Tom Selleck

From 2005 to 2015, he portrayed Jesse Stone in nine television films based on the Robert B. In films, Selleck played bachelor architect Peter Mitchell in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). He has also appeared in more than 50 other film and television roles since Magnum, P.I, including the films Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter. He appeared in recurring television roles as Monica Geller's love interest Dr. Richard Burke in Friends, as Lance White, the naive private investigator on The Rockford Files, and as casino owner A. Cooper on Las Vegas. He also had a lead role in the television Western film The Sacketts, based on two of Louis L'Amour's books. Selleck was a spokesman for the National Rifle Association of America, an endorser in advertisements for National Review magazine, and co-founder of the Character Counts! Organization. He also served as an infantryman in the California Army National Guard from 1967 to 1973, attaining the rank of sergeant.

Tom Selleck studied at University of Southern California, Grant High School and Los Angeles Valley College. The recorded working language is English, German and Spanish. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are Western. Distinctions recorded are Horatio Alger Award, Golden Globe Awards, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Tom Selleck • Birth Name — Thomas William Selleck • Born — 29 January 1945 • Birthplace — Detroit, Michigan, U.S. • Years Active — 1965–present • Political Party — Independent • Occupation — Actor • Children — 2

Thomas William Selleck was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 29, 1945, to housewife Martha Selleck (Jagger) and Robert Dean Selleck, who was a real estate developer. He has an elder brother Robert, a younger sister Martha, and a younger brother Daniel. Selleck is of mostly English descent, although he also has Irish and some German ancestry on his mother's side. Through a paternal line, Selleck is a direct descendant of English colonist David Selleck, who moved to Massachusetts from Somerset, England, in 1633. Through this line, Selleck is of the 11th generation of his family born in North America. Selleck's family moved to Los Angeles in 1948, and lived in Sherman Oaks. He graduated from Grant High School in 1962 with future Monkees singer and actor Micky Dolenz and enrolled at Los Angeles Valley College, living at home and saving money. Selleck, who stands 6 ft tall, transferred to the University of Southern California during his junior year to play for the USC Trojans men's basketball team. He also was a pitcher and designated hitter for the USC baseball team. He is a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and a member of the Trojan Knights. While he was majoring in business administration, a drama coach suggested Selleck try acting, and in his senior year, he dropped out of the university. Selleck then studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, under Milton Katselas.

Upon receiving a draft notice during the Vietnam War, Selleck enlisted in the California Army National Guard. He served in Company C, 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry from 1967 to 1973, attaining the rank of sergeant.

• Illustration — Magnum, P.I. publicity photo, 1980 Selleck's first television appearance was as a college senior on The Dating Game in 1965 and again on an episode that originally aired January 28, 1967, where he was in the first game and Bill Dana and Casey Kasem were in the second game. 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 (invited on the set by Mae West), Coma, and The Seven Minutes. He appeared in a number of TV series, miniseries, and TV movies. He was also the face of Salem cigarettes and Revlon's Chaz cologne. Selleck appeared in a commercial for Right Guard deodorant in 1971, with Farrah Fawcett in 1972 for the aperitif Dubonnet, and another in 1977 for the toothpaste Close-Up. He was also in a Safeguard deodorant soap commercial (1972). In 1972, he starred in the B-movie Daughters of Satan. He had a recurring role in the 1970s as private investigator Lance White in The Rockford Files. Selleck is an avid outdoorsman, marksman, and 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 Louis L'Amour's books adaptation The Sacketts, opposite Sam Elliott, Jeff Osterhage, and Western legends Glenn Ford and Ben Johnson, and that same year, Concrete Cowboys with Jerry Reed. The Shadow Riders, another L'Amour adaptation with Selleck opposite Elliott and Osterhage, followed in 1982. Quigley Down Under is one of his best-known Western films, but his 1997 role in Last Stand at Saber River resulted in his winning a "Western Heritage Award".

Selleck's big break came in 1980, 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 role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which meant that the role went to actor Harrison Ford, instead. The shooting of the pilot for Magnum turned out to be delayed for over six months by a writers' strike, which would have enabled him to complete Raiders. • Illustration — Selleck on the set of Magnum in 1984 Selleck played the role of Thomas Magnum in 1980 after filming six other TV pilots that were never sold. Magnum was a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer who had served in the Vietnam War; after the war, Magnum had been in the "Naval Intelligence Agency" (a fictional version of the Office of Naval Intelligence) and then resigned from the Navy to become a private investigator living in Hawaii. The show continued until 1988, lasting eight seasons and 163 episodes, winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1984. As Magnum, Selleck was famous for his mustache, a Hawaiian-style aloha shirt, a Detroit Tigers baseball cap, and driving an open-top Ferrari 308 GTS in the series. After the end of the show in 1988, it established itself as the top-rated, one-hour show in the history of syndicated reruns (at least until 1998). In 1984, he introduced Nancy Reagan at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Selleck was offered the lead role of Mitch Buchannon in Baywatch, but he turned it down because he did not want to be seen as a sex symbol. The role eventually went to David Hasselhoff. During the Magnum years, Selleck starred in several films including as a cat burglar in 1930s London in Lassiter and an acrophobic police detective in Runaway (both 1984), and as a stand-in father in Three Men and a Baby, which was the biggest hit at the American box office in 1987. In 1989, he ended the decade by starring in the romantic comedy Her Alibi and crime drama An Innocent Man.

