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A bachelor, handsome, co-star of the CBS-TV series Hawaii Five-O, colorcast Saturday at 5 p.m., on Channel 8, and working in lush Honolulu nine months out of the year -- certainly a Utopian situation most any man would envy. At least at first glance.

“It looks good on the surface,” Jim MacArthur recently said, “but I’m more like a kid pushing his nose against a candy store window. We work from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week.”

Though sharply curtailed, MacArthur’s favorite hobby is dating pretty girls. When asked about future marriage plans, “I have nothing against it, just now,” he said. “For the past year I’ve been dating Melody Patterson (actress). She flies back and forth from California on weekends, but I’m not ready to settle down for a while yet. Marriage means a great deal, and I don’t want to rush into it without serious consideration.”

Unlike some actors who find the lure of the islands overwhelming, MacArthur balks at establishing a permanent home there. “Prices are too high,” he said. “And Hawaii is a bit too remote from the mainstream of American life. It’s great to come back to the mainland and get the feeling of excitement.”

During the nine month stretch last season he got back to the mainland only once or twice. This didn’t give him as much time as he would like with his children, Charles, 9, and Mary, 4.

A succession of Walt Disney films, from Swiss Family Robinson to Third Man on the Mountain, caused MacArthur to justifiably fear he had been typed, which meant a sharp decline in casting potentials.
With his Five-O role, and the switch in characterization, many new possibilities are opening for him. He has hit the age of thirty-one and foreseen that more demanding and mature parts will be coming his way.

The son of famous parents, actress Helen Hayes and playwright Charles MacArthur, James has been acting since he was eight. After growing up in Los Angeles, and spending a year and a half at Harvard, he began working steadily as an actor at seventeen.