Tom Selleck got his start in television by appearing on The Dating Game in the 1960s and his best movies and TV shows see him exude the same charisma he showed there. He spent nearly 20 years appearing in commercials and other supporting roles before the television series Magnum, P.I. gave him his big break in the 1980s. Since then, he has appeared in a variety of movies and TV shows.
Selleck has proven that he has a great gravitas on screen. Some of his best movies and TV shows place him in leadership roles or as more understated heroes. He has a special affinity for Westerns as well, which help to show a more old Hollywood star quality in his work. From police procedurals, to sitcoms, to legal dramas, to those Westerns, Selleck has done it all and established an impressive body of work.
10
The Jesse Stone Movies (2005-2015)
As Jesse Stone
Hallmark is not the only network to release series of movies featuring the same character. In the late 2000s, CBS did just that with nine Jesse Stone movies. The movies are inspired by the first nine novels in a series penned by Robert B. Parker before his death. Selleck played the titular character.
The first eight movies were broadcast on CBS while the final movie was actually broadcast on Hallmark.
The movie series follows the titular Stone after he is forced into retirement from his job as a police chief. He ends up working as a consultant for local law enforcement on numerous cases, but the movies work less like modern police dramas and more like modern Westerns. Stone gets into all kinds of trouble with his dog and helps save the day in every story.
Not only did Selleck star in the movies, but he also co-wrote some of them, and it’s clear he had a lot of love for the role. Selleck was also nominated for an Emmy for the Jesse Stone movie Sea Change. Jesse Stone’s creator Robert P. Parker praised Selleck for his work on the movies on his own blog:
As you may know, Tom Selleck has been nominated for an Emmy Award this year for his role as Jesse Stone in the recent “Sea Change”. No one deserves it more. Tom nails the character.
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9
Quigley Down Under (1990)
As Matthew Quigley
Quigley Down Under
- Release Date
-
October 17, 1990
- Runtime
-
119 Minutes
Quigley Down Under might not have had an overly warm reception from critics at the time, but the ‘90s as a whole were not kind to Westerns. The public had mostly lost interest in those stories, but Selleck provided a throwback to old Hollywood in his role as Matthew Quigley. Despite the grittiness of the movie, he was charming and carried the movie well.
The movie sees Matthew Quigley answer an ad in Australia. His job, according to the ad, is to protect a family in the Outback. The sharpshooter soon finds out, however, that the job is not that cut and dry. His new employer actually wants him to kill the Aboriginal people on the land. When Quigley refuses, he is beaten and left for dead. He teams up with the very people he was hired to kill in order to get revenge on the man who did it – played by the always fantastic Alan Rickman.
Alan Rickman and Tom Selleck facing off is incredibly fun to watch. Few can make villains as interesting as Rickman and Selleck knows exactly how to work against him.
8
Las Vegas (2007-2008)
As AJ Cooper
Tom Selleck joined Las Vegas late in the show’s run, but he was a welcome addition to the cast. He only appears in the show’s final season, coming in as the new person in charge of the casino after James Caan left the series.
Las Vegas follows the ins and outs of a casino in the titular city. Every episode features the employees dealing with the demands of their high-rolling guests, problems with other employees, and often, criminal mischief.
Other than Caan, the core cast remains intact for the final season, but bringing in Selleck allows the show a little breath of fresh air, just enough to keep viewers interested in new character dynamics. He fit in well with the existing chemistry of the actors, but created new conflicts in the storyline, and he was just what the show needed at the time.
7
Meet The Robinsons (2007)
As Cornelius Robinson
Meet the Robinsons
- Release Date
-
March 30, 2007
- Runtime
-
95 Minutes
Tom Selleck has not done a lot of voice over work in his long career, which is surprising. He has the kind of voice that lends itself well to serious characters, so he works great as a leader or a father figure, which is who he is in Meet The Robinsons.
Meet The Robinsons is loosely based on the children’s book A Day With Wilbur Robinson. It features a young orphan named Lewis meeting the time-traveling Wilbur Robinson when he sets out to find his birth mother. Wilbur is on the hunt for the villainous “Bowler Hat Guy,” and the two end up teaming up to protect Lewis’ future. They go on an adventure to the future to meet the Robinson family as well.
Though Meet The Robinsons was praised by critics for its animation and its pacing, the movie did not do well at the box office by modern standards, only just making back its estimated budget. Despite that, Selleck’s role in the movie, though it is smaller than some of the other cast members, demonstrates how perfectly suited his voice is to the role of animated fathers. There is a depth and gravitas to his voice that really works for him here.
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6
Three Men And A Baby (1987)
As Peter Mitchell
Three Men and a Baby
- Release Date
-
November 27, 1987
- Runtime
-
102 Minutes
…the movie also provides Selleck’s Peter with a great character arc as he eventually embraces the idea and practice of fatherhood…
Some of the jokes in 1980s movies might not go over as well today, but some of the storylines are still modern classics. Three Men and a Baby has inspired plenty of modern takes on the story since it debuted.
The movie sees three bachelors having to suddenly care for an infant when a baby girl is left on their doorstep. As they try to figure out just which woman from one of their pasts might have left the baby with them, they all take on caregiver roles and bond with the little girl. A sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, was released in 1990.
