Meet LAPD Officer William “Bill” Norcross — whose story inspired ABC’s “The Rookie,” starring Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, a 40-something officer with no prior experience who joins the LAPD and proves he can handle the job amid his much-younger colleagues.

Norcross was 44 in late 2015 when he decided to leave his family’s printing business in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and head to LA to fulfill his lifelong dream of joining law enforcement. Three years later, he’s still on the job, currently patrolling the beat in the LAPD’s Pacific Division.

His college friend, Jon Steinberg, adapted Norcross’ story, which morphed into “The Rookie,” created by Alexi Hawley with former “Castle” star Fillion in the role based on Norcross. (In the series, Nolan owned a construction business before coming to LA.) “The Rookie” premiered in September 2018 and continues to draw strong viewership on ABC (Norcross and Steinberg are executive producers).

“I had been in a family business and when I was in college, my mom died,” says Norcross. “She was a big part of the family business and when she passed away, there was a huge hole in the business. I came home to help — and the next thing you know, it was 20 years later.”

Norcross, unmarried with no children, had no law enforcement experience, but says he realized he needed to chase his dreams before life passed him by.

“[Law enforcement] was something I had always thought about in the back of my mind … then, all of the sudden, I wake up and I’m 40-something years old and I figured if I was ever going to make a change, that now was the time to do it,” he says. “I looked around; I always thought about LA — the LAPD has no age limit, as long as you can pass the requirements — and I saw they had expedited testing where you can cram a couple of months of testing into one week, and that’s how it started.

“I knew no one out here except for one or two college friends [including Steinberg]. The LAPD tested over 40 applicants and by the end of the week, there were only two of us left standing.”

After graduating from the police academy, and all during his rookie year, Norcross would have lunch with Steinberg once a month or so, telling him stories about the academy and about his first year on the job. “Funny stories, stories that pulled at your heart … Jon is a great storyteller and started distilling [these stories] and curating them,” Norcross says. “He’d been in the entertainment business and thought this was a unique entry into a police show. He talked to some of the people he knew and that’s the genesis of how this happened.”

Norcross says he got “a little ribbing” his first year on the job, due to his age. “At the end of the day, it’s about your ability to do the job and I feel I can do the job, and I think having over 40 years of life experience gives me some advantages,” he says, adding that “The Rookie” hasn’t had too much of an impact on his day job. “I keep it pretty quiet and don’t tell many people [about the series] but word has slowly gotten out,” he says. “But it’s business as usual — I’m going out and doing my job.

“When I have days off of patrol, I’ll stop by the set and talk with Nathan [Fillion] and the other actors and stop by the writers’ room and I’m always available with a phone call,” he says. While he appeared in one episode of “The Rookie” last season, Norcross says he’s all about his police work and not chasing an acting career.

“I’m happy with my day job,” he says. “I came out here to be a police officer and that’s what I’m here for. Anything else that’s happened to me … I’ve been incredibly fortunate — but I’m here to be a police officer.”