★★★
IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to read Tom Selleck’s memoir, written with Fox political analyst Ellis Henican, and come away disliking him. The young Selleck who is its main subject is a decent kid, responsible to a fault and anxious to do good work. Surprisingly anxious, in fact, for a 6’ 4” heartthrob with the moustache-growing abilities of a god —but all the more relatable for it.
Selleck fell into acting almost by accident but quickly got serious about the craft, building his skills one “brick” at a time —a labour-intensive metaphor that he uses repeatedly. Through endless graft on failed pilots, TV guest roles and schlock films, Selleck works his way towards the big time, with mini-series The Sacketts finally bringing him serious heat. It brings him, in fact, to a crossroads: the pilot for a new series called Magnum (the P.I. was a late and despised addition) or a Steven Spielberg movie called Raiders Of The Lost Ark. This pilot was picked up and film history shaped accordingly, but Selleck’s enthusiasm for the role he lost, and his philosophical attitude in dealing with it, suggests he would have captured Indy’s energy rather well.