Tom Selleck ‘Didn’t Like’ The Fame ‘Magnum P.I.’ Brought Him

Back in 1980, Tom Selleck became a superstar overnight with the success of his hit show Magnum P.I., which ran until 1988. While this level of fame is the dream of many actors, Selleck was extremely uncomfortable with being so well known.

In a new interview with the former Cheers star Ted Danson, Selleck is revealing why he “didn’t like” the fame that came to him thanks to Magnum P.I.

Selleck ‘Didn’t Like’ Magnum P.I. Fame

“I didn’t like it,” admitted Selleck, 79. “Mainly because of family and a sense of privacy and I started getting to ask questions in interviews that I didn’t want to say, give an answer to.”

“I was trying to, I said, ‘You better find a way and find a line about what you’re going to talk about….’ I didn’t always succeed, but it just grew,” he continued. “I still can’t quite describe it, but I wasn’t going through it every day.”

By “it,” Selleck was referring to trying to maintain a sense of normalcy despite being a 6’4″ megastar who stood out wherever he went.

“I had a lovely house in Hawaii,” Selleck recalled. “It was a tiny little house—a one-bedroom house. I rented it. I later bought it. It’s the first house I could ever afford. I belonged to a place called the Outrigger Canoe Club, and that was local people.”

“They knew I was an actor, but that time—while the actors were on strike, and we couldn’t start the show, start shooting—was great. I actually was living Magnum’s life. At the beach and stuff,” he explained. “So it was really, I don’t know, a lot to adjust to, I think. I don’t know how people… Say the same show was in LA, and it got the same heat. I don’t know how people do that. I had this huge buffer, and it was a blessing.”

Related: You’ll Love What Tom Selleck Did For The ‘Magnum P.I.’ Crew With His Own Money

Selleck’s ‘Accidental’ Acting Career

Selleck has always seen his acting career as being “accidental.”

“It is really the story of an accidental career,” Selleck told People Magazine earlier this year. “I’d never taken an acting class. I had no training, no desire.”

“People would say, ‘Oh, he was bitten by the acting bug’ or, ‘He wanted to be a star,’” he continued. “I’ve never talked that way in my life. I just wanted to get a job and work.”

Find out more about this in the video below.

Related: Tom Selleck Reunites With Former ‘Magnum P.I.’ Co-Star Larry Manetti On The Set Of ‘Blue Bloods’

Selleck Gets Discovered On The Dating Game

Selleck was discovered in the 1960s after competing on an episode of The Dating Game.

“It wasn’t like I was magical on The Dating Game or anything,” he confessed. “Just somebody saw me and a casting director said, ‘You might want to go over to Fox.’ They had an actual talent school.”

“You didn’t get much money, but you got a weekly salary and they had acting classes, voice classes, dance classes,” Selleck recalled. “But the point is, if I hadn’t grown up in L.A., none of this would have happened. So an awful lot was serendipitous.”

Selleck is still acting to this day, as he’s been starring on the CBS procedural Blue Bloods for the past fourteen years. We’re glad that Selleck was able to overcome the reservations that he had about fame, and we hope that he keeps acting for many years to come!