Friendly Strangers In A Black Sedan

Won't you hop inside their car?

OK, Boys...

Who wants to administer the birthday whacks?

GARDNER MCKAY
June 10, 1932 - November 21, 2001

How Does Your Gardner Grow?

Don't mention cockle shells, or we may faint.

The Last Time We Saw Paris...

...it didn't look exactly like this. But we continue to dream.

Time For Tiffin

Small wonder that no one guessed that our last Mystery Guest was lovely 1960's starlet, Pamela Tiffin: she was a complete chameleon who seemed to change appearance with every film. In one of the oddest career trajectories in Hollywood history, Tiffin made her debut in two prestigious 1961 films, garnering critical praise and two separate Golden Globe nominations for the Billy Wilder comedy One, Two, Three and the Tennessee Williams melodrama Summer and Smoke. No easy critic, Wilder himself hailed Tiffin as the freshest face to hit Hollywood since Audrey Hepburn; so why didn't the gorgeous, talented Tiffin become at least as big a star as, say, Ann-Margret?


Tiffin co-starred with A-M in two films, the bland 1962 remake of State Fair, and the bouffantastic trifle The Pleasure Seekers (1964); in both, Ann-Margret is unmistakably Ann-Margret: a fixed, fabulous, familiar image. Pamela Tiffin might as well be two different actresses, so wildly different is her look, her persona, her approach in both films. Such confusing contrast made a case for Tiffin's versatility, but sealed her fate as a star.

TIFFIN AND BOBBY DARIN IN STATE FAIR (1962)

TIFFIN AND THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (1964) CO-STAR GARDNER MCKAY

The quality of Tiffin's films also veered wildly between glossy pap for MGM (Come Fly with Me, 1963), teen-oriented drive-in fare for AIP (The Lively Set, 1964), and prestige pictures like Warners' Harper (1966), with the occasional Eurotrash exploitation flick thrown in for good measure. One wonders if producers simply had no idea how to best present this starlet; or if she just didn't really care, and was in the movie game for a lark.


Tiffin closed out the 1960's nearly unrecognizable as a blonde, and appearing more frequently in obscure Continental productions; she retired in 1974. The photo we used for our Guess Who? post was taken from Tiffin's turn in the 1966 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight. The rather remarkable cast also included Blanche Yurka, Walter Pidgeon, Darren McGavin, and one of our Patron Saints, Miss Arlene Francis. Watch this fun clip from What's My Line?, as the cast, including Tiffin, attempts to stump Miss Arlene and the panel. And, of course, Pamela Tiffin looks completely different, yet again.

The Eyes Have It

Oh, McKay!

The almost-impossibly gorgeous Gardner McKay only starred in one TV series (Adventures in Paradise, 1959-62) and two minor films (1964's The Pleasure Seekers and 1968's I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew), but their titles more or less sum up his own persona and appeal: that of a lifelong pleasure seeker and adventurer. Although his film and TV credits are few, McKay became an overnight sensation; his cultured background, and a childhood spent partially in Paris, lent him a finesse and presence that other Hollywood hunks lacked.







McKay left the Hollywood fast lane almost as quickly as he had entered it; an accomplished and talented sportsman, artist, photographer, and writer, perhaps he felt too boxed in by his glamour boy image. Having lived everywhere from Brazil to Egypt to New York, McKay spent the last years of his life in Hawaii, where he passed away from cancer in 2001.



Visit the extensive Gardner McKay fan site here.