Gareth Monello Carmody was born on February 4, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Italian descent. His father was a truant officer and his mother a teacher. From a young age he showed signs of artistic talent. When he was a young teenager his family moved to Los Angeles, as his father landed a job as an administrator in the Los Angeles City School District and his mother was able to teach there as well. He attended Los Angeles High School where he excelled at numerous sports. At age 16 he was attending both regular high school and studying at the Otis Art Institute on a regular basis on a full scholarship he won at 15.
After HS he began studying art at UCLA, but dissatisfied with the course, he went to earn a degree in Theatre Arts in 1958. While at UCLA he did not wanna take out student loans and end up in debt, so he began doing Physique modeling to be able to pay off college.
He is a renowned landscape and portrait painter, and was the youngest artist to win a major prize at the LA Art Exhibition. Before the age of 16 he was awarded full scholarships to the three most prestigious art schools in the USA. He also plays violin, guitar and piano at professional levels. He is particularly accomplished at playing the violin, having even played at the Hollywood Bowl.
Whilst at U.C.L.A. Gary appeared in some university stage productions, including 'Volpone' in which he played Leone. During the production, Gary met his wife to be, Marion McKnight, who was crowned 'Miss America' in 1957. They married in 1958. He also made a few low budget films while in college.
After graduating, Gary enlisted in the U.S. Army, and had an opportunity to try his hand at radio broadcasting when he was assigned a job as radio announcer. Whilst stationed at Fort Ord in California, Gary was invited to attend a screen test at Warner Brothers. Straight after he was discharged from the Army, Gary attended the screen test for a series 'The Alaskans'. He didn't get the part but was signed to a contract with Warners, under which he guested in popular shows such as '77 Sunset Strip' and 'Hawaiian Eye'. After he left WB he started to land more work, doing numerous guest spots on tv shows and some films. His big break would come in 1963 when he landed a lead role on the series “Burke’s Law”. The series ran from 1963 to 1965. After this he would do many more guest spots on tv shows until 1968, when he landed the lead role in “Land of the Giants”. He starred in that for two seasons. After this series he made a few more tv guest spots, tv movies (including one with Bette Davis) and films. In 1973 and age 37 he did an interview and photoshoot with Playgirl (where he was nude in a few photos but always covered up his junk). He wanted those images taken while he felt he was still in his prime so he could look back on.
He barely worked in the 80s, with very few credits during that decade. In the late 80s he developed one of the premier vineyards in California with his wife, in what was a 320 acre cattle ranch near Paso Robles. They owned it until 2019, when they sold it for many millions.
He is still married to his wife and they live a quiet life in California. He is 88 now. They had two children together.