Tom Selleck celebrated his 80th birthday on January 29, marking not just a new milestone in his personal life, but also a new stepping stone in his on-screen career.
The actor has been a fixture of the screen, both film and TV, for nearly six decades, making his first ever appearances on screen as a college senior on shows like The Dating Game and some Pepsi Co. commercials.
After a stint on the short-lived drama Bracken's World from 1969 to 1970, Tom's career finally began taking off in the early 1970s, starting with his film debut shortly after Bracken's World was canceled.
In 1970, he made his film debut in the comedy Myra Breckenridge, featuring a star-studded cast that included Raquel Welch, John Huston, Mae West, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, etc.
Tom was simply credited as "Stud," playing one of the men auditioning for Mae's character Leticia Van Allen, a casting agent who is notorious for seducing the men she auditions, one of whom happens to be Tom.
The actor sports a slicked, wavy hairstyle and a clean shaven look, which was also present when he attended the movie's premiere with Mae, wearing a classic old Hollywood smile that complimented his boyish charm at just 25 years old.
The movie, unfortunately, turned out to be a box office bomb and was critically derided, and is today considered by many critics to be among the most exploitative movies ever made. However, it did give the actor his start.
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He continued to make minor TV appearances and had several small film roles before he started to establish a footing for himself in Westerns of the '70s with supporting performances that would last deep into the '90s, inspired by his own love for the outdoors.
His big break came in 1980 when he turned down the role of Indiana Jones to play Thomas Magnum in the hit detective series Magnum P.I., which ran until 1988 and turned him into not only a household name, but also an '80s sex symbol, renowned especially for his easygoing personality and mustache.
Tom has since looked back on his film debut with fondness, most recently during an appearance on The Talk while promoting his memoir You Never Know, describing his first audition for the role with screen siren Mae West.
"I don't know how many people remember Mae West, but she was kind of a legend," he mentioned. "She hadn't done a movie in 20 years and she was older, but I had this interview at 8pm in her apartment."
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"She asked me to read a script," the Blue Bloods actor recalled. "I was really nervous, but did it. And then she goes over to her white piano — everything was white in her apartment — and she leans back against it and says, come here. Put your hands on my waist. After I put my hands on her waist, she said, now spread your legs."
"It turned out she wasn't very tall and I'm 6' 4", so she wanted to make sure by spreading my legs I could be shorter and it would work with the part… I got the part."