When it comes to the Reagan family tree, the branches extend far and wide on Blue Bloods.
So, keeping the family ties untangled can be a bit of a challenge. Fear not because we’re breaking down everything you need to know about the characters of CBS‘s long-running favorite. Scroll down for a closer look at the expansive ensemble.
Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck)
The first time we met Tom Selleck’s New York City Police Commissioner, Francis Xavier Reagan, he was putting on his uniform in the opening episode of Blue Bloods. Once dressed, the bars and shield shining on his jacket, Frank presented an image of strength and success. But then he paused, his stoic gaze warming as it moved from his own professional reflection in the mirror to a series of family photos on his dresser. There he was, smiling and casual in khakis, surrounded by relatives of all ages. The scene immediately let us know this patriarch blends on-the-job power with family care, while grappling with the responsibilities of both.
At One Police Plaza, Frank runs one of the largest police departments in the world (over 35,000 strong!). At home, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where he lives with his father Henry (Len Cariou), a former police commissioner, he’s the head of an extended family of law enforcement professionals, including sons Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and Jamie (Will Estes), who are cops, and daughter Erin (Bridget Moynahan), a lawyer in the DA’s office.
The character’s complexity and humanity, as well as the way he handles the weight of fatherhood, are big reasons Selleck was attracted to the CBS drama. “It was clear there are just very few positive models of a patriarch [on television],” the actor told TV Guide Magazine as he finished shooting Season 14 earlier this year. “Frank is very flawed, but he’s a strong patriarch and most shows aren’t written that way now. There’s nothing wrong with seeing a positive patriarch on television. I think that’s important.”
A highly principled official, the seventysomething Frank listens respectfully to others, always striving to make the right call in every fraught situation. As commissioner, he has a lifetime of experience behind him: He served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War (where he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal), then became a police officer who helped in the North Tower on 9/11. After decades in the NYPD, Frank was appointed commissioner by Mayor Frank Russo (Bruce Altman). By the time he took the position, Frank’s kids were grown, and his beloved wife Mary had passed away from cancer.
The pain of Frank’s personal losses runs deep. He continues to wear his wedding ring years after his wife’s death. Unable to move on from the love of his life, Frank spends little time throughout the series flirting with a few possible companions, never taking a leap into a serious relationship.
Rather, he puts his immediate family and his job first. Over 14 seasons, Frank has often found himself at the intersection of the law and human frailty, and he has done his best to accommodate both. In Season 2’s “Thanksgiving,” Frank helped Jamie’s partner (who trained him), Sgt. Anthony Renzulli (Nicholas Turturro), pay off his $3,000 in gambling debts. And in Season 9’s “Blues,” he forgave an otherwise exemplary officer who, as a troubled youth, attempted an armed robbery of a liquor store.
It’s decisions like those that help Frank remain a positive leader—which is quite a test, considering the many problems he faces each week, from potential PR scandals to terrorist threats. “The challenge of playing Frank is to somehow communicate to the audience he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders but can’t show it to anybody,” Selleck notes.
His inner circle, a trio of top officers who are among the PC’s closest advisers — Chief of Department Sid Gormley (Robert Clohessy), Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Garrett Moore (Gregory Jbara) and primary aide Det. Abigail Baker (Abigail Hawk) — not only help Frank with any problems that arise, but also clearly love and admire their friend.
Nevertheless, it’s a tricky beat Frank walks, balancing duty with his hopes for his family, especially in Season 7, when he worried about recommending Jamie for promotion to detective. (Fair is fair: Jamie eventually got the promotion because he earned it.) Frank strives to not be partisan toward his family, who are never protected from dangerous assignments. Naming loved ones to such cases is a difficult part of the commissioner’s job, as Frank knows well: His eldest son, Joe, a police detective, was killed in the line of duty before the series began.
At times, Frank has contemplated walking away from his commissioner post. And we frequently see him deep in thought during difficult moments on the job, searching for the emotional truth. “Everything worthwhile has a personal cost,” he’s said.
Even so, that doesn’t mean Frank never cracks a joke. He often wields his bright humor to diffuse rising dinner table tensions at home on Sunday nights.
And whatever the challenges of the job, most of Frank’s worries fade away when he’s surrounded by his family. With his full life of professional accolades and personal hardships, Selleck’s heroic PC is a wise, caring father figure who has earned his spot at the head of the table—and in our hearts. —Connie Passalacqua Hayman, with reporting by Ileane Rudolph
Selleck’s favorite episode In Season 2’s “The Job,” Frank visits NYC’s 9/11 Memorial (Blue Bloods was the first scripted show to film there). “We shot it at night, and it was really beautiful,” Selleck says. “The place was so overpowering,” he adds, admitting it was hard for him to act because, “it wasn’t appropriate for Frank to blubber all over the place.”
Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan)
Bridget Moynahan had decided to pass on the Blue Bloods pilot script for another show when her new pal Donnie Wahlberg (they’d worked together on failed TNT pilot Bunker Hill) asked her to take another look at the series he’d just joined. She did — and has happily portrayed Erin Reagan, the sole legal eagle in a family of cops, ever since.
Erin grew up mediating disagreements between her three future cop brothers (Joe, the eldest, who was killed before the show began, Wahlberg’s Danny, and Will Estes’ Jamie), and while she briefly leaned toward a police career herself, she chose to be a prosecutor. Erin, says Moynahan, “always considered things by the book — and by the law.”
Her smarts, passion and quick thinking have earned her sought-after promotions — she’s now the trial bureau chief for the Manhattan DA, and even entertained a run for district attorney.
Romantically, Erin’s had flings with colleagues and on-and-off dalliances with her ex-husband, criminal defense lawyer Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann), the father of their daughter Nicky Reagan-Boyle (Sami Gayle). But her closest, nonrelated ally has proven to be her friend, investigator Anthony Abetemarco (Steve Schirripa). —Ileane Rudolph
Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg)
Frank’s oldest living son Danny is a dedicated detective and sometimes a hothead who, as Frank has observed, “probably steps on the line.” (Or crosses right over it, depending on who you ask!)
A former Marine who served two tours in the Iraq War, Danny is deeply devoted to his family: wife Linda (Amy Carlson), who tragically died in a helicopter crash between Seasons 7 and 8, and his sons Jack and Sean (Tony and Andrew Terraciano). And despite any dinner table trash talk, when needed, Danny fiercely defends his siblings,Jamie (Estes) and Erin (Moynahan).
The right man in risky situations,he rescued Erin in Season 4 when she was held hostage and saved her daughter Nicky (Sami Gayle) from a serial killer in Season 6. But it’s not just his clan he watches over. He’s also extremely close to his longtime beat partner, Det. Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez). —IR
Wahlberg’s favorite episode
He directed Season 4’s fun “Manhattan Queens,” in which a popular drag queen is murdered. Aside from casting RuPaul’s Drag Race favorite Jinkx Monsoon, Wahlberg says of the episode, “I got to bring a lot of Donnie to Danny, in a way that I’d never really been able to in other scripts.”
Jamie Reagan (Will Estes)
The family calls Jamie a “boy scout,” and he cops to the charge of being the Reagan who, for the most part, follows all the rules. “It’s who I am. What can I say?” he admitted in Season 9. Despite having a degree from Harvard Law, Frank’s youngest son opted to enroll in the police academy and currently serves as a field intelligence sergeant for the 29th Precinct. But his boy-next-door persona shines through even when the show scruffed him up with tattoos and a beard for an undercover assignment in Season 14.
After going through a few partners on the job, Jamie found “the one” in Season 4, professionally, and later romantically, with the headstrong Eddie Janko. Their long-developing relationship culminated in marriage in Season 9’s finale, but they continue to face challenges as a married couple within the NYPD.
For Estes, the series’ longevity has provided a chance to grow into and become more comfortable in his role. “What’s most satisfying is that I’ve never done anything that lasted this long,” he says. “It becomes like wearing your favorite T-shirt when you have the time to play a character like we’ve had on Blue Bloods.” —Herma Rosenthal
Estes’ Favorite Episode Season 14’s sweet midseason finale, “The Heart of a Saturday Night,” was Estes’ most recently loved hour. In it, Jamie and Eddie go undercover in a sober living facility where they dance and, later, they repeat their vows to each other at dinner. Says Estes: “Anything I get to do with Vanessa, as always, is a blast.”
Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray)
In 2013, when Blue Bloods hired Vanessa Ray for a three-episode arc to play rookie police officer Eddie Janko, she didn’t know how to handle a gun and jokingly recalls that she looked “more like a [costumed] stripper at a bachelor party” than a real NYPD cop. Luckily, her chemistry with Will Estes, who plays fellow officer Jamie Reagan, was off the charts, her early foibles were forgotten and she quickly became a series regular as Jamie’s professional partner. (The show’s police consultant Jim Nuciforo later shared that Ray and Estes could easily pass as beat cops.)
Eddie may be petite, but she unfailingly takes care of business on the street and is confident enough to wrangle with her superiors and to display compassion when needed. Just don’t take advantage of her kindness — it won’t work out well.
