Will Film Stardom Smile on Selleck?

Ever since he began appearing in TV commercials and then in “Magnum, P.I.,” people have been referring to the dimpled Tom Selleck as a latter-day Clark Gable. They have been selling him short.

At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Selleck fills a doorway the way John Wayne filled a doorway. Side by side, the actor who defined the word hunk for the ‘80s would tower over Gable, who defined the word for the ‘30s. But despite his physical presence and his popularity with a vast TV audience, Selleck has yet to prove that he can be more than a flicker on the big screen where Gable shined.

Only one of his five features has been a box-office hit and that one, Disney/Touchstone’s “Three Men and a Baby,” was an ensemble job in which he shared screen time with co-stars Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg. The success of “Three Men” did not carry over to his next film, the Bruce Beresford comedy “Her Alibi,” which bombed early this year.

But Hollywood always needs a handsome leading man and Selleck does not have to wonder where his next movie role will come from. They’re lined up like planes at LAX. Two films--”An Innocent Man” and the sequel to “Three Men and a Baby”--are already in the can and Selleck, who has a multiple-picture deal with Disney’s new Hollywood Studios division, is now in Australia shooting the cross-cultural Western “Quigley Down Under.”

For the moment, what’s on his mind is director Peter Yates’ “An Innocent Man,” which opens Friday across the country. The film is a violent, tough action drama that marks a departure for the lanky, good-natured star and he’s obviously concerned about how it will be received, especially by his legion of women fans.

“It’s a rough picture,” Selleck says, adding that the film tested well with women 18 to 35. “I’d hate for women to stay away.”

In “An Innocent Man,” Selleck plays Jimmie Rainwood, an airline maintenance foreman who is gunned down at his home by a pair of corrupt narcotics detectives who, unwilling to admit they’d trashed the wrong address, frame him as a drug dealer. After serving some hard time in prison, he sets off on the trail of the bad cops, planning to get even.

The film earned an R rating for its graphic violence, but Selleck says the studio had no qualms about the violence and neither did he.

“It belongs in drama,” he says. “To sugarcoat it, or tone it down, is a mistake. Because then you’re not showing the consequences of the act.”

Showing the consequences of violent acts is a battle he said he fought for eight seasons of “Magnum, P.I.”

“I kept fighting to say, ‘If a man gets shot, he should bleed.’ You shouldn’t zoom in on the gun, have the gun go off, then cut to a commercial and when you come back have the coroner taking a body away,” he says. “That to me is a dangerous kind of violence.”

And while his character is victimized by corrupt police, a seemingly blind justice system and brutal prison officials, Selleck isn’t out to illustrate any societal ills. If anyone’s at fault, he says, it’s his character for not having hired a better lawyer.

“People with resources are always going to be more fortunate than people who don’t have resources. That may be a problem of the human condition, as much as it’s an indictment of any particular system.”

The film’s exterior prison scenes were shot at the Nevada State Penitentiary in Carson City, with inmates playing extras.

“The guys we were working with were probably 70% murderers and the rest were armed robbers and rapists,” Selleck says.

The film crew wore fluorescent orange vests so that the guards would know who not to shoot in case of real trouble. The experience helped Selleck to realize “the veneer of civilization is very thin. Prison boils down to body language and attitudes. Struggles for domination.”

On top of his crowded film schedule, Selleck serves as executive producer for friend Burt Reynolds’ television drama, “B.L. Stryker.” Why produce someone else’s show when he is paid so much to act in films?

“I’ve found producing in television just about as creative as anything,” the former USC business major says. “I don’t want to be a mogul. My deal with Hollywood Pictures mentions producing, but I don’t want to start filtering everything I do through my production company. I’ll miss out, maybe, on some pretty good opportunities.”

If he quit “Magnum,” as he says, to have more free time in his schedule, it hasn’t worked out that way. “I haven’t gotten off the roller coaster like I thought it would be. It’s been a pretty full year.”

Selleck says that part of the reason he can’t seem to say no to assignments is that he struggled for so many years.

“Actors who have been out of work for any length of time, it’s very hard to turn down any job when it comes along. So you just do it. I used to talk about getting my life in balance. You can’t always make those decisions at the expense of your family and private life.”

Selleck’s wife, Jillie Mack, and their baby, Hannah, will have to wait at least 3 1/2 months while Selleck is in Australia filming “Quigley.”

Selleck, a graduate of Grant High School in Van Nuys, “fell into” acting in 1968 while still at USC and he was signed to a contract at 20th Century-Fox. It took until 1980, when “Magnum, P.I.” was launched, for him to catch on.

Acting coaches were always encouraging him to study the macho, leading-man roles. He says he preferred the quirkier male characters.

“I’d always be doing scenes from ‘A Thousand Clowns,’ ” he says. “I did my share of Tennessee Williams and I never had any fun doing any of his guys. I love his women, though. Nobody would ever let me play any of his women.”

It wasn’t until after he turned 30 that Selleck began to be cast in lead roles for television pilots. Six went unsold, then “Magnum” hit. His star rose immediately and his reputation as a likable pro went up with it.

“I try to be fun to work with,” he says. “I sat on a lot of sets where people walked around on eggshells when I was doing little parts because the lead actor sets the tone. Why not make it a pleasant place to work instead of making everybody pay a price every day they come to work?”

But in a business where being calculated is a defense mechanism, the drive to be Mr. Nice Guy only goes so far.

“Everything toughens you in this business. As long as you don’t resent it, as long as you develop an appetite for it, you should get tougher. It’s a rough business.”

One of the most difficult things he’s done, he says, was to retire “Magnum” after eight years. Would he do another TV series?

“I never say never. I had the best experience in a series you could ever have. There were some wonderful things, just as an actor, doing the same character for eight years. Especially on ‘Magnum,’ because he was allowed to change and get older. It might happen again.”

It could even happen with “Magnum.”

“I’d like to know how he’s doing,” Selleck says.