02 Dec Thomas Selleck ~ Sincere, Dedicated, and True Blue

Thomas William Selleck; (born January 29, 1945) is an American actor and film producer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Selleck is of mostly English ancestry, including recent immigrant ancestors. His mother and father were of primarily English ancestry but ahad distant German ancestry as well. Through an entirely 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 the 11th generation of his family born in North America.

Selleck’s family moved to Sherman Oaks, California, during his childhood. He has an elder brother named Robert, a sister named Martha, and a younger brother named 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 Selleck was acquiring a degree in Business Administration, a drama coach suggested he try acting. He then studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, under Milton Katselas. Upon receiving a draft notice during the Vietnam War, Selleck joined the California National Guard. He served in the 160th Infantry Regiment of the California Army National Guard from 1967 to 1973.

He became a household name while starring as private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988). He had a recurring role as Lance White, the likeable and naive partner of Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) on The Rockford Files. Upon James Garner’s death, 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 his then 6th 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 flattering although it adds a certain amount of pressure.”

Since the show premiered on September 24, 2010, he has starred as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan in the hit crime drama Blue Bloods on CBS). Blue Bloods is an American police procedural/drama series on CBS, filmed on location in New York City. Frank Reagan (Selleck) is the Police Commissioner; the series follows the Reagan family of police officers with the New York City Police Department. In an earlier magazine article about his career, he mentioned that he likes the fact that his character on Blue Bloods and his Reagan family members are visibly practicing Catholics, while adding that he is not very religious himself.
Selleck is an avid outdoorsman, marksman and firearms collector. These interests led him to leading-man cowboy roles in Western films. Quigley Down Under is probably one of his best-known Western films, although he 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 (based on a Louis L’Amour novel of the same name), and the 2003 motion picture Monte Walsh.

Selleck has appeared in more than 50 film and television roles since Magnum, P.I., including Three Men and a Baby, Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter. He appeared as Dr. Richard Burke on Friends and as A.J. Cooper on the TV series Las Vegas. 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 then went to Star Wars alumnus Harrison Ford.

From 1971 to 1982, Selleck was married to model Jacqueline Ray. During that time, he adopted her son, Kevin Shepard (born 1966). On August 7, 1987, Selleck married Jillie Mack (born 1957).[29] They have one daughter, Hannah (born December 16, 1988).

Selleck and his family live in Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village, California on a 60-acre (24 ha) avocado farm in Hidden Valley formerly owned by Dean Martin. In a 2012 interview with People, 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.” Selleck has also stated he dislikes avocados.

Selleck was an accomplished indoor and beach volleyball player playing the outside hitter position for the Outrigger Canoe Club, Honolulu. (Son Kevin, attended Selleck’s alma mater, USC, and became a volleyball team All-American in 1990.) Outrigger Canoe Club teammate Dennis Berg, in the summer 2011 issue of Volleyball USA magazine, 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 avid ice hockey fan and has been seen attending Los Angeles Kings games at the Staples Center. He lists Anže 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.

In February 2009, Selleck joined the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund as national spokesman for the new Education Center built on the National Mall.

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. 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-pound [6 kg], single-shot, 1874 Sharps Rifle, with a 34-inch [86-cm] 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