1. George Cadogan Gardner McKay was an American actor, artist, and author.
28 Facts About Gardner McKay
1. 2.
Gardner McKay is best known for the lead role in the TV series Adventures in Paradise, based loosely on the writings of James Michener.
3.
Gardner McKay's character, Adam Troy, is a Korean War veteran who purchased the two-masted 82-foot schooner Tiki III, and sailed the South Pacific.
4.
The father's business took the family to Paris, where McKay attended private schools.
5.
Gardner McKay later said that he fell in love with Kentucky and considered it paradise.
6.
Gardner McKay attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for two years, where he majored in art.
7.
Gardner McKay wrote for The Cornell Daily Sun and the campus magazine.
8.
Gardner McKay dropped out of school at the age of 19 following the death of his father and moved to Greenwich Village where he worked as a sculptor and writer.
9.
Gardner McKay took up photography and saw some of his work published in The New York Times and Life magazine.
10.
Gardner McKay's sculpting appeared in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and at an exhibit of his work Gardner McKay attracted the attention of photographer Richard Avedon.
11.
Gardner McKay impressed Dore Schary, who signed him to a contract with MGM.
12.
Gardner McKay left MGM and had television guest roles on Death Valley Days, The Silent Service, and Jefferson Drum.
13.
Gardner McKay screen-tested at 20th Century Fox for a TV series based on The Gunslinger, but failed to get the role.
14.
Gardner McKay returned to Hollywood in 1963, and had a supporting role in Fox's The Pleasure Seekers.
15.
Gardner McKay had just decided to end his acting career, when he got a phone call from the noted director George Cukor, offering him the opportunity to star in a romantic comedy film opposite Marilyn Monroe.
16.
Gardner McKay left Hollywood to pursue his interest in photography, sculpture, and writing.
17.
Gardner McKay exhibited his sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, besides holding individual exhibitions.
18.
Gardner McKay wrote many plays and novels, and was a literary critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner between 1977 and 1982.
19.
Gardner McKay taught writing classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, the University of Alaska, and the University of Hawaii.
20.
Gardner McKay wrote and co-directed a TV film, Me, for Hollywood Television Theatre on PBS.
21.
Gardner McKay wrote a script for another TV movie, Sea Marks, based on his play.
22.
Gardner McKay has two other co-writing credits on Soul's eponymous debut album, "The Wall" and "Topanga".
23.
Gardner McKay bought a wooded property in Beverly Hills and kept a menagerie of animals including lions, cheetahs, dogs, and a monkey which he brought back from his sojourn to South America.
24.
Gardner McKay's awards included three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for playwriting, the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, and the Sidney Carrington Prize.
25.
Gardner McKay was a winner in the Canadian Regional Drama Festival, and runner-up in the Hemingway Short Story Contest.
26.
Gardner McKay settled in Hawaii, where he died from prostate cancer in 2001 at the age of 69.
27.
Gardner McKay was survived by his wife Madeleine Madigan, a painter, and two children.
28.
Gardner McKay is mentioned in the 1983 song, "We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About", by Jimmy Buffett that appeared on his One Particular Harbour album.