As for the slow-growing love between Eddie and Jamie, after a never-repeated awkward smooch in Season 4, they finally revealed their feelings for each other in Season 8, and in next year’s finale, they happily wed, with future father-in-law Frank walking Eddie down the aisle. Eddie has proven to be not only a welcome addition to Sunday night dinners but also to the Reagan family. —IR
Linda Reagan (Amy Carlson)
“I have often wondered what kind of fantastic woman has dinner with their in-laws every single Sunday without complaint,” Frank tells his daughter-in-law Linda after she pitches a much-needed family vacation in the final moments of a harrowing Season 3 episode. The supportive wife of Danny and mom of Jack and Sean later says, “I know I’m not the matriarch, but I am a mother.”
But for the first seven seasons of Blue Bloods, the dedicated ER nurse at St. Victor’s Medical Center was, more or less, the matriarch of the Reagans. She cooked them dinners — saving Pop when he had a heart attack while preparing Thanksgiving with her — comforted her family and dished out tough love. She also provided a unique perspective as the only adult family member whose job didn’t revolve around criminals. That doesn’t mean she never got in a scuffle, though. Linda was shot during a hospital assassination in the Season 5 ender and spent Season 6 going to therapy and dealing with PTSD.
Between Seasons 7 and 8, Linda perished in an abrupt offscreen helicopter crash, devastating Danny and the rest of the family. In real life, Carlson chose not to renew her contract when it expired. Nevertheless, Linda hasn’t been forgotten, and Danny’s somber visits to her grave are some of the drama’s most poignant scenes. —Emily Aslanian
Henry Reagan (Len Cariou)
When any Reagan family member needs steadfast support and sage advice — often accompanied by a whiskey chaser — they turn to Pop. The eldest Reagan, Henry is an “In my day” guy who, as a former Marine, beat cop, and NYC police commissioner, laid out the blueprint for the next generations to follow. “You represent our family, on the job and off,” he says to his fighting grandsons Danny and Jamie in Season 9.
Pop’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect the people he loves, not always with their permission or knowledge. That includes getting Erin’s ex-husband Jack — a man he clearly dislikes — to defend Danny against criminal charges in Season 3. “If you need to hire a shark, make sure you get the great white,” he explains to the surprised lawyer.
And his conservative credentials are called into question with several of his dinner table revelations: Pop has admitted he’s smoked pot and, most shockingly for the family, he revealed in Season 13 that he and their grandma spent a week at a nudist camp: “I never felt so free…. I’m a man of many contradictions.” No kidding. —HR
Jack Reagan (Tony Terraciano)
Since Blue Bloods is as much about passing on family values as catching the bad guys, Jack Reagan and brother Sean (Terraciano’s real-life sibling Andrew) represent the fourth generation of the clan absorbing wisdom dispensed at the dinner table. The older son of Danny and Linda, Jack is the more serious, academic-minded one, seemingly burdened by living up to the Reagan legacy. Should he follow family tradition and join the Marines? Or pursue a career in medicine like his much-missed mom?
Ultimately, Danny persuaded Jack that college would give him more options, and in a case of art imitating life, Terraciano decided to enroll at Vanderbilt University to study neuroscience. The actor left in Season 9, but he still returns at least once a season for family dinner. Now attending Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Terraciano fondly recalls eating pastrami and getting “hilariously real advice” while shooting at the famous Katz’s Deli with his brother, Selleck, and Cariou in Season 2 and filming emotional scenes—and horsing around offscreen—with Wahlberg. —HR
Sean Reagan (Andrew Terraciano)
Viewers have not only watched Frank’s youngest grandchild, Sean, grow up — but also actor Terraciano, who was only 6 years old when the show began. “As I experienced so many of the life milestones that Sean did, I got to draw an appreciation and a level of relatability,” he says.
Sean’s had his fair share of heavy and touching moments, including coping with his mother’s death and his brother, Jack, going away to college, but the actor most enjoys his comedic one-liners during the family dinners. “Sean’s best traits include his wit, his hunger for life and his [actual] hunger,” he says. “I routinely find myself getting a ton of laughs around the table.” —Meredith Jacobs
Nicky Reagan-Boyle (Sami Gayle)
“I’ve been at Reagan dinner tables since I was in a high chair,” says Nicky to her grandfather Frank in Season 6. And while that’s not true for Gayle, it’s always been clear that the only daughter of prosecutor Erin and defense lawyer Jack is a Reagan through and through.
Nicky wanted to follow in the family footsteps, announcing that she intended to be the first female Reagan cop. But in Season 6, she saw more action than she bargained for when she was kidnapped by serial killer Thomas Wilder (Louis Cancelmi), only to be saved by her uncle Danny. In Season 8, Nicky took the police exam against her mother’s wishes, but instead of joining the academy, she later accepted a job in San Francisco in Season 10.
