Saddles, with co-stars Jack Pickard and Patrick McVey. McKay screen-tested at 20th Century Fox for a TV series based on The Gunslinger, but failed to get the role. The test did, however, net him a long-term contract at the studio. Dominick Dunne was searching for an actor to star in his planned Adventures in Paradise when he spotted McKay at the studio coffee shop. Dunne later said, "I didn't know who he was. He was an extraordinarily handsome guy. I said, 'Are you an actor?' I gave him my card and said, 'If you're interested, call me.'" McKay called, and ten actors were tested for the role. Dunne said of McKay: "His (test) was the worst, but everybody reacted to him, I mean everybody – especially the women." Although previously unknown to the public, McKay was featured on the cover of the July 6, 1959 issue of Life just two months before the series premiered. The article noted that he had been around boats since childhood and was an experienced seaman. During the series' run, McKay had small roles in several Fox films, including Holiday for Lovers (1959) and The Right Approach (1961). McKay returned to Hollywood in 1963, and had a support role in Fox's The Pleasure Seekers (1964). McKay's final film was the 1968 I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew, written and directed by Richard L. Bare. "It took me 100 hours to become a good actor," said McKay. "Then I committed professional suicide." 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. The film was Something's Got to Give. McKay had made up his mind and turned it down. Cukor and Monroe were shocked. Monroe phoned him to see if she could get him to change his mind. McKay said, "She was so delightful on the phone, so winning, so seductive in a way," but he said no. He added "I didn’t belong in acting." The part went to Dean Martin and the film was never completed. Instead McKay went sailing in the Caribbean and South America for a year and a half. "Not doing anything really," he said later. "I didn't give myself an excuse for being there." He moved to Paris, where he had lived as