Gardner McKay was an American actor, artist, and author. He 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 get the leading role in the Abctelevision 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. McKay 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 Adventures in Paradise, he turned down the opportunity to star opposite Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got to Give, a film that was never produced.

McKay was already under contract to MGM 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 Adventures in Paradise. McKay competed in screen tests with nine 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 sail. 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.

Gifted for art, he was just as skilful in sports. He practiced horse-riding, hunting, deep-sea diving, fishing and basketball which he regularly played in Hollywood, as manager and captain of the "RED FOXES" of the 20th Century Fox.

In spring 1962, and as soon as ended the series, Gardner McKay, in spite of previous plans with 20th for pictures (A Watcher In The Shadows and The Great St. Bernard), decided to leave the twilight of stardom for long lonesome trips in the Antilles, and so, escape from the pressure of Hollywood’s medias.

In 1983, still a bachelor (in spite of the many fiancées the newspapers had given him), he finally marries Irish Madeleine Madigan, a cook and caterer by profession and a painter by passion, whom he first met in Hawaii in 1980. After traveling throughout the world, they settled their home in 1987 at Koko Head (at about 5 miles from Honolulu Hawaii). He taught playwriting at UCLA and later at University of Hawaii. He wrote poems and plays.

Struck by prostate cancer, he continued to write at Koko Head. During his last weeks, Gardner and Madeleine were working together on "Journey without a Map", his biography.

Gardner McKay died on Wednesday November 21, 2001. His ashes are now interred with his fathers in the family vault in Louisville cemetery in the state of Kentucky. His sculpture has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, the White Museum.