Indeed, he was among Hollywood's hottest television sex symbols of the '80s, and yet, despite his charisma and charm, he has yet to translate his popularity into a major screen career.

Born in Detroit, but raised in Los Angeles, Selleck did modeling work and attended the University of Southern California on an athletic scholarship. He majored in business administration; however, a drama coach  suggested he try acting.

Selleck made his feature film debut as a studly secretary in the abysmal but campy Myra Breckinridge (1970) after signing a seven-year contract with Fox studios. 

Through the '70s, Selleck had small roles in a few feature films, worked in commercials and appeared as a guest star on television with his largest role on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. 

Later in the decade, he was a semi-regular between 1979 and 1980 on the popular Rockford Files, starring James Garner; and he had a major role in the two-part television western saga The Sacketts in 1979.

But it would not be until 1980 that Selleck would get his big break -- playing laid-back, mustachioed, Hawaiian shirt-wearing private detective Thomas Sullivan Magnum in the series Magnum, P.I. 

The top-rated show was perfectly suited to Selleck's style, and during it's eight year run made the hunky actor a major television star and the winner of an Emmy and a Golden Globe award. 

But TV stardom did not come without a price for Selleck, who lost out on the opportunity to play Indiana Jones in George Lucas's lucrative Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) because the Magnum, P.I. producers would not release him from the show.

Later they eased up, and Selleck was able to star in television movies and feature films such as Lassiter (1984).

  Home  | Search  | Site map  |  Guest book
Media  |  Plot  |  Characters  |  Miscellaneous