Selleck was born in Detroit in 1945, and he moved with his family to Sherman Oaks, California, a Los Angeles suburb, in 1948.
After graduating from high school, Selleck briefly enrolled in community college and lived at home. Thanks to his towering 6’4″ frame, he scouted for the University of Southern California basketball team, transferring to the school in his junior year to play on the USC Trojans, as well as to pitch for the university’s baseball team.
Selleck majored in business administration and tried acting in his senior year. He got bitten by the acting bug big time, dropping out of school shortly before earning his bachelor’s degree, to study acting with the legendary coach Milton Katselas (who himself trained under the iconic acting teacher Lee Strasberg).
While pursuing stardom, Selleck served in the California Army National Guard from 1967 to 1973. Concurrently, he began appearing in commercials for brands like Pepsi, Right Guard, Salem cigarettes, Close-Up toothpaste and Revlon men’s cologne. He also had bit parts in films and guest appearances on TV series during this time, most notably as investigator Lance White in The Rockford Files. Throughout his early career, Selleck starred in several TV pilots that were never picked up.
That finally changed in 1980, when he first starred as the titular Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I. Before the series started filming, he was famously offered to star as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but had to turn it down.
“You can’t do what ifs. There was a what if, but it’s a very long story,” he explained to Parade. “After turning down Indiana Jones, there was a what if, which was this: CBS, in a dispute with Universal who was producing Magnum, took Magnum off the fall schedule. Now if I couldn’t do Indiana Jones and Magnum went away, which was possible for about a month, that would have made it harder to be philosophical about it.”
He added, “I signed a contract for Magnum, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I blew most screen tests I ever did because I was too nervous. The screen test with Steven Spielberg, I already knew I had the Magnum commitment and I knew it might be a conflict, so I didn’t put the same pressure on myself.”
“Look, I’m not tired of hearing the story, but I’m sure Harrison Ford is,” he concluded. “He’s created this indelible character. There’s a lot of what ifs constantly. I think I did the right thing. I’ve heard stories where actors got a better offer and were committed to something and drove into a wall to injure themselves, so they didn’t have to do the lesser of the two commitments. Crazy stuff.”
It clearly all worked out really well, and Selleck won an Emmy for Magnum, P.I. in 1984.
Tom Selleck net worth – Tom Selleck Friends – FRIENDS — “The One Where Ross and Rachel…You Know” Episode 15 — Pictured: (l-r) Tom Selleck as Dr. Richard Burke, Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica Geller (Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Tom Selleck as Dr. Richard Burke and Courteney Cox as Monica Gellar in “Friends” Season 2, Episode 15: “The One Where Ross and Rachel…You Know”
Following the success of Magnum, Selleck has worked steadily in film and TV, most famously in Three Men and a Baby; the recurring role of Dr. Richard Burke, Monica’s ophthalmologist love interest on Friends (for which he was nominated for an Emmy); Ivan Tiggs on Boston Legal and Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods.