The Magnificent Tom Selleck: A Journey Through Time and Television

A Tranquil Oasis Amidst the Hollywood Hustle

Picture this: Tom Selleck, astride his ATV, switches off the engine. Suddenly, a serene silence envelops his 63-acre ranch, a verdant haven roughly an hour's drive from the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown.

"It's like a reverie to me. I'm familiar with every nook and cranny. Each day, I venture out, inspect my wells, survey the surroundings, observe what's flourishing. It's the perfect antidote to all the mayhem."

Selleck acquired this former Dean Martin property in 1988, maintaining it with the fruits of his labor from a half-century of portraying formidable characters on the small screen: "Magnum, P.I." in the 80s, a stint on "Friends" in the 90s, and now the enduring CBS show "Blue Bloods," which has been running since 2010.

A Haven from Hollywood's Glare

This ranch serves as Selleck's refuge from the red carpets and other venues where people tend to focus on his iconic mustache rather than meeting his gaze, repeatedly asking him the same tired questions. (Who designed his outfit? No one. He's wearing a tuxedo. The one he purchased. Come on, folks!)

His daily routine involves tending to four canines, four sheep, two bovines, and a handful of equines. Selleck himself has planted over 500 oak trees on the property.

"My back can attest to the exact number."

A Legacy Rooted in Nature

He points out a young oak with a creeping dark coloration on its trunk.

"This one's a bit under the weather, and I'm quite concerned about it. I planted it in honor of my father, and he pruned it himself."

Selleck restarts the ATV and drives up to the ranch's summit, where gravel crunches beneath the wheels and whiptail lizards scurry away. At the peak stands a gazebo, a relic from the Halifax, Nova Scotia, set of the first of nine TV movies in which he portrayed yet another law enforcement officer: the troubled detective Jesse Stone.

A View from the Top

He refers to this vantage point as the Jesse Stone Lookout. From here, one can discern the aftermath of a 1993 wildfire that scorched 53 acres of the ranch, prompting Selleck to plant 2,000 avocado trees in the newly barren land - most of which later succumbed to drought. From this perch, one can also spot a property developed by Sylvester Stallone, which Selleck humorously dubs "Stallonehenge".

As his 80th year approaches, Selleck has two significant milestones on the horizon: his memoir, "You Never Know," hits shelves on Tuesday, and on May 17, "Blue Bloods" will air the first half of its series finale.

The Bricklayer of Hollywood

On his ranch, Tom Selleck is a nurturing arborist. In Hollywood, he considers himself a bricklayer. He built his ranch oak by oak, and he constructed his career brick by brick.

Eventually, one might think you'd run out of bricks, right? Selleck says he would have happily continued with "Blue Bloods," but CBS had budgetary constraints to consider. Last month, it was the seventh-most-watched show on broadcast television. Approximately 5 million Americans still tune in on Friday nights to watch Selleck embody stern yet loving masculinity as a New York police commissioner. While it's not the 18 million who watched "Magnum" 40 years ago, times have indeed changed.

But has Selleck?

A Towering Presence

Upon meeting him, it's not the mustache that first catches your eye. It's his imposing height: a statuesque 6-foot-4. On a balmy spring day, he sports loose-fitting blue jeans, a red checkered shirt, and a tweed vest.

At 79, he exudes a grandfatherly aura. His anecdotes are infused with nostalgia and introspection. He often breaks into hearty laughter, his dimples forming to reveal glimpses of the young heartthrob his friend Ted Danson describes as "a magnificent specimen of a man."

Words to Live By

Selleck is fond of aphorisms and mantras, both in writing and conversation:

• "Keep laying bricks."
• "Always expect the expected."
• And the line from his 1990 western "Quigley Down Under" that he wanted as the memoir's title: "Don't know where I'm goin', but there's no use bein' late."

Reading his memoir feels remarkably similar to chatting with him in the 114-year-old hunting lodge on his ranch, adorned with a stuffed owl and a painting of director John Ford, who collaborated with John Wayne on 14 films - the kind of westerns that Selleck would later bring to both the big and small screens.

A Gentleman of the Old School

Danson, who co-starred with Selleck in his only bona fide box office hit, "Three Men and a Baby," adds:

"He is an old-fashioned - in the best sense of the word - gentleman. He embodies that perfect western hero, the quintessential Gary Cooper leading man."

Privacy in the Public Eye

Selleck is a private individual, particularly when it comes to his political views. He briefly served as an unpaid board member of the National Rifle Association but has made it clear that he was never its spokesperson. His political donations have been minimal and bipartisan.

He's even more reticent about his personal life, which made crafting a memoir challenging.

"I didn't write the book to set the record straight. I didn't write it to settle scores. I had no intention of making it a political book, and I certainly didn't want to discuss my dating history."

A Career Built on Charm and Persistence

About half the memoir focuses on his struggles to achieve success before the age of 35. There are a few celebrity anecdotes - one features an impatient Frank Sinatra, in the twilight of his acting career, demanding Jack Daniel's and wearing a colostomy bag on the set of "Magnum, P.I." - and a few gentle complaints about various strikes by the Screen Actors Guild.

The book concludes with the "Magnum, P.I." finale in 1988 - leaving about half of his life (and all of his iconic mustache!) unchronicled.

"I had no plan," he admits.

Of course, he didn't have a plan. He rarely did, even before he achieved fame. As he's fond of saying: He didn't know where he was going, but there was no use being late.

A Legacy Rooted in Television

Everything about Selleck harkens back to a bygone era: the fierce desire for privacy, the unspoken politics, the mustache, yes. And, most notably, the career itself. It's almost inconceivable that anyone could reach Selleck's level of fame primarily through television today.

"Gen Z-ers, well, they don't know who I am," he says.

Everyone else recognizes him from "Friends," "Blue Bloods," the Jesse Stone films, and "Magnum." And maybe "Three Men and a Baby."

The End of an Era

"Blue Bloods," a procedural about a multigenerational Irish American family working in New York law enforcement, is concluding after 14 seasons and 293 episodes - 131 more than "Magnum." The crux of each episode is a family dinner where they discuss and debate their work. Much like how "Magnum" used its glossy exterior to introduce Vietnam into prime time, "Blue Bloods" occasionally attempts to process, through scenes of family drama, America's complex relationship with law and order.

Selleck isn't quite ready for the show to end. He's reluctant to fully relinquish network TV - which once united Americans en masse and provided him with the bricks to build his career - to streaming services, where audiences are fragmented and which might not accommodate Tom Selleck in his twilight years.

A Peaceful Retreat

But out here on his ranch, he doesn't have to dwell on all that if he chooses not to. He doesn't have to think about being famous, or about his wardrobe choices, or about contracts, ratings, or what happens when you stop laying bricks.

"I have plenty of trees to watch over," Tom Selleck says.

And if he decides to shave the mustache out here, he certainly can. His trees won't raise any objections.