NEW YORK — Tom Selleck opens his autobiography amid an accident. When he and his two pals take off in his mother’s red Chevy Corvair and tumble down Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, he is seventeen years old and sitting in the passenger seat. Although everyone would finally be alright, it’s a terrifying experience and a special way to begin a look back.

In an interview, the “Magnum, P.I.” and “Blue Bloods” star acknowledges that it’s a strange way to begin. “It seemed like the ideal way to take a brief look back and discuss my upbringing through the traumatic accident and its aftermath.”

Tom Selleck Examines The Challenging Times That Led To His Success In “Magnum, P.I.” In A New Memoir.

“You Never Know” chronicles Selleck’s time at the University of Southern California, his time in the Army, as Bachelor No. 2 on “The Dating Game,” and several other events leading up to his Emmy and long-lasting popularity as Thomas Magnum.

According to the 79-year-old actor, “I didn’t have one of those headline-grabbing lives,” The Associated Press reports. “Getting into these stories in a way that the reader could get inside my head was the only way I could make the book entertaining, and I think that’s my primary job and goal in this book.”

Selleck penned the work by hand on yellow legal pads for four years, using passages from Raymond Chandler and George Will. He used to write in the afternoon and read his letters to his spouse at supper.

The self-portrait that emerges is of an actor who dedicated himself to honing his art. He completed six unsold pilots and his first major motion picture, the regrettable “Daughters of Satan,” before breaking through in his mid-30s.

Ellis Henican, Selleck’s co-writer, argues that sincerity is what Selleck needs to sell the most. “This guy is aware of who he is.” By staying true to himself over several decades, he has made a very successful career in a challenging industry.

Selleck states that he never intended to write a memoir or divulge embarrassing personal information, but he does discuss the specifics of his covert marriage to Jillie Mack, his second wife, whom he first saw performing in “Cats.” (Yes, Rumpleteazer won his heart.)

“There are many topics that I haven’t discussed and many topics that others have discussed that aren’t really true,” he claims.

Tom Selleck Examines The Challenging Times That Led To His Success In “Magnum, P.I.” In A New Memoir.

Readers will learn that Selleck, who rose to fame for his polished demeanor, sense of humor, and 6-foot-4 matinee idol appearance, occasionally struggled with doubts and insecurities; as he said in his essay, “That critic on your shoulder is a formidable opponent.”

He explains, “I wanted to speak to young actors in the language of our business.” “The road is not easy. When someone declines 99 percent of the time, your product is you.

Interestingly, Harrison Ford was offered the role of Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” yet he had to turn it down due to his filming schedule for “Magnum, P.I.” Both may have been accomplished thanks to a Hollywood strike, but Selleck is content, saying in his letter that “my only regret was that the what-if was there from time to time.”

From 1980 until 1988, Magnum, a relaxed detective who had served in the Vietnam War and driven a red Ferrari around Hawaii, was shown on television.

In the 1984 episode “Home from the Sea,” Magnum drifts in the Pacific Ocean by himself until he is rescued while speaking with people from his past; Selleck wins an Emmy. “Dad, I made it. The character asks his father, who was shot down over Korea in 1951, deliriously, “Why didn’t you?” He was forced to host the ceremony the year he won an Emmy.

I still had a portion of me in host mode. I snatched up my Emmy and hurried up to my host’s podium. It was the first time I gazed at the cheering crowd after setting down my Emmy. He writes that the cheering became louder and lasted longer than I had anticipated when I finally did.

Throughout his career, Selleck took risks. He turned down a stable role on “Young and the Restless” and showed up for work on the 1979 TV miniseries “The Sacketts,” despite the director explicitly stating that he didn’t want him.

“My willingness to take risks as a human is what makes me most proud. Although they didn’t always work out, they did so frequently, he claims. “Risk is the cost associated with opportunity.”

Other celebrities are also featured in portrait form, including Carol Burnett, Princess Diana, and Frank Sinatra, who acted in “Magnum, P.I.” and displayed his acting prowess and fury while managing a colostomy bag.

Tom Selleck Examines The Challenging Times That Led To His Success In “Magnum, P.I.” In A New Memoir.

The final few chapters of the book are where fans of “Blue Bloods” will learn that Selleck was the driving force behind the original show’s decision to focus on characters rather than a procedural, as it had been in the pilot. The show is in its fourteenth season, and he won. “I can’t be that lucky twice,” he writes.

According to Selleck, he approached his work as a bricklayer by making sure every task was completed to the utmost standard before proceeding to the next. That was OK if it meant putting off budgets or scripts.

His statement reads, “My idea of the work wasn’t just showing up and getting paid.” “I always made an effort to conduct myself professionally. You know, like not tossing scripts against the wall and having tantrums.”

SOURCE – (AP)