Commissioner Francis Xavier Reagan, portrayed by former Magnum, P.I. star Tom Selleck, is the patriarch of the Reagan family.
Frank is the younger son of Henry (Len Cariou) and Betty Reagan, born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York in the early 1950s. His older brother, Peter Christopher Reagan, died of leukemia at the age of 18 months, over a year before Frank was born.[1] Frank married Mary Margaret Reagan (née Conor)[2] in the early 1970s, and they had four children together: Danny, Erin, Joe, and Jamie. Frank is also a loving grandfather to Erin’s daughter, Nicky Reagan-Boyle (Sami Gayle), and Danny’s two children, Jack (Tony Terraciano) and Sean Reagan (Andrew Terraciano). It’s revealed in Season 10’s “Family Secrets” that Frank also has one more grandson, Joseph Hill, the son of Paula Hill, whom Joe Reagan met at the academy. Paula said the two had a brief affair and she never told Joe about her pregnancy or his son. Paula visits Frank and reveals the news in an effort to get her son, a young detective in the firearms unit, assigned to a less dangerous precinct.
After serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War (during which time he held the rank of Lieutenant and was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal[3]), Frank became the third generation of Reagans to become a police officer. He began his career as a patrol officer, and was later promoted to Detective 3rd Grade. He thereafter served in various positions across the city, including Chief of the Brooklyn South Division and the Chief of Department of the NYPD, culminating in being appointed Police Commissioner.
On September 11, 2001, Frank was working in the North Tower when the South Tower collapsed. He spent days at Ground Zero, and took refuge at St. Paul’s Chapel, where he and other officers slept in the pews.[4] Frank was appointed the Police Commissioner by Mayor Frank Russo (Bruce Altman). In 2011, after the election of Carter Poole (David Ramsey), Frank offers to tender his resignation, but Poole decided to keep Frank on as PC.[5] In the first season, Frank is well regarded and respected by his officers and his city, to the point where the mayor felt threatened by his popularity; however, by season 6, public opinion regarding the police – and him personally – has changed so drastically that he gets booed off-stage while speaking at Columbia University.[6] However, in season 7, new mayor Margaret Dutton affirms that his polls are better than any of the NY mayors.[7]
