Gardner McKay

Immortalized in the the 1983 Jimmy Buffett song "We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About".

He quit acting and became a writer in 1970. He was the drama critic for the L.A. Herald Examiner--1979-1981.

Turned down the offer to co-star with Marilyn Monroe in the unfinished film Something's Got to Give (1962), started shortly before her death.

Gardner is the son of Deane McKay, an ad executive, and Catherine. He was raised in New York and Paris. He attended Cornell University two years but left when his father died. He worked in advertising for 6 months but found that he could not stand it. At age 20, he became a sculptor and had a piece displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. In 1959, he was spotted by a Hollywood producer who convinced him to join the cast of TV's Adventures in Paradise (1959). When it was over, he decided he really did not like the celebrity spotlight and proceeded to roam the world. He hiked in the Amazon, rode camels in Egypt, and crewed on Caribbean yachts.

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.