What ‘Blue Bloods’ Star Tom Selleck Does When Season Ends

When Tom Selleck is not in New York filming new episodes of Blue Bloods, the living legend heads back to his ranch in Ventura, California. Selleck, 76, called the ranch his “retreat” from work in an interview last year. Selleck stars as Commissioner Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods, which wrapped up its 11th season on Friday night. The show will be back in the fall though.

Selleck described himself as a “fairly private person” in an April 2020 interview with PEOPLE. “And I’ve always treasured the balance between work and time with my family. It’s always about them,” the former Magnum, P.I. star explained. His relationships with his wife of 34 years, Jillie, his children, and his ranch “keep me sane,” Selleck added. The actor is father to Hannah, 32, and Kevin, 55, from his marriage to Jacqueline Ray.

The actor’s ranch included a fully operational avocado farm until a drought. His property still includes over 1,500 native trees. “I do grunt work and I make the rounds. I like watching things grow. It’s a retreat,” he told PEOPLE.

Selleck also discussed his ranch in a 2016 interview with Cowboys & Indians. At the time, he said they no longer had any horses after Spike, a horse he rode in Quigley Down Under, died. He admitted to fostering a love of wide-open spaces when he began making Westerns. During the early years of Blue Bloods, Selleck could escape New York City with Jesse Stone movies, although he has not made one since 2015’s Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise.

“This sense of place has become very important and was instilled in me when I started doing westerns. Jesse Stone’s house is a solitary place located on a point near Paradise,” Selleck said in 2016. “In Blue Bloods, we film in the city of New York, as the Reagans are New York City cops. I hope I’m not done doing westerns, though, as they are now very hard to get off the ground.”

Selleck said he missed making Westerns “more than any other experience” he had when he made movies. “These movies create a sense of place,” Selleck explained. “Everything in a western can work for you if you allow it — not spending time in your trailer. Perhaps if you’re just sitting on your horse between takes and staying on the set, you can still kind of experience that lifestyle. There was a real sense of unity between cowboys.”

Selleck has been starring as Frank on Blue Bloods since 2010. Without him, the series would be missing the glue that holds it together. “He’s a patriarch of the show and he’s a legend, he’s an icon, you know, everybody has known him over generations, so it’s wonderful,” Bridget Moynahan, who plays his on-screen daughter Erin, told PopCulture in a recent interview. Selleck is also a generous actor who is always willing to “sprinkle some of his wisdom on you,” Moynahan said. You can catch past episodes of Blue Bloods on Paramount+.

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