Tom Selleck is an American actor and producer, born on 29 January 1945, in Detroit, Michigan USA. He’s particularly known for his roles in the TV series “Magnum, P.I.” and “Blue Bloods”.
Early Life
Thomas William Selleck was born the third of four children of Martha and Robert Dean Selleck. His older siblings are Robert and Martha, and his younger brother Daniel was born in 1950. There’s no information about Tom’s childhood hobbies, though it’s certain he was a fan of the baseball team the Detroit Tigers.
At the time of Tom’s birth, his father was serving in the Army as a mechanic. He didn’t return to his family until 1947, but with the idea of moving to Los Angeles to find better opportunities for the family.
However, that didn’t become a reality until 1949, when the Sellecks collected their few belongings and travelled to California, where they settled in a small house in Sherman Oaks.
Although the family’s patriarch found a job as a real estate agent, their financial situation was far from being privileged as their income was precarious. Despite this, Tom and his siblings were never aware of how complicated their parent’s financial situation was: ‘I could go into analysis for 20 years and never blame my parents for anything’.
In his childhood Tom developed a deep interest on sports, and played in several of his school’s teams. In 1962 he matriculated from Grant High School with a basketball scholarship that allowed him to enroll in Los Angeles Valley College, though in his junior year he transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) and joined its basketball team the Trojans while pursuing a degree in Business Administration.
During his time in USC, Tom worked for United Airlines as a representative to pay for his studies. However, Tom never graduated, instead dropping out in his senior year to join the acting school Beverly Hills Playhouse.
Career
TV Debut
While still studying in USC, Tom Selleck was convinced by his classmates to audition for the TV show “The Dating Game”, which brought him enough exposure to appear in other projects such as a Pepsi-Cola commercial, and to even receive an offer to train to become a professional actor, with the help of Twentieth Century Fox. It was then that Tom finally left his studies to concentrate on his career.
Infantry and TV Return
Tom’s acting career was temporarily paused during the Vietnam War when he received a draft notice.
He found himself joining California Army National Guard’s Infantry Regiment in 1967. His talent and ethic led him to rise to Sergeant rank, building a relatively prosperous military career until his retirement in 1973.
However, his time serving the country affected severely his acting career for years. Although Tom’s contract with Fox was still active and renewed every six months, at some point he was fired by the network.
Not ready to let his dream go yet, Tom found a job in a clothing store to sustain himself, while training on acting in his free time. This opened various doors for him in the entertainment industry, as he was contracted to appear in various TV commercials.
He also appeared in several pilots for series, though all of them failed and were never aired. His determination to make his dream come true didn’t waver, however, as he revealed in an interview: ‘I knew that pretty soon I was going to reach a stage when I would either have to make it or walk away and try something else.’
Magnum, P.I
Without known his life was going change forever, Tom Selleck filmed the pilot of “Magnum, P.I”, which was immediately sold to ABC. His character Thomas Sullivan Magnum III was one of the most important of his career, not only for being his first lead role, but particularly because it became popular and brought him to fame.
“Magnum, P.I” aired from 1980 to 1988, and received many positive critiques from viewers and experts, who considered the show’s portrayal of veterans adjusting to normal lives as positive.
Tom admitted his road was a tough one: ‘Clearly, I was not an overnight success’ he said, clearly remembering that 11 years had passed from the time he lost his contract with Fox to the time he was cast in “Magnum, P.I”: ‘My road to success was complicated.
It was not a straight shot. There were many failures along the way, but I believe one of the privileges we have in this country is the right to fail. In the entertainment business, failure is heightened. I’ve taken some huge risks with my career, which doesn’t mean I’ve always been right, but it does mean I’ve never second guessed myself’.
However, although the series was positive in many ways for Tom’s career, it clearly affected other aspects of his life negatively. The fame was overwhelming for a man who definitely valued his personal life on a high level, as he told People: ‘I was tired from it. And I wanted a three-dimensional life because I didn’t have one’.
Searching for tranquility, Tom retreated to his Ranch in Ventura, California after the end of the series.
This hiatus evidently took the attention of tabloids, which were quick to gossip about the end of his career.Despite the negative feedback, this helped Tom to reflect on his situation from a different perspective.
Other Important Roles
During his time in “Magnum, P.I”, T
so appeared in a variety of movies, such as “The Fall Guy”, “The Shadow Riders”, “High Road to China” and “3 Men and a Baby”.
When his hiatus ended in 1990, Tom returned to Hollywood working in “Quigley Down Under”, a movie set in the Australian West and considered one of his best works to date. Other movies he appeared in were “Three Men and a Little Lady”, “Mr. Baseball” and “Ruby Jean and Joe”.
In the movie “In & Out”, Tom played his first gay character – Peter Malloy – which was followed by a temporal role in the popular TV series “Friends” as Monica Geller’s boyfriend Richard Burke. For this role he was nominated in the Outstanding Guest Actor’s category of the Emmy Awards.
However, his official return to TV with a recurrent role was playing Jack McLaren in “The Closer”, a comedy series centered on a prestigious marketing firm. Unfortunately, the show was canceled after six episodes.
After that he appeared in various TV movies until he was cast in the series “Boston Legal” in 2006, and then joined the cast of “Las Vegas” in its fifth season.
In 2012 he was cast to appear in the drama “Blue Bloods” aired on CBS, and currently is still on air. Tom’s leading role as Frank Reagan is the character he has played for the longest time.
Personal Life
Is Tom Selleck gay?
The only publicly known relationships he has maintained are with women, thus it’s safe to assume Tom Selleck’s sexual orientation is straight.
In 1972 Tom Selleck married for the first time, to Jacqueline Ray. The couple adopted a son named Kevin, though the marriage ended in 1982.
Since 1987, Tom has been married to Jillie Joan Mack, with whom he’s welcomed a daughter they named Hannah. Nowadays, Tom and his family live together in Hidden Valley.
Net Worth
As a result of his successful career as actor, Tom Selleck has an estimated net worth of over $45 million.
Happy birthday to Tom Selleck, star of Blue Bloods. We hope it's an amazing day!
Posted by CBS Home Entertainment on Sunday, 29 January 2017
Physical Appearance
Tom Selleck is a man of white ethnicity, who has dark brown hair, green eyes and a very characteristic moustache. His weight is unknown, but he’s 6ft 4ins (1.93m) tall.
Interesting Facts
He was a spokesperson for non-lucrative organizations Character Counts Coalition and Los Angeles Missions for the Homeless.
Both Tom’s parents were of English origin, though on his father’s side he also has German ancestry.
Tom appeared in the California Military Academy’s recruitment posters.
He voiced AT&T’s commercial campaign “You Will”.
During his time in College, he joined two fraternities: Sigma Chi and Trojan Knights.