Tom Selleck needs no introduction. The 78-year-old actor has been in the entertainment industry for many years. Despite some recent health scares, he doesn’t seem to be planning on retiring anytime soon. He has recently starred in the hit show Blue Bloods.
Selleck’s look has always been iconic, and we’re all familiar with it. But now, fans are shocked because he has removed something big: his famous mustache.
Tom Selleck wasn’t always sure he wanted to be an actor. He was born on January 29, 1945, in Detroit, Michigan, and his family later moved to California, where he grew up in the San Fernando Valley.
Tom Selleck – early life
Tom Selleck dreamed of going to the University of Southern California (USC), but his family couldn’t afford the tuition.
In 1962, he graduated from Grant High School. He then went to Los Angeles Valley College and lived with his parents to save money.
At first, it seemed like Tom might become an athlete rather than an actor. He was a promising basketball player and dreamed of going pro. You can imagine how thrilled he was when he got a basketball scholarship to the University of Southern California.
“I never did school plays. I had no interest,” Tom told AARP in 2015.
Eventually, Tom realized basketball might not be his future career. So, he had a backup plan and took side jobs to help pay for college. He started by doing TV commercials and appeared on The Dating Game.
Not long after, Tom was offered a spot in 20th Century Fox’s talent program, where he began to hone his acting skills. But after two years, he left for six months of active duty in the military.
When Selleck returned, he was dropped from the talent program. However, he didn’t give up and was sure he would become an actor.
In the early 1970s, he got small roles in various TV shows. As he neared his mid-30s, he starred in six different TV pilots, but he still didn’t get his big break.
Tom Selleck in ‘Magnum, P.I.’
According to Tom, this is why many people thought he was an overnight success when he got the role of Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I.
In reality, he had struggled and worked very hard for years.
“The luckiest thing that happened was that I didn’t get a real job until I was 35,” Selleck explained.
“When I was 25, I looked 35 but sounded 15. Many good actors start as young leading men but don’t last because audiences don’t accept them as adults.”
Magnum, P.I. became a huge success. The crime drama series ran from 1980 to 1988 and made Tom an instant star. He was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series five years in a row and won it in 1984. Without the show, he might have quit acting for good.
Tom became a cultural icon through Magnum, P.I., and his career has been incredibly successful ever since. He has starred in movies like Three Men and a Baby and In & Out. He also became known to a new generation when he played Monica Geller’s older boyfriend, Richard Burke, starting in Season 2 of Friends.
In 2010, Tom got the role of Frank Reagan on the drama series Blue Bloods, opening a new and exciting chapter in his career. The show has been running for 13 seasons.
“I never thought I’d be lucky enough to do a show that had that long a run. Maybe Magnum, P.I. could have reached that number because nobody wanted to cancel it. I was the guy causing the divorce,” Selleck explained.
Tom Selleck says his back is “messed up”
“I had done the number one movie in the US, Three Men and a Baby, and I wanted to focus on having a family. Few TV shows have as many episodes as Blue Bloods, which shows that we’re doing something right. Everyone in the cast is very dedicated to their work, and it’s nice to see our professionalism being rewarded.”
In many movies and TV shows, actors use stunt doubles. It’s often a dangerous job, but some actors insist on doing their own stunts.
Tom Selleck used to do most of his own stunts, but it has taken a toll on his body. “My back’s kind of messed up,” Selleck said.
“When you do stunts in movies — I did a lot of them — you’re taking risks, but you also spend a lot of time sitting around. You might do a fight scene and then sit in a chair for a while. It’s not like you have a personal trainer on set saying, ‘Okay, we’re ready to go, but Tom needs ten minutes to stretch and warm up first.’”
“And I think the cost of doing all those stunts adds up. I talk to my peers sometimes, and you can see how all those stunts, even if they weren’t that hard, have taken a toll over the years. The stop-and-go nature of it is tough on the body.”
Tom Selleck once shared that he doesn’t enjoy going to the gym. Instead, he stays fit by working on his family ranch in Ventura, California.
“I have a 63-acre ranch, and I do a lot of the hard work myself, like clearing brush and planting trees. We have about a hundred ancient oak trees that I planted. Altogether, I’ve probably planted a thousand trees myself.”
Tom Selleck – iconic mustache
While Tom Selleck has a strong interest in horses outside of his acting career, he’s also on the verge of becoming a writer.
In an interview with TV Insider last year, Tom revealed that he’s writing a book.
“I’m halfway done. It’s about my 50 years in show business. The tentative title is Don’t Know Where I’m Going, But There’s No Use Being Late. I doubt I’ll change it. That’s really the story of an actor’s life. You finish a job, like a show or a movie, and then you’re unemployed again. It’s fun. I hope the book is kind of funny because I don’t take myself too seriously. A sense of humor is crucial for a long career, and it’s important to have in your work,” he said.
Since Tom Selleck became famous through Magnum P.I., his mustache has become iconic. It’s one of the things people associate with him, and he was worried that his mustache might define his career. Tom felt like he would always be asked about it.
“After Magnum, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m going to be asked about my mustache for the rest of my life,’” he once said.
“Most of the time when I got a job, they said the mustache was fine, but I’d have to shave it off for the role. I was born without it, so I’m okay with working without it,” Tom Selleck said.
He joked that his mustache might have even helped him get the job on Blue Bloods.
“Well, it got me the job on Blue Bloods,” he said. “The director suggested I could play the character without a mustache. I told him, ‘Sure, I was born that way.’”
Tom Selleck ditches signature mustache – almost unrecognizable
Tom Selleck’s mustache has been iconic, but now he looks completely different because he shaved it off.
The 78-year-old actor hadn’t been seen in public for over a year until recently when he was photographed driving his silver pickup truck near his home.
According to Page Six, which obtained the photos, Selleck looked quite different without his famous mustache. Instead, he sported a full beard while running errands in the San Fernando Valley.
Tom’s career is widely admired, but another reason to celebrate is his long-lasting marriage to Jillie Mack. Unlike many celebrity couples, they have been happily married for over 35 years.
In an interview with Closer Weekly, Selleck recalled meeting Jillie for the first time at a performance of the musical Cats, where she was starring. This was in the 1980s, shortly after Tom’s previous marriage to model Jacqueline Ray ended after a decade.
While Selleck says he’s not as smooth with the ladies as his on-screen counterparts, he approached his future wife backstage, though she was the one who made the first move.
Tom Selleck – family
“She had to go on [stage]. I was hemming and hawing, and she finally asked, ‘Do you want to meet for a cocktail?’” Selleck recalled.
The date apparently went well, and Selleck and Mack were married in 1987 in a private ceremony. One year after their wedding, their daughter Hannah was born.
Ever since, Selleck has put his family ahead of stardom and has tried to keep his personal life out of the Hollywood spotlight.
In fact, he even let his acting career take a back seat to ensure he had adequate time to spend with his wife and beloved daughter.
“I quit Magnum to have a family,” Tom Selleck told People in 2012.
“It took a long time to get off the train, but I try very hard to have balance, and this ranch has helped me do that.”
“We both thought it was the best environment for Hannah to grow up,” Jillie Mack added.
Tom – a great fan of nature and the outdoors – was keen on sharing his passion with his daughter. Soon enough, he’d passed it on to her!
Tom and his wife Jillie live on the 65-acre ranch in Ventura, and Hannah was brought up there. Both father and daughter share a passion for horses; later on, the two had a side business breeding horses.
