Tom Selleck may be one of the most memorable faces on our screens now, with standout roles in Magnum PI, Blue Bloods,and Friends.
But it didn’t start out that way. In fact, he describes his screen career as entirely “accidental”.
The 79-year-old was in college studying business administration on a full basketball scholarship when he began his career with a basketball player role in a Pepsi commercial.
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He also appeared on the television game show The Dating Gamehad a stint on The Young and the Restless and had several small parts in western shows like The Rockford Files before his breakthrough role on Magnum, P.I. in 1980.
“It is really the story of an accidental career,” Selleck told People“I’d never taken an acting class. I had no training, no desire.”
“People would say, ‘Oh, he was bitten by the acting bug’ or, ‘He wanted to be a star,'” Selleck recalled, “I’ve never talked that way in my life. I just wanted to get a job. and work.”
Though his fifty-year-long career started by chance, he shared he worked hard for it. In his upcoming memoir, titled You never know, the star recalled his career being “a lot about failing, endless failures.
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“If you’re going to get in the acting business, you better get an appetite for it. And I tried to communicate that… Because it was kind of a long road.”
He shared that the writing of his memoir itself was hard, as he didn’t “have the hooks that a lot of people do.
“I didn’t rehabilitate myself or have this tragic life. I had my own share of certainly ups and downs, but I’ve been very fortunate.”
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Along the way, he met his wife Jillie in 1983 when she was performing in the London production of the musical cats, They married in 1987 and welcomed daughter Hannah a year later.
Selleck’s life now consists of retiring to his 1910 California ranch and enjoying time with his wife, with the actor enjoying “the friendship” and “sense of humor” they both share.
“I’ve had a very good life, a very lucky life,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s what I figured I’d be doing, but it’s with a lot of gratitude.”
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