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Photo: Alan Light · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons Photo shows actor Tom Selleck on set
Thomas Magnum
Tom Selleck's Hawaiian private investigator and his thick chevron: the single most influential television mustache ever broadcast.
- Actor
- Tom Selleck
- Series
- Magnum, P.I.
- Year
- 1980
- Medium
- TV
- Style
- Chevron
- Fan Votes
- 1 legendary · 0 meh
Why Thomas Magnum's Mustache Matters
Every list of great TV mustaches starts here. Tom Selleck's Thomas Magnum drove a red Ferrari 308, lived on a Oahu estate he did not own, wore a Detroit Tigers cap and aloha shirts, and sported a dense, dark chevron that became the benchmark against which all other mustaches are measured.
Magnum, P.I. ran on CBS from 1980 to 1988 and turned Selleck into a star, winning him an Emmy in 1984. The mustache was never a gimmick — it was simply Selleck's real face — which is why it reads as so natural and so aspirational at once.
When the series was rebooted in 2018 with Jay Hernandez, the absence of a mustache was the first thing everyone noticed. Some lips cannot be recast.
- *Magnum, P.I.* aired 162 episodes on CBS from 1980 to 1988.
- Tom Selleck (born 1945) won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1984.
- Magnum's Ferrari 308 GTS was provided by Ferrari; Selleck reportedly had to have the seat modified to fit his 6'4" frame.
- The series finale in 1988 was one of the most-watched TV episodes of the decade.
How to Grow the Chevron
The Tom Selleck. Thick, wide, and confident. The default setting for a man who means business.
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