![907414.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-03.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
The ABC reality show The Bachelor was not around in 1959, but it’s an idea at least that old to put a good-looking, multi-talented, ideal-seeming man on TV. While this season’s bachelor Ben Higgins studied business, enjoys line-dancing and once volunteered in Peru, that year’s Renaissance man was 27-year-old “actor-artist-athlete” Gardner McKay, who was also a sailor and schooner captain, a basketball star, equestrian and diver, a fisherman, model, sculptor and photographer. “This is the face that will—well, let’s say, probably will—launch a million sighs and burn its romantic image into the hearts of hordes of American females,” LIFE declared about that year’s “new Apollo for the ladies.”
McKay, who was preparing for a starring role on the TV show that would make him famous, Adventures in Paradise, was by LIFE’s account the paragon of American good looks:
The ideal handsome male…must have a special mixture of handsomeness and ruggedness. Too much of one and the ideal will turn into a pretty boy; too much of the other and he will look like an oaf. The ideal must also appear intelligent; large deep-set eyes can show that he is. He must look like a man other men would like; this may be indicated by a strong jaw. He must be sensitive…
Later in life, after Adventures in Paradise went off the air, McKay would bask in a return to relative anonymity and turn his attention to writing plays, assisting an agronomist in the Amazon and traveling the Egyptian desert on camelback.
But, though he was a reluctant star, McKay did end up launching at least one sigh—the one that truly counted. Though he admitted to having been afraid to settle down in his younger years, he later wrote in an essay that when he met an Irish artist named Madeleine Madigan in his late 40s, “I pulled over to the side of the road and got out.” They were married for two decades, until his death at 69 in 2001.
![001040126.jpg July 6, 1959 cover of LIFE magazine.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-life-magazine-1959.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.
![110972335.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-01.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114292882.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![907414.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114292683.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114348464.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114292742.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-06.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114348495.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![907401.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-08.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114292476.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-09.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293350.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293072.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293211.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293684.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-13.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114348375.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-14.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293275.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-15.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293307.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-16.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114292581.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-17.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114293332.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-18.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![GARDNER MCKAY Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-19.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![114347668.jpg Gardner McKay 1959 Life magazine photo essay](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/160105-gardner-mckay-20.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Melinda French Gates Is Going It Alone
- What to Do if You Can’t Afford Your Medications
- How to Buy Groceries Without Breaking the Bank
- Sienna Miller Is the Reason to Watch Horizon
- Why So Many Bitcoin Mining Companies Are Pivoting to AI
- The 15 Best Movies to Watch on a Plane
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com