Cowboys & Indians / October 2010 / Tom Selleck

 Print

Tom Selleck

Tom Selleck has been wowing audiences on both the big and little screen for more than 30 years. Still sporting his signature mustache, killer smile, and distinctive voice, Selleck has stood out in dozens of memorable television and movie roles, including such great characters as Thomas Sullivan Magnum in Magnum, P.I., the role that made him a household name; Monica’s older, debonair doctor boyfriend in Friends; the playboy architect in the adorable Three Men and a Baby and its sequel; the billionaire cowboy casino owner in Las Vegas; and the title character in CBS’s successful movie franchise Jesse Stone.

Most recently, Selleck packed his bags and temporarily left his Southern California ranch to move to New York to shoot his first ongoing series since Magnum: Blue Bloods, a contemporary hour-long drama about a multigenerational police family.

Selleck’s favorite characters, though, have always been cowboys, and before the worldwide success of Magnum he starred in his first cowboy role as Orrin Sackett in the l979 western The Sacketts, opposite screen legends Glenn Ford and Ben Johnson. Based on The Daybreakers and Sackett by Louis L’Amour, the story centers around three brothers — Selleck, Sam Elliott, and Jeff Osterhage as Orrin, Tell, and Tyrel Sackett — who travel west from their home in Tennessee to experience frontier life. The television two-night miniseries hit ratings gold and gave Selleck a solid leg up in the western genre.

“I was raised in tract housing but grew up watching westerns, and those movies had a deep-seated influence on me,” says Selleck. “I was very lucky to get cast in The Sacketts. My pal Sam Elliott, we started out in the business together, was already cast as my brother and this was a big plus, as I was pretty nervous. Other actors included Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, and Jack Elam — all these guys I’d seen in westerns. I got hooked on the genre, and although I’d ridden before, I really learned how to ride during that project because the director was a stickler for his actors looking authentic on horseback. I didn’t want to look like a slacker.”

Selleck was anything but a slacker on horseback, or on-screen. He stepped into the role of Magnum in 1980 and starred in that enormously popular show for eight seasons, during which he also starred in feature films including High Road to China, Lassiter, and Three Men and a Baby.

And of course, another western. After completing The Sacketts, Selleck, Elliot, Osterhage, and the creative team made a pact that they would work together again, but another Louis L’Amour project almost didn’t happen. The rights to make a Sacketts sequel got tied up in legal wranglings, so L’Amour wrote a new book with a movie in mind. The trio reunited three years later in The Shadow Riders, also a ratings winner.

“I’m proud to say that Louis and I became friends on the set [of The Sacketts], which meant a lot to me,” Selleck says. “He knew that we were all going to do another project together one way or another, so he created The Shadow Riders for us.” The new characters became the three Traven brothers, Selleck, Elliott, and Osterhage as Mac, Dal, and Jesse. Katharine Ross was added as Dal’s spunky gal Kate Connery.   

The Shadow Riders aired in 1982, but with his busy television and film-making schedule, it would be almost a decade before Selleck returned to westerns. And what a return it was: In the critically acclaimed 1990 feature film Quigley Down Under, he played the role of an American rifleman for hire who came to the Western Australian outback in the late 1800s.

“I had some juice after Magnum and the Three Men movies and was able to get Quigley made when studios weren’t making many westerns,” Selleck says. “I’m enormously proud of that movie. It made a lot of people a lot a money, and I just love that character.”

More memorable characters and westerns followed, with Selleck starring in Elmore Leonard’s Last Stand at Saber River, Louis L’Amour’s Crossfire Trail, and Monte Walsh (for which Selleck was also an executive producer) for TNT.

“Each of the first two movies set records, and I then read Jack Schaefer’s book Monte Walsh and saw the movie starring Lee Marvin and felt there was so much more to the character of Monte. We decided to make a movie that included a lot more of the book,” Selleck says.

Monte Walsh is a simple morality story about a cowboy living in the early 20th century when life was drastically changing. The movie became the highest rated basic cable movie ever to air on Friday night. “I think that people who say western movies no longer work are crazy,” Selleck says.

Selleck has lately garnered a new audience with his costarring role in Killers, opposite Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher; his yearlong run on Las Vegas; and six Jesse Stone movies. In Las Vegas, Selleck portrayed mysterious and wealthy A.J. Cooper, a Wyoming cattle rancher who buys the fictional Montecito Resort & Casino out of bankruptcy. “Jimmy Caan wanted to leave Las Vegas and asked me to take over,” he says. “It was a lot of fun.”

In Jesse Stone, for which Selleck serves as executive producer, he plays a life-weary New England police chief investigating a string of murders, based on the best-selling books by Robert B. Parker. The fourth installment of the series, Jesse Stone: Sea Change, earned him an Emmy nomination along with huge ratings and impressive reviews. Jesse Stone: No Remorse aired this past May and was responsible for CBS dominating the Sunday-night audience. And for those who can’t get enough of the character, Selleck has just finished filming another movie in the franchise, Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost, to air in 2011, with at least one more in development.

