Born George Cadogan Gardner McKay. McKay graduated from Cornell University, where he majored in art. He became a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1950s and 1960s. He landed the lead role in Adventures in Paradise, based loosely on the writings of James Michener. His character, Adam Troy, was a Korean War veteran who purchased the twin-masted 82-foot (25 m) schooner Tiki, and sailed the South Pacific.McKay was under contract to MGM when he was spotted by Dominick Dunne, a television producer for Twentieth Century Fox who was searching for an actor to star in his planned Adventures in Paradise. Dunne put his business card on the table and said, "If you're interested in discussing a television series, call me." McKay competed in screen tests with nine other candidates, and won it because of his good looks and ability to sail. An accomplished sailor, he had made eight Atlantic crossings by the age of seventeen. Although previously unknown to the public, McKay appeared on the July 6, 1959, cover of Life Magazine just two months before the series premiered.In the 1957-1958 season, McKay played Lieutenant Dan Kelly in the 38-episode syndicated western series, Boots and Saddles, with Jack Pickard and Patrick McVey.After acting in more than 100 films for television, McKay left Hollywood to pursue his loves of photography, sculpture, and writing. He turned down the opportunity to star opposite Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got to Give, a film which was never completed. He exhibited his sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, besides holding individual exhibitions. His lifeboat rescue photographs of the Andrea Doria were published internationally. McKay wrote many plays and novels, and was a literary critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner between 1977 and 1982. He taught writing classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Alaska, University of Hawaii.McKay's awards included three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for playwriting, the Drama Critics Circle Award Best Play, and Sidney Carrington Prize. He was a winner in Canadian Regional Drama Festival, and runner up in the Hemingway Short Story Contest.McKay settled in Hawaii, where he died from prostate cancer in 2001, aged 69. He was survived by his wife Madeleine Madigan, a painter, and two children.
He quit acting and became a writer in 1970. He was the drama critic for the L.A. Herald Examiner--1979-1981.
Children: son Tristan and daughter Liza.
Immortalized in the the 1983 Jimmy Buffett song "We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About".
Turned down the offer to co-star with Marilyn Monroe in the unfinished film Somethings Got to Give , started shortly before her death.
Was discovered by Dominick Dunne.
Named to star in Watcher in the Woods a forthcoming production for Twentieth Century Fox in 1962/63. A British scientist uses himself as bait to entice a would be murderer into the open. Wounding the killer in a gun duel, the scientist discovers that he had been singled out for death because he was believed to be an ex-gestapo agent.
The July 22, 1970, issue of Variety, in the Hollywood Production Pulse column, lists the movie "The Low Price of Fame" had started filming May 18 in Iowa, starring Rory Calhoun, Gardner McKay, and Yvonne DeCarlo. Producer and director Jerry Schafer, executive producer Donald B. Running, for Carvel Prods. No evidence the film was completed or released.
Photographed by Richard Avedon in 1956 with models Suzy Parker and Barbara Mullen cavorting in Paris bistros and nightclubs. Also featured in the shoot was Robin Tattersall, a male model who would later become the official government surgeon on the British Virgin Islands.