At the time the movie was made, Selleck’s career was on the rise, and he was sharing the screen with established comedic actors Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg. The three men had a great camaraderie on screen that made audiences want to see more of them together. Beyond that, however, the movie also provides Selleck’s Peter with a great character arc as he eventually embraces the idea and practice of fatherhood – whether the baby is his or not – and gets to have plenty of emotional moments within the comedy.
5
Boston Legal (2006)
As Ivan Tiggs
Boston Legal
- Release Date
-
2004 – 2007
- Showrunner
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David E. Kelley
In addition to his starring roles in movies and TV, Selleck has also appeared in plenty of supporting parts and guest-starring spots in television. In 2006, he made a handful of appearances in the drama Boston Legal.
Boston Legal is a spinoff from The Practice. The series follows Alan Shore (James Spader) and his coworkers at the legal firm Crane, Poole, and Schmidt, where several other characters who first appeared in The Practice also work. The lawyers handle both civil and criminal cases, giving a variety of investigations and drama for the legal procedural.
Selleck appears in the series for four episodes as an old friend of Denny Crane (William Shatner), one of the partners of the firm. The two have a relatively easy chemistry that makes it easy to see them as friends outside the courtroom, but combatants inside of it. Selleck portrays Ivan Tiggs as someone who has a wealth of legal knowledge and experience, making him hard to beat. He has not often played lawyers in his acting career, but Boston Legal demonstrated he could give courtroom speeches their necessary weight.
4
In & Out (1997)
As Peter Malloy
In & Out
- Release Date
-
September 10, 1997
- Runtime
-
90 minutes
Selleck has played a lot of law enforcement or investigators in his long career – and the kind of guy who always gets his girl. In & Out provides a bit of a departure from that as he stars as an entertainment journalist who is also an out gay man.
In & Out sees the journalist travel to a small town to profile a local teacher after a former student thanks the teacher in his Oscar acceptance speech and reveals the man as gay despite the teacher being engaged to a woman. While the movie is ultimately a comedy, it paints an interesting story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality.
Selleck’s Peter Malloy still has his trademark charisma as he works to get information from sources. He does not, however, have Selleck’s iconic mustache. He also gets to show off a bit of vulnerability as he helps Kevin Kline’s Howard come to terms with who he is.
3
Blue Bloods (2010-2024)
As Frank Reagan
…Selleck anchors the cast.
Blue Bloods doubles as both a police procedural and a family drama. The show, which ran for an impressive 200+ episodes before it ended, focuses on the Reagan family, all of whom work in some form of law enforcement, but mostly the police force.
While the show is often pointed out as a dramatic vehicle for Donnie Wahlberg, the entire ensemble is what makes the show work. Every member of the Reagan family brings a different layer to the group. Selleck stars as the family patriarch. He is often there to provide sage advice or reprimand his kids – even as their boss instead of their father.
A spinoff called Boston Blue was ordered after the show’s cancelation.
While the rest of the cast might get the more dramatic storylines, Selleck anchors the cast. He is the family’s foundation and support system as they face various struggles. He also allows the show to focus on some more complex storylines as he has to weigh his feelings as his kids’ boss ahead of his feelings as their father more often than not. That creates a very different tension for the show than most police procedurals have.
2
Friends (1996-2000)
As Richard Burke
Friends
8/10
…one of Monica’s earliest (and most-liked) boyfriends.
Tom Selleck might not have been a main character on the must-see-TV sitcom, but he did make a huge impact on the storylines. He is a fan-favorite character and one of the best relationships Monica has in Friends.
Friends focuses on the lives of six friends as they live and work in New York City while in their late 20s and early 30s. While some of them are related by blood, and some have been friends since childhood, others are friends that have made connections since their move into the city. The series sees them adapt to adulthood by finding serious relationships, starting new career paths, and starting families.
Friends won a Golden Globe and six Emmys during its run.
Richard Burke recurs throughout the early seasons of the show as one of Monica’s earliest (and most-liked) boyfriends. He is the father of one of her classmates from her teen years, and the show explores why the age gap between them might be strange, but also why the two work so well together. Richard is not a one-off caricature of someone in the New York dating pool. Selleck plays him with a wisdom and a dry humor that makes him fit in with the group despite not being the man Monica ultimately ends up with.
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1
Magnum, P.I. (1980-1988)
As Thomas Magnum
Magnum P.I.
- Release Date
-
December 11, 1980
- Showrunner
-
Glen A. Larson
- Directors
-
Glen A. Larson
Magnum, P.I. gave Tom Selleck his big break and it is still his most iconic role. It is also the best TV series Selleck has done in his career. The series ran for more than 160 episodes, but Selleck also played the role in numerous crossovers with other shows at the time, including Murder, She Wrote.
The series follows the titular private investigator living in Hawaii. While he lives on a luxurious estate, the estate is not his own. Instead, he stays there at the invitation of a mysterious benefactor who never appears in the flesh in the series, but relies on Magnum’s security expertise. The show follows a case-of-the-week format, but it’s Selleck’s charm and easy-going nature in the role that makes it work.
Selleck was nominated for six Golden Globes for the role, winning one. He was also nominated for five Emmys for the role, winning one. The show was so popular that when season 7 ended with Magnum’s death, fan outcry got the network to bring the show – and Magnum – back to life for one more season.
The popular series got a modern reboot starring Jay Hernandez that captured a lot of the essence of the original. It was also canceled and saved by fans once, living up to the legacy Tom Selleck began.