BLUE BLOODS star Tom Selleck realized the importance of family after his daughter was hospitalized for a “viral pneumonia” infection when she was just three years old.
Selleck told PEOPLE that he was supposed to film CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY IN SPAIN in 1992 but missed “all the rehearsal and everything. We got Hannah [his daughter, now 35] home, and then I went, but I didn’t like that.”
Very quickly, he realized that acting “wasn’t worth it.”
“It was never going to be worth it,” Selleck admitted. “And I said, this is crazy. I quit MAGNUM, really, to have a family, and now I’m jumping at every movie that comes along.”
As he reflects on his time as a father, he believes he did a good job.
“I think I’ve been a good dad. But you always think you missed opportunities,” he explained. “I mean, when it comes right down to it, in our business the work comes first. You find a way to make that compatible, but…”
In his upcoming memoir, “You Never Know,” Selleck revealed that acting was never part of his plan.
“It is really the story of an accidental career. 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 said. “I’ve never talked that way in my life. I just wanted to get a job and work.”
“If you’re going to get in the acting business, you better get an appetite for it. And I tried to communicate that…Because it was kind of a long road,” he added.
Now, after a long career in Hollywood, Selleck prefers to end the day with his wife, Jillie, and “a cigar and a glass of whiskey.”
He said that combination “is a nice way to end the day. I’ve had a very good life.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Tom Selleck is reflecting on his decades in the entertainment industry in his upcoming memoir, “You Never Know.”
“[The book] is a lot about failing, endless failures,” he shared in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “If you’re going to get in the acting business, you better get an appetite for it. And I tried to communicate that…Because it was kind of a long road.”
Despite his years of movie and TV-making, Selleck shared that he initially had some doubts about how interesting a book about his life would be.
“I don’t have the hooks that a lot of people do,” he explained. “I didn’t rehabilitate myself or have this tragic life. I had my own share of certainly ups and downs, but I’ve been very fortunate.”
Selleck also shared that his acting career was “accidental,” adding, “I’d never taken an acting class. I had no training, no desire.”
