American actor Tom Selleck: biography, filmography and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Tom Selleck has occasionally returned to the role of Lance White, the likeable and naive partner of Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) in The Rockford Files. He also played police sheriff Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV films based on the novels by Robert B. Parker. In 2010, he starred as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan in the hit CBS drama Blue Bloods.

Early years

Actor Tom Selleck was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1945, the son of Martha Selleck, née Jagger (1921–2017), a housewife, and Robert Dean Selleck (1921–2001), who was a real estate investor. On his father's side, Tom Selleck is a descendant of the English colonist David Selleck, who moved to Massachusetts from Somerset, England in 1633. Through this line, Tom is part of the 11th generation of his family, born in North America.

Selleck's family moved to Sherman Oaks, California when he was a child. He has an older brother named Robert, a sister named Martha and a younger brother named Daniel. Future actor graduatedGrant High School in 1962.

University studies

Working as a model, Selleck attended the University of Southern California on a scholarship and made good progress in basketball, where he played for the USC Trojans men's basketball team. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and a member of the Trojan Knights fraternity.

When he got his degree in business administration, the head of the university acting club suggested that he try his hand at the stage. And Tom did a very good job, which made him think about a career. He then studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse School under Milton Catselas. Shortly thereafter, the future actor went to fight in Vietnam. He served with the 160th Infantry Regiment of the California Army National Guard from 1967 to 1973.

Career start

Tom Selleck first appeared on screen in The Dating Game (1965), playing a college student, and tried again on television two years later. Shortly thereafter, he began appearing in commercials for products such as Pepsi-Cola.

He started his career with supporting roles in films such as Myra Breckinridge, Coma and The Seven Minutes. He has appeared in a number of TV series, miniseries and TV movies. As an unknown television actor, Selleck was cast as Lance White on The Rockford Files.

First fame

Tom Selleck - accessible but relatively inexperienced actor - spent years playing B-moviesand little interest in the entertainment industry. He quit acting for a while after playing the lead role of Thomas Magnum in Magnum, PI.

The company he worked for didn't want to take him on other projects, so Selleck had to hand over the original role of Indiana Jones to Star Wars alum Harrison Ford.

Tom Selleck starred in the 1972 film Daughters of Satan. In 1979 he was on the Concrete Cowboys with Jerry Reed. He also starred in several roles during and after the Magnum series that made him famous. Among the actor's most notable roles were police detectives like the one he played in the movie Runaway.

Among Tom Selleck's films of that time, Three Men and a Baby stands out, as well as Quigley Down Under. Roles in these films, he considers one of his best. Other leading roles include "Three People" and "Little Lady". In the filmography of Tom Selleck, the films "High Road to China", "Her Alibi", "Innocent Man", "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery", "Mr. Baseball" stand out.

Further career

Selleck is an energetic, amateur shooter and small arms collector. These interests led him to play cowboy roles in Western films, starting with his role as Frontier Marshal Orrin Sackett in the 1979 film The Sacketts, Jeff Osterhage in Western Legends, and Glenn Ford and Ben Jonson.

Magnum is Selleck's most famous role

Selleck played the role of Thomas Magnum in 1980after filming six other pilots for projects that never aired. Magnum was a former United States Navy officer, a veteran of the SEAL Special Operations Unit during the Vietnam War, and later a member of the "Naval Intelligence Agency" (a fictionalized version of the Naval Intelligence Agency). He retired from the Navy to become a private investigator living in Hawaii.

The series lasted for 8 seasons and 163 episodes until 1988, giving the actor an Emmy award in 1984. Selleck was known for his mustache, Hawaiian aloha shirt, Detroit Tigers baseball cap, and Model 1911A1.45 ACP pistol.

1990s

In the mid-nineties, Selleck played the role of Richard Burke, Monica's boyfriend since the end of the second season of the hugely successful series Friends. Richard was a divorced ophthalmologist who was a friend of Monica's parents. And initially their romance was hidden from her parents. The relationship eventually ended with Richard's reluctance to commit to having children, although Selleck made several additional appearances in later episodes.

In February 1998, Tom starred in a comedy for CBS called The Closer. In it, he embodied himself as Jack McLaren, a legendary publicist who heads a new marketing firm. Among his clients were Ed Asner, David Krumholtz and Penelope Ann Miller. Despite good funding and high expectations from the actor who made Magnum famous, P. I., low ratings forced the show to close afterten episodes.

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Since 2005, Selleck has starred as lawyer Jesse Stone in a series of films based on novels by Robert B. Parker. To date, the film series consists of nine films, the most recent of which was released in October 2015. In addition to the main role, the actor has recently acted as the producer of the series. The fifth film in the Jesse Stone series, Thin Ice is unrelated to the Parker novels, being based on an original script by Selleck.

Tom joined the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas at the start of its fifth season on September 28, 2007. He played A. J. Cooper - the new owner of the Montecito casino. He replaced James Caan, who left the series in the same episode. It was Selleck's first regular role on a drama show since Thomas Magnum.

Film work

Selleck has appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies in recent years. In particular, he sought to help reclaim the popularity of the Western, often playing typical and slightly clichéd characters from the genre, but in a contemporary context.

Selleck was offered the lead role of Mitch Buchann in Baywatch but turned it down because he didn't want to be seen as a sex symbol. The role eventually went to David Hasselhoff.

Tom Selleck's personal life

From 1971 to 1982, Selleck was married to model Jacqueline Ray. To do this, he even adopted her beloved son, left over from a previous marriage. In 1985the actor met British dancer Jilly Mack. Two years later, they entered into a marriage that turned out to be surprisingly strong and long, successfully passing the test of time.

Selleck and his family live in Townsend Oaks Westlake, California, on a 60-acre (24 ha) avocado farm in the Hidden Valley, formerly owned by Dean Martin. In a 2012 interview with People magazine, Selleck spoke of dreaming of living and working on his farm: “I love going out and working on the farm, doing everything from fixing roads to sweeping yards. I hate going to the gym because I prefer to exercise outdoors by cycling or doing my daily farm chores. And I work much cheaper than anyone I could hire for this job.” At the same time, Selleck stated that he does not like avocados.

The actor was once charged with allegedly transferring approximately 1.4 million full gallons of water from the Calleguas Municipal Reservoir to the Municipal Water Supply District during a severe drought in California. He settled the lawsuit by paying $21,685.55 to the municipality of Calguaas.

As a young man, Tom Selleck was considered an experienced and skilled beach volleyball player, and often played as a player on the amateur volleyball team of the Outrigger Canoe Club in Honolulu. One of the team's players Dennis Berg in the summer of 2011 issue of Volleyball USA said about Selleck: Tom was a great teammate, and I feel huge and sincere gratitude forbeing part of such a talented and experienced group that practiced and played a lot when his Magnum schedule ended… He was always very patient with all of us and we enjoyed the large crowds that came to watch us play at tournament matches only because Tom was playing with us.”

Despite his talent and imposing appearance, this actor never again achieved the popularity that the role of Magnum once gave him. The biography of Tom Selleck, however, is not over yet, and in the future many new achievements can await him.