“My favorite thing about Nicky is that she is not afraid to stick up for what she believes in, even if her beliefs differ from her family’s,” says Gayle. “She taught me that I was given a voice so that I could use it—politely, empathetically, and for good.” —EA
Joe Hill (Will Hochman)
Who knew a school assignment could change so many lives? Danny’s son Sean gets a DNA match when he does an ancestry test, and later learns he has a secret cousin: his uncle Joe Reagan and Paula Hill (Bonnie Somerville) had a child, Joe Jr., who is now a cop like his dad. Hochman’s first scene in Season 10, in which Joe meets his grandfather Frank, was also the first scene that Hochman filmed. “It didn’t take much to relate,” the actor says. “Joe’s nerves were my nerves. Joe’s excitement was my own.”
Even with those emotions, it quickly became clear that he fit right in—not just at the dinner table, but also in the family business. As a detective, Joe is hardheaded and ignores the rules. He’s clashed more than a few times with family members, especially Jamie, while on the job. Still, Joe does take into account what the other Reagans have to teach him — and the same is true for Hochman. “It’s been particularly meaningful to grow with Joe. I think he’s learned quite a lot over his years since he first walked into the Reagan family dining room,” Hochman says. “I’ve grown too in my own life. To get to evolve together, me and Joe, Joe and me, that’s quite a gift.” —MJ
Sid Gormley (Robert Clohessy)
In Season 5, old-school cop Gormley was promoted from being Danny’s exasperated boss and sometimes partner to being the police commissioner’s special assistant. A veteran and family man, Gormley serves as Frank’s by-the-book voice within the department, dealing with conflicts between cops of different ranks and making sure his fellow officers stick to the NYPD Patrol Guide. Clohessy’s favorite part of playing Gormley is that “he doesn’t censor anything.” The lieutenant’s been challenged, but as Gormley put it in Season 9, “I stick up for our cops, even when everyone else has fled the scene.”
Colleague Abigail Baker told her pal Gormley later that season that he is “the beating heart” of One Police Plaza. —EA
Abigail Baker (Abigail Hawk)
The skilled detective and primary aide to the commissioner can say so much with just one look — especially when it’s given from outside of Frank’s office. “The shots of the door opening or closing and her sitting at her desk are just priceless,” says showrunner Kevin Wade. For Hawk, what’s been most satisfying about playing Baker is “making her my own, taking a one-off character and making her indispensable and beloved.”
Not only is Baker an integral part of Frank’s inner circle, but she also holds the keys to the kingdom: Anyone who wants to see the commissioner must go through her, and she’ll make her feelings known, no matter who’s crossing that threshold.
She is the “smartest in the room and excellent at reading others,” says Hawk, and while she’s “measured and fair,” the actress adds, “hell hath no fury like a Baker scorned.”
She’s also headstrong when things get personal, such as when she was the victim of a vicious attack in Season 11 and told Frank, “Don’t treat me with kid gloves. That would be worse than this broken nose.” —MJ
Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez)
Ramirez, a soap opera vet, joined the network drama in Season 3 as Det. Maria Baez, a New York native inspired to become a cop by the drug-related killing of a neighborhood kid that she witnessed as a child. Newly partnered with longtime friend Danny at the 54th Precinct, Baez quickly butted heads with him like a sister — though some fans want more for the two pals. Together, Baez and Danny faced many hardships, like the deaths of Baez’s DEA informant brother Javier in Season 5 and, later, Danny’s wife, Linda. In Season 12, Baez became a single mom after adopting newborn Elena, whose biological mother was killed after leaving police protection.
For Ramirez, it’s her character’s resilience, loyalty, and grit that she will take as a memento once Blue fades to black. “It has been such a pleasure playing such a strong female character with so many layers,” she says. “Pretending to have so much power and strength on camera has helped me find my strength in real life.” —Damian Holbrook
Garrett Moore (Gregory Jbara)
The spin doctor will see you now. Deputy Commissioner of Public Information and former reporter Garrett Moore has given his unfiltered advice on media relations — among other things — to Frank since Season 1 as a member of the PC’s inner circle and his moral conscience. But, Jbara says, “I could never verbally confront Tom Selleck the way Garrett does the commissioner. The onscreen chemistry is definitely enhanced by our having worked together many times prior to this show.” (Jbara and Selleck met while appearing in the 1997 movie In & Out. Jbara credits his castmate with getting him more than one television acting gig.)