Production is well underway on CBS’s new fall program Blue Bloods. The series was created by veteran producer Leonard Goldberg, who has been responsible for such hits as Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, and Fantasy Island, just to name a few. “Leonard has been around for a while but is very ‘with it’ and a huge plus for the series,” Selleck says. “When CBS originally came to me with Blue Bloods, I told the network that I wouldn’t do the series if it was at the expense of Jesse Stone. The reason I could say this was that both projects are for CBS, so when they ordered an eighth Jesse I went ahead and did the pilot for Blue Bloods. The series is a very character-driven piece about three generations of the Reagans, an Irish family who are all cops. Most police dramas currently on the air are what I call ‘procedurals,’ and while this certainly has police work in it, it’s more about this family.”

The elder statesman of Blue Bloods is the character of Selleck’s father, a former police chief played by Len Cariou, whose sons are both cops and daughter is a prosecuting attorney. Selleck plays son Frank Reagan.

“During Sunday dinner, which will probably be a part of every show, Frank now sits at the patriarch seat and his father is at the other end of the table,” he says. “The sons, daughters, and grandchildren all come to dinner and it’s not always civil.” An adult family drama, the series is being written by two members of The Sopranos writing team. Blue Bloods will premiere Friday nights on CBS in the fall.

The past 18 months have been a busy time for Selleck, as he had to squeeze in filming Killers as well. In the humorous spy caper, he played Katherine Heigl’s father, Mr. Kornfeldt. “I don’t get to play comedy enough, and this was a great role for me. Trying to be as serious as a heart attack, I felt that no man was good enough for my daughter, especially a man (Ashton Kutcher) who’s a secret agent and a killer.”

 

Having worked pretty consistently over the last five years, for Selleck, a vacation is spending time at home on his small ranch in Ventura County, where he raises avocados. “A working 60-acre ranch is a lot more practical than a 60-acre house,” he says with a laugh. “So I started a business and we raise 20 acres of avocados. I’d heard they grow well on slopes, which is what I have, so we dug a well and found a pretty good water source. We’ve been growing them for the last 15 years. We also have ranch horses, Montana and Big Red, as well as a pony named Taffy on the property. Of course I still have Spike, now 25, my horse from Quigley Down Under.”

Does Selleck still ride? “I’m finding that I don’t ride as much as I used to, unless I’m preparing for a movie role, because I’m always laboring, clearing brush and things like that. But the work is good for me as I don’t like to go to the gym.”

Twenty-one-year-old Hannah, daughter of Selleck and his wife Jillie Mack, is now the rider of the family. “Hannah rides professionally and keeps her horse in a more professional riding barn, where she does her training,” says Selleck proudly. “She is a very competitive rider, now jumps at the Grand Prix level, and has dreams of staying in the sport. But the Olympic road is a tough one with only four members on the team and two alternates. Frequently competitors ride into their 60s, but I do think she’s good enough to make it. It’s also a very expensive sport at the level she’s in, so I guess I’d better keep working.”

Selleck’s television career began with a couple of appearances on The Dating Game when he was attending theater classes at the University of Southern California. His terminal shyness kept him from getting chosen as the bachelorette’s dream date, both times. Over the next decade he appeared in low-budget movies, guest starred in ongoing series, and made 11 television pilots, only one of which ever sold.

But Selleck’s luck changed in a big way in 1980 when he was cast as Magnum at the age of 35. Eight years and an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award later, both Selleck and Magnum were indelibly etched in the minds of television viewers around the world. “I became an overnight success,” he deadpans, “at age 35.”

Today, having worked in almost every genre, including comedy, action, and adventure, Selleck has a goal of keeping the western alive. His favorite movies include Red River, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, and, of course, Quigley and Monte Walsh, who Selleck feels was the most complex of his western characters. “I think that movies will always be about character, and if you don’t have a character that you love, hate, or love to hate, the picture isn’t going to work,” Selleck says. “It’s certainly what drives a great American art form — the western.”

In tribute to his work in and love of the western genre, he was recently honored by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum at the Western Heritage Awards. “I walked through the Hall of Great Western Performers and all my heroes were there — Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart — they’re all in there. It was huge deal for me and I cried when I gave my speech,” he says.

During that poignant moment, Selleck brought up several lines from Monte Walsh when the character Chet suggested to Monte that he could give up being a cowboy and work in a hardware store. “Monte said, ‘That ain’t no way to live.’ To which Chet replied, ‘You can’t be a cowboy for the rest of your life.’ ” Selleck then told the audience that being inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers might just be the next best thing. “And it was.”

Issue: October 2010

Filed under: Art-Entertainment, Film, TV