Gardner McKay
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| Gardner McKay | |
 Gardner McKay on the cover of TV Week, 1959 |
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| Birth name | George Cadogan Gardner McKay |
| Born | June 19, 1932 New York |
| Died | November 21, 2001 Hawaii Kai, Hawaii |
| Height | 6 ft 5 inch (1.96 m) |
| Notable roles | Adam Troy in Adventures in Paradise |
| Spouse(s) | Madeleine Madigan |
George Cadogan Gardner McKay (Manhattan, New York, USA, June 19, 1932 – Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, USA, November 21, 2001) was an American actor and writer.
McKay became a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1950s and 1960s. His rugged good looks, 6'5" (1.96 m) 200 pound (91 kg) frame, and his affinity for sailing helped him land him the leading role in the TV series Adventures in Paradise, based loosely on the writings of James Michener. His character, Adam Troy, was a Korean War veteran who purchased or gambled for a twin-masted 82 foot (25 m) schooner Tiki, set afloat on the South Pacific, and Gardner played his restlessly-romantic character with conviction. The dashing young actor and writer eventually abandoned Hollywood for his own adventures in the Amazon and Hawaii. While he appeared in the television series, he turned down the opportunity to star opposite Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got to Give, a film that was never produced.
McKay was reading a book of poetry in a Hollywood coffee shop when he was spotted by Dominick Dunne, then a television producer for Twentieth Century Fox, who was searching for an actor to take the starring role in his planned series, Adventures in Paradise. Dunne left his Fox business card on the table and said, "If you're interested in discussing a television series, call me." McKay did. He competed in screen tests with 9 other candidates, and while he was far from the best actor, he possessed other assets: good looks, strong presence, and a useful (for the series) ability to tie knots. Although initially unknown to the public, he appeared on the July 6, 1959 cover of Life Magazine two months before the series premiered. The publicity launched the show and McKay's career.
McKay was the great-great grandson of Donald McKay, a builder of clipper ships in Boston, and an accomplished sailor, with 8 Atlantic crossings by the age of 17. As well as becoming a writer, playwright, sculptor, photographer, drama critic, sea kayaker, and actor, he rode camels in North Africa and raised lions in the Hollywood Hills. After traveling for years, he returned to the U.S., settled in Honolulu, and began a writing career, something that had interested him since his days at Cornell, where he worked as as a movie critic for the Cornell Daily Sun. He was also an artist. One of his early sculptures was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 1956 he was on board the French liner SS Ile de France when she turned back to rescue many passengers from the Italian ship SS Andrea Doria, which sank after her tragic collision with the SS Stockholm (51 victims). The pictures he took of the rescue were published in The New York Times, Life, and throughout the world.
In 1983, still a bachelor (in spite of the many fiancées the newspapers had attributed to him), he married Madeleine Madigan, an Irish cook and caterer by profession and a painter by passion, whom he had met in Rome three years earlier. She had a daughter, Liza, from a previous marriage. They travelled throughout the world and leased their Beverly Hills home. They lived a year in London and then in Los Angeles for a few years before settling, in 1987, in their final home in Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, about 5 miles (8 km) from Honolulu, on a hill with a magnificent view overlooking the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. There, McKay penned the play Sea Marks and the novel Toyer. From 1995 to 2000, McKay had his own Sunday radio show on Hawaïi Radio called Stories on the Wind, on which he used to read short stories for the listeners.