On Jbara’s first day of shooting Blue Bloods, he arrived having memorized several pages of a press conference monologue but, “Tom breaks out his legal pad of notes and proceeds to give my character a lion’s share of his character’s speeches as well,” Jbara says. “Note to self: Expect major last-minute script changes.”
There were words of wisdom too. In his first scene in Season 1, “where Garrett busted into the commissioner’s office, verbal guns blazing,” Selleck advised him, “Go slow to go fast.” —Kate Hahn
Anthony Abetemarco (Steve Schirripa)
First appearing in Season 6, the former NYPD detective is a seasoned investigator who works closely with Erin in the DA’s office. Erin and Anthony confide in each other, and his tough, no-nonsense approach to his work is the perfect counterbalance to Erin’s methodical style. “Anthony is loyal like a golden retriever and a very street-smart, old-school detective,” Schirripa says. “He has plenty of advice, whether you want to hear it or not. I think he is a wonderful guy who you want in your corner if something goes bad.”
Anthony’s personal life occasionally gets intertwined with his job, giving Schirripa a chance to expose the vulnerable, soft side to his character. Anthony was shot while interviewing a witness in Season 8, and Danny tracked down the suspect. In Season 9, not only did Anthony discover he has a half-brother in former mob enforcer Leo “The Leech” Stutz (Erick Betancourt), but he had to protect his daughter Sophia (Isabel Harper Leight) and bitter ex-wife Vivian (Kate Miller) from a dangerous psychiatric patient. And later, in Season 13, Anthony’s loyalties were torn when Sophia was the lone witness to her ballet teacher’s murder and the protective father didn’t want Erin to subpoena her. —Ryan A. Berenz
Jackie Curatola (Jennifer Esposito)
Danny forged a powerful bond and friendship with his first partner, fellow badass detective Jackie. And nothing says devotion more than the Season 3 opener, when Jackie is handcuffed to a bomb hidden inside of a backpack in public, and Danny — who is the intended target by enemy Benjamin Walker (guest star Michael Madsen) — willingly uncuffs his partner and attaches himself to the explosive. “You don’t have to do this,” a nervous Jackie tells him. “This is my fight,” Danny responds.
Later that season, Jackie resigns from the NYPD due to pressure on the job. (In real life, Esposito stepped away from the show due to her struggles with celiac disease.) After years away, she returns unexpectedly to work a case with Danny again in Season 13’s finale — this time as the chief of police in a small town. Her reappearance and promotion were a welcome surprise for fans. —Andrea Towers
Tony Renzulli (Nicholas Turturro)
Seasoned NYPD Sgt. Anthony Renzulli was trainer and mentor to both Joe Reagan (who was killed in the line of duty in 2009 before the show began) and youngest Reagan brother Jamie in the 12th Precinct. First appearing in the pilot episode, Renzulli was always affable and often teased Jamie about being a Reagan, though he knew Jamie was serious about his police work.
In Season 2, it was revealed that Renzulli had gotten into some gambling trouble, owing $3,000 to a bookie. Jamie (and, by extension, Frank) helped Renzulli get the money, further strengthening the bond between him and the Reagans. Later in the sophomore season, after Jamie saved a baby from a burning building, Renzulli had to take the credit and the commendation in order to hide Jamie’s identity during his undercover operation.
In Renzulli’s final appearance, in Season 6, the heart-of-gold officer released a suspect in a series of muggings because he turned out to be an old friend, and he later took the blame when his friend got killed trying to find the real mugger. —RAB
Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann)
He may be the least-liked member of the Reagan family, but at least he knows it! As Erin’s “repentant, arguably charming” defense attorney ex-husband, recurring guest star Hermann accepts that Jack will never win in the Reagan court of public opinion. “Whenever I did an episode, Donnie [in character as Danny] gave me a very, very hard time about being his sister’s ex-husband. It was always the same comment — not suitable for publication — but wow, it made me laugh!” It also made the actor feel at home. “When they start making jokes about you, there’s a pretty good chance they’re happy you’re there,” Hermann says.
Whether he was battling Erin’s team at the district attorney’s office, trying to mend fences with their daughter Nicky, or even briefly reconnecting with Erin romantically, the actor, who also guest stars as a defense attorney on real-life wife Mariska Hargitay’s NBC drama Law & Order: SVU, has loved his time on a show that has connected with so many fans. “At heart, this is the story of a family — messy, complicated, glorious — and it’s been an honor to be a part of it all.”
That’s true even when viewers confuse him with his other big role. “The question that I get the most at the moment is ‘Is Blue Bloods seriously ending?’ [And that’s] second only to ‘Aren’t you Mariska Hargitay’s husband?’” —DH
