TOM SELLECK Life, Love & LUCKY BREAKS

SOME VERY VALUABLE ADVICE PUT THE BLUE BLOODS ACTOR ON THE PATH TO FAME AND FORTUNE

- Louise A. Barile, Andrew Nodell

A flyaway golf ball almost caused Tom Selleck to meet James Garner long before they appeared together on The Rockford Files. "At a little par-three golf course, I hit an errant shot which was my customary golf shot-and it flies up in the air and almost hits Jim Garner," recalls Tom. "I never told him that!"

Tom is telling a lot of never-before-revealed tales in his new memoir, You Never Know, where the Sherman Oaks, Calif.-reared star traces his life from indifferent USC college student to one of Hollywood's most beloved actors on the big and small screens. "I certainly didn't want to be an actor. I never thought of that in my life," admits Tom, 79, who chatted about his life during an appearance at New York 92nd Street Y.

Tom was already 35 when CBS offered him his breakout role on Magnum, P.I. in 1980. "Nobody knew who I was. [They thought I was just a guy on a Salem billboard smoking a menthol cigarette," he says. Most unknown actors would have broken out the champagne, but Tom hated the original Magnum script and felt trapped into agreeing to the job.