filmography
See also
References
External links
Tom Selleck at the Internet Movie Database
Tom Selleck at the Internet Broadway Database
Tom Selleck at Emmys.com
