Career
McKinney is perhaps best known for his role as Jason Stillwell in 1986 martial arts film Number Retreat, Number Surrender. Kurt McKinney is also a practitioner of Jeet Kune Do, Tae Kwon Do, Kung-Fu, & Kickboxing. Number Retreat, Number Surrender McKinney moved to Hollywood in the mid-1980s and found fame within few months.
He auditioned for the lead in American Ninja (1985) but was turned down due to his youth.
Instead his film debut would come playing Jason Stillwell in 1986 martial arts film Number Retreat, Number Surrender, which also starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, J.W. Fails and Tai Chung Kim. The movie grossed $5 million at the United States box office (and spawned two sequels).
Although this success was moderate compared to similar movies of the time, such as the Rocky series or The Karate Kid series, it remains a cult classic film to many people around the world. McKinney reportedly turned down the chance to reprise his role for the 1987 sequel.
Guiding Light and films His second contract role in a was also his longest, appearing as Matt Reardon in the Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera Guiding Light from 1994 to 2000 and 2005 to 2009, when the series was canceled.
During his first stint in Guiding Light he filmed a minor role in 1999 film Population McKinney left the soap in 2000 and continued to appear in minor roles in relatively obscure independent films, including 2000"s Cupid & Kate, 2001"s Supertalk, 2002"s Bending All The Rules and 2004"s Savage Faith. ly before his return to Guiding Light in 2005, reprising the role of Matt Reardon, McKinney commented in an interview that he had been busy doing several independent films in recent years saying "you"ll probably never see which is unfortunately where so many of those end up.".