Carter McKay
| Carter McKay | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas character | |||||||
| Portrayed by | George Kennedy | ||||||
| Duration | 1988–91, 1996, 1998 | ||||||
| First appearance |
October, 28, 1988 Carousel | ||||||
| Last appearance |
April 24, 1998 Dallas: War of the Ewings | ||||||
| Created by | Leonard Katzman | ||||||
| Spin-off appearances |
Dallas: J.R. Returns Dallas: War of the Ewings | ||||||
| Profile | |||||||
| Occupation |
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Carter McKay, was a character that appeared in the later seasons of the popular American television series Dallas, played by George Kennedy from 1988 to 1991. The character reappeared in the reunion movies Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996) and Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998), again played by Kennedy.
Storylines
Carter McKay arrived in Dallas and bought Ray Krebbs's ranch, where he lived with his young wife Rose (Jeri Gaile). Carter quickly made enemies out of the Ewing family when, during a severe drought, he dammed up the river that ran through Southfork, claiming he couldn't afford to import water for his livestock, whereas Southfork could. With Miss Ellie getting Clayton, Bobby and Ray to blow up the dam, Carter hired mercenary's to protect himself and to scare the Ewing's off. Meanwhile, Carter tried to find his daughter, who happened to be Bobby's new romance, Tracey Lawton (Beth Toussaint). Tracey wanted nothing to do with her father but he persisted to heal the rift between them. The range war continued as Carter's right hand man Fred Hughes almost shot Bobby's son Christopher in an ambush by helicopter. Not taking anymore, the Ewing's managed to cripple Carter's defenses and confront him and Fred, where Carter shot Fred for trying to shoot Bobby. Carter explained to Bobby that he had to front the range war for Jeremy Wendell, Head of WestStar, who would get his son Tommy out of a South American prison. Jeremy wanted to force the Ewing's into selling him Section 40 of their land as it held a large amount of oil beneath it. With pressure from Jeremy to complete their deal, Carter threatened the Ewing's with more violence unless they sold their valuable land to him. Miss Ellie agreed, however during the deal meeting, Jeremy confessed his master plan to the Ewing's. However, the Ewing's had detectives listening to Jeremy's every word and they had him arrested. With Jeremy gone, Carter became Head of WestStar.
McKay left Dallas during the final season and sold his ranch but after re-uniting with his wife Rose he returned to drive JR out of the oil business, with JR and Cliff owning 50% of Ewing Oil and JR having been given voting rights at WestStar, McKay had two executives convince JR he would become chairman of the board with their shares, however it was all a ruse as McKay had bought the majority of stock from Dusty Farlow and having left Ewing Oil to takeover WestStar JR was left defeated and out of the oil business with Cliff in sole charge of Ewing Oil (JR had sold him his 50% to take over WestStar which McKay was now running). The series ended with JR drunkenly considering committing suicide.
In 1996 JR returns to Dallas having been in Europe for a number of years, McKay and Cliff are still in their respective companies but with Cliff now wanting out of the oil business McKay plans to buy Ewing Oil and incorporate it into WestStar and therefore it would cease to exist, hearing this JR tries to get back into the oil business and proceeds to buy up a lot of WestStar shares, although to try and counter this Cliff sold Ewing Oil to Bobby. JR however explained that this was all part of his plan to trick Bobby back into the oil business and has also scuppered plans for WestStar to finish off Ewing Oil in the process. Having upstaged McKay infront of his own board and with a huge share in WestStar, JR convinced the board of WestStar to appoint him chairman leaving McKay out of the business.
2 years later JR was attempting to take back Ewing Oil as well but Bobby and his new partner Sue Ellen refused his offers, at this time they also considered hiring McKay who claimed to know of a huge oil source that would make Ewing Oil bigger than ever. McKay also had an associate at the time (Peter Ellington) who tried to help him get back in the oil business. Bobby was sceptical of McKay feeling he was only interested in getting revenge against JR, JR was also worried McKay was trying to kill him as he was repeatedly targeted with gunshots and a car bomb. In the end McKay tells Sue Ellen the oil is under Ray Krebbs ranch and with Ray no longer able to afford to keep his ranch McKay hopes to buy it and use the oil, Sue Ellen is not impressed and rejects McKay's approach.
McKay decides to go it alone and buy the ranch but with JR knowing about the oil too McKay has to act fast. Bobby hears of Ray's problems and pays off the mortgage on Ray's Ranch but McKay and JR go into a bidding war knowing there is oil underneath it. It is then that Peter Ellington is revealed to be the man who tried to repeatedly kill JR, he then kidnaps Sue Ellen and with JR leading the impromtu bidding war on $45m, Ellington warns him to let McKay win or he will kill Sue Ellen. McKay bids $50m and wins the auction. The land is only worth $10m but with the oil underneath it McKay hopes he will make a big profit.
It is revealed that although McKay had nothing to do with Ellington trying to kill JR, he has made a huge mistake as the oil is on Southfork land and with only Ewings allowed drill there the oil in inaccessible, McKay is defeated having paid 5 times the value for the ranch and is still out of the oil business and has no oil to drill.
McKay has not featured in the new series
Notes
References
- Curran, Barbara A. (2005). Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime-Time Soap. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 978-1581824728.