• Illustration — Selleck at the 2010 Summer Session of the Television Critics Association In 2010, Selleck was cast as NYC Police Commissioner Frank Reagan in the CBS American police procedural/drama series Blue Bloods, filmed on location in New York City. The series followed the Reagan family of law enforcement officers with the New York City Police Department and the Manhattan district attorney's office. It premiered on September 24, 2010, and ended its run on December 13, 2024. Selleck played the role of Mr. Kornfeldt in the comedy movie 'Killers' (2010). In 2012, Selleck was featured in Coldwell Banker's television ad campaign focusing on homeownership. In 2016, he became the pitchman for reverse-mortgage lender American Advisors Group. In 2021, Selleck made his album debut singing "Yessir, That's My Baby" with Nicolas King (recorded live in 2001 during their run of A Thousand Clowns) on King's album Act One released by Club44 Records.

• Illustration — Selleck and wife Jillie Mack in 1989 From 1971 to 1982, Selleck was married to model Jacqueline Ray. During that time, he adopted her son, Kevin Shepard (born 1966), who went on to be the drummer for the American rock band Tonic. On August 7, 1987, Selleck married Jillie Mack, whom he met in Britain. They have one daughter, Hannah (born December 16, 1988). Selleck has said he is Episcopalian. Selleck and his family live near Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village, California, on a 60 acre avocado ranch in Hidden Valley formerly owned by Dean Martin. In a 2012 interview with People, Selleck talked about living and working on his ranch: "So I like to get outside and work on the ranch, 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 has said that he does not personally use text messages or email. Selleck is an indoor and beach volleyball player, playing the outside hitter position for the Outrigger Canoe Club, Honolulu. Outrigger Canoe Club teammate Dennis Berg said of Selleck, "Tom was a great teammate, 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 ice hockey fan and has attended Los Angeles Kings games at Staples Center. He lists Anže Kopitar and Alexander Frolov as two of his favorite players. He was once a minority owner of the Detroit Tigers, his favorite baseball team since childhood. In 1986, Selleck hit a batting-practice home run while working out with the Tigers. In preparation for his role in the film Mr. Baseball, Selleck reached out to the Tigers to practice with them during the spring of 1991. He took batting practice for three weeks, even making an appearance in an exhibition game against Cincinnati, where Tiger manager Sparky Anderson put him into a game as a pinch hitter. He managed to foul off three pitches from Reds pitcher Tim Layana before striking out. Selleck believes his training helped him considerably in his film role, having gained valuable experience from attending team meetings and developing an understanding of how competitive players function together. In February 2009, Selleck joined the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund as national spokesman for the new Education Center being built on the National Mall. Upon James Garner's death in 2014, he said, "Jim was a mentor to me and a friend, and I will miss him." Two years after Garner's death, Selleck said, prior to filming the sixth season of Blue Bloods: "It's kind of like my mentor, who never wanted to hear he was my mentor [James Garner], I don't accept the mentor role. That they feel that way is, I think flattering although it adds a certain amount of pressure."

Selleck was sued by the Calleguas Municipal Water District for allegedly improperly transferring about 1.4 e6usgal of water from the Calleguas Municipal Water District to the Hidden Valley Municipal Water District during the driest California drought since record-keeping began; he used the water to water his avocado farm. He settled the suit by paying $21,685.55 to the Calleguas Municipal Water District, an amount which represented the district's private investigator fees in connection with the case.

• Illustration — Senator Larry Craig, Selleck, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Senator Zell Miller at the 2005 NRA Annual Convention in Houston. Selleck has been a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and served as a spokesman for the organization. He resigned from the board on September 18, 2018, though he remained a member of the organization. After his close friend Charlton Heston stepped down from his role as an NRA spokesman in 2003, Selleck succeeded him. In 2002, Selleck donated the rifle he used in Quigley Down Under (a custom 13 lb single-shot 1874 Sharps Rifle with a 34 in barrel), along with six other firearms from his other films, to the NRA. The firearms are part of the NRA's exhibit "Real Guns of Reel Heroes" at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia. To promote his film The Love Letter, Selleck was invited to be on The Rosie O'Donnell Show on May 19, 1999. During the appearance, O'Donnell questioned Selleck about his support of gun ownership and an ad in which he appeared supporting the NRA. At the end of the interview, Selleck stated, "It's your show and you can talk about it after I leave." Selleck later confided to Shaun Robinson: "I still like Rosie. I think she needs to take a deep breath and stop thinking everybody who disagrees with her is evil." In 2000, Selleck stated he has always been interested in politics as he finds it "fascinating". For a number of years, Selleck appeared in television advertising for National Review. He also subscribes to The New Republic. Selleck describes himself as "a registered independent with a lot of libertarian leanings". In the 2016 presidential election, Selleck did not support either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, instead writing in former Dallas Police Department Chief David Brown, saying that he was deeply touched by the grace and leadership Brown showed through the 2016 Dallas police shooting. Blue Bloods co-star Abigail Hawk said Selleck often keeps his opinions to himself, but tries to form his views by reading news sources from across the opinion spectrum and likes to focus on the facts of a situation. "He always took the most left-wing news source, and then a right-wing news source, and read them both, researched the entire spectrum, and then made his decision based on all of that information", Hawk said.

Tom Selleck was recorded at birth as Thomas William Selleck. The authorities additionally record the heading Thomas William Selleck. His recorded languages were English, German, Spanish and Russian. He was the child of Robert Dean Selleck and Martha Jagger. He married Jacqueline Ray and Jillie Mack.

Tom Selleck is recorded as having studied at University of Southern California, Grant High School and Los Angeles Valley College.