Tom Selleck What I've Learned at 77

The blue bloods actor reflects on the long road he has traveled

- By Natalie Posner

When the avocado trees on Tom Selleck's 65-acre Ventura, Calif., ranch began dying from the drought, he replaced them with hardy oaks. I've dug the holes myself for probably 1,000 California native oak trees, the Blue Bloods star says. “Watching them grow is not something you can do in five minutes...but it's very gratifying.

At 77, Tom knows what works for him and what does not. I think a man's got to grow into himself,” says this husband, father and working actor of more than 50 years. It has taken trial, error and persistence to get to this point. “It's not all about success, says Tom. It's mostly about failures.

The second of four children, Tom moved with his family from Detroit to Southern California when he was 3. I had a great dad and a great mom, and I could go into analysis for 20 years and not blame them for anything,” says Tom, whose father encouraged him to put aside his business studies at USC and take a chance on acting. My dad just said, 'Look.... If you don't give it a shot, you might get to be about 35 and wonder. Though Tom didn't have acting experience, his classic good looks won him a contract at 20th Century Fox. “I started at about 35 bucks a week,” recalls the star, who found auditions daunting due to his inherent shyness. “I couldn't do Vic Virile very well, Tom admits. He also felt that a lot of the dumb-jock roles he was being offered were degrading and humiliating. “Most of the smaller parts were idiots, he says.

STAR-MAKING ROLE

Tom kept at it. He starred in seven television pilots that never aired, and he mostly paid the rent doing commercials. He finally got his big break - two of them, actually – when he was 35. But it still didn't come easily.