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Tom Selleck - TV's Private Eye

© Dexter Wolfe

Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, this guy’s hulking charm is accented with a killer smile, rugged looks and the potential to be a major star.

His career was somehow typecast by TV lover’s favorite character, Magnum P.I., the Hawaiian investigator who always seemed to be a hero.

Born January 29, 1945, in Detroit, this now 58-year-old actor is instantly and unmistakably recognized with his looks. His father, Robert Selleck, was the first vice-president of Coldwell Bank and a major real-estate investor. His mother, Martha, is a homemaker. He has two brothers, Robert Jr. and Dan, whom both make their living through real estate and run a company called Selleck Properties.

Naturally, he started out doing modeling work while attending University of Southern California on a basketball athletic scholarship. Selleck majored in business administration and was once a USC campus representative for United Airlines.

His life was side tracked at college when his original intention was to be an architect. He found that the classes were full so he happened to go to the next class registration table which was acting. At one point he was a member of the California National Guard and was activated and served during the Watts riots.

Selleck’s first TV appearance was as a college senior on The Dating Game in 1967. Soon after he appeared in commercials for products such as Pepsi-Cola and then appeared in a recurring role on the soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973).

By 1969 he was appearing on major TV shows like Marcus Welby, M.D., The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Charlie’s Angels (1976), The Rockford Files (1974) and Taxi (1978). He appeared in an episode of Murder She Wrote (1984) and even the sensation Friends (1994).

In his first few movies he played the handsome hunk, few, if any lines. Selleck plays the stud in the off-beat film Myra Breckinridge (1970), The Seven Minutes (1971) and Daughters of Satan (1972) whose title alone makes it no real winner. He also appeared in Terminal Island (1973), Midway (1976) with the leading man Charlton Heston, and in Robin Cook’s thriller Coma (1978).

Selleck made a great cowboy in the movie The Sacketts (1979) with the powerful leading man Sam Elliot that was an adaptation of Louis L'Amour's third novel in the Sackett series.

Selleck married Jacquelyn Ray, actress and model, in 1970 but was divorced by 1979, six months before he began filming Magnum P.I. He later married in 1987 to his current wife, Jillie Mack, actress and dancer who has appeared in television roles on Magnum P.I., ER (1995) and Frazier (1993). Selleck has a stepson; Kevin (born, 1966) from his first marriage and a daughter Hannah (born, 1989).

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