Travis McGee has twice been translated to cinema and television; Rod Taylor played McGee in "Darker Than Amber" (1970), and Sam Elliott played him in the television movie of "The Empty Copper Sea", entitled "Travis McGee" (1983). The latter relocates McGee in California, eliminating the Florida locales central to the novels. In addition, Elliott kept his trademark brushy mustache, thoroughly distancing himself from the clean-shaven, brush cut look McGee maintains in the books. In the first film Meyer was played by Theodore Bikel, and in the second by Gene Evans.