The stage curtains opens and Tom Selleck is already seated, decked out in a three-piece blue suit, wearing what look like black tactical or hiking boots and sporting that famous, perfect mustache. He’s being interviewed by entertainment reporter George Pennacchio to promote You Never Know: A Memoir for Live Talks LA, a slate of conversations generally focused on autobiographies. Selleck is instantly charming, affable, and funny for the sell out crowd as he launches into how he became an “accidental actor”. At 79 Selleck is still going strong with Top 10 hit Blue Bloods winding down its 14th and final (for now) season on CBS.
Describing himself as “old fashioned” and computer illiterate, you get the sense Selleck has his opinions and convictions but has no desire to push them onto others. Fame was never the goal and Pennacchio recalled red carpets where Selleck’s long time and jovial wife Jillie would do more talking than the star. Selleck thoughtfully reminisced in the fast paced one-hour conversation, looking less Thomas Magnum and more Theordore Roosevelt. The book took shape over the pandemic and the recent Hollywood strikes with Selleck putting thoughts to pen and paper, soliciting feedback from his family over dinner and then cleaned up by co-writer Ellis Henican.
The Great Escape and The Rockford Files star James Garner was a mentor who encouraged Selleck to push back on the offer to star in “Magnum” (Selleck thinks Magnum p.i. is a dumb title) and make it something more creatively exciting. While that was being worked out, Selleck regaled the audience with the legendary story of being interviewed then cast as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. His own agent told him he was at the end of the list but Steven Spielberg and George Lucas liked him and invited him to do a screen test. Selleck was offered the role but openly told Spielberg and Lucas about his pending Magnum commitment with CBS ultimately not allowing Selleck to do the film even though they hadn’t officially picked up the show.
There’s no ill will, he and Harrison Ford share the same attorney and it’s been a joke between them for years. Most importantly, having two titans of film offer him the role provided confidence and a sense that he was enough. Magnum became a smash hit for 8 seasons of course, drawing fans from around the world including bestselling, award-winning, rabble-rousing singer and actor Frank Sinatra. Co-star Larry Manetti was friendly with “Ol’ Blue Eyes” with Sinatra stating he’d like to be on the show but wanted Selleck to ask him. Sinatra stipulated he had to beat someone up during his appearance, didn’t take a salary but his expenses totaled $250,000, much to the chagrin of CBS. Asked if he would revisit Magnum today, Selleck responded if they made the character 70 years old he would be more inclined than if they tried to pass him off as a younger man.
Selleck mentioned getting some flack about his mustache and short shorts but as a former basketball player, the style of the era and the abundance of shorts wearers in Hawaii, he never quite got the fuss. He’s happy now that short shorts have come back in vogue. And hey, if you had legs like his (or Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers in Rocky III), you’d be wearing them too.