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Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including Young Cassidy (1965), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Train Robbers (1973), and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975).
Taylor was born in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, to a father who was a steel construction contractor and commercial artist and a mother who was a children's author. He began taking art classes in high school, and continued in college. He decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of Richard III.
His first film role was in a re-enactment of Charles Sturt's voyage down the Murrumbidgee and Murray River rivers, playing Sturt's offsider, George Macleay. At the time, he was also appearing in a number of theatre productions for Australia's Mercury Theatre. He made his feature film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film King of the Coral Sea (1954). He soon started acting in television films, portraying several different characters in the 1950s anthology series Studio 57.
He started to gain popularity after starring in The Time Machine (1960), as H. George Wells. He later starred in the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), voicing Pongo. In one of his most famous roles, he played Mitch Brenner in The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. By the late 1990s, Taylor had moved into semiretirement. His final film role was in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), portraying Winston Churchill in a cameo.
Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College and took art classes. His mother wanted him to be an artist, and pressured him into taking the art classes. While at the tech he met young potter David Boyd and with their respective companions began a pottery concern.The Sun-Herald, August 14 1949. Four Young Artists have Success with Ceramics.(Official Rod Taylor site)[1] For a time he worked as a commercial artist, but he decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of Richard III. He had caught Acting.
Taylor made his feature-film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film King of the Coral Sea (1954), playing an American. He later played Israel Hands in a Hollywood-financed film shot in Sydney, Long John Silver (1954), an unofficial sequel to Treasure Island. Following these two films, Taylor was awarded the 1954 Rola Show Australian Radio Actor of the Year Award, which included a ticket to London via Los Angeles, but Taylor did not continue on to London.
Toward the end of 1955, Taylor unsuccessfully to play boxer Rocky Graziano in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Somebody Up There Likes Me after James Dean's death, but his use of a Brooklyn accent and physical prowess in the test impressed the studio enough to give him a long-term contract. At MGM, he played a series of supporting roles in The Catered Affair (1956),Saragossi, Steve. "Taylor-Made". Cinema Retro. Vol. 7, Issue 19 (2011). Raintree County (1957), and Ask Any Girl (1959). He had a significant role in Separate Tables (1958), which won Academy Awards for two of its stars, David Niven and Wendy Hiller. He also made a strong impression guest-starring in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959).
In or around 1960, he was approached regarding the role of James Bond in the first feature-length Bond film. Taylor reportedly declined to become involved because he considered the character of Bond "beneath him".Juddery, Mark (13 January 2015). "Rod Taylor, the Hollywood star, who never forgot he was an Aussie". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 September 2018. Taylor later commented: "Every time a new Bond picture became a smash hit ... I tore out my hair."
Taylor starred in Alfred Hitchcock's horror thriller The Birds (1963), along with Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy, and Veronica Cartwright, playing a man whose town and home come under attack by menacing birds. Taylor then starred with Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy Sunday in New York (also 1963).
During the mid-1960s, Taylor worked mostly for MGM. His credits including The V.I.P.s (1963), his first feature-film role as an Australian, with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Maggie Smith; Fate Is the Hunter (for 20th Century Fox, 1964) with Glenn Ford and Suzanne Pleshette; 36 Hours (1964) with James Garner; Young Cassidy (1965) with Julie Christie and Maggie Smith; The Liquidator (1965) with Jill St. John; Do Not Disturb (1965); and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), both co-starring Doris Day.
He began to change his image toward the end of the decade to more tough-guy roles, such as Chuka (1967), which he also produced, and he starred in Hotel (1967) with Catherine Spaak; Dark of the Sun (or The Mercenaries, 1968), again with Yvette Mimieux; Nobody Runs Forever (1968) in which he played New South Wales Police Sergeant Scobie Malone, this being Taylor's first starring feature-film role as an Australian; and Darker than Amber (1970) as Travis McGee.
He was also reportedly up for the role of martial artist Roper in the Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon (1973). The film was directed by Robert Clouse, who had also directed Taylor in Darker than Amber. Taylor was supposedly deemed too tall for the part, and the role instead went to John Saxon. City On Fire (audio commentatary)
In 1993, he hosted the documentary . The special ended with a minisequel written by David Duncan, the screenwriter of the George Pal film. Taylor recreated his role as George, reuniting him with Filby (Alan Young).
Taylor returned to Australia several times over the years to make films, playing a 1920s traveling showman in The Picture Show Man (1977) and a paid killer in On the Run (1983). In the black comedy Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), he played the foul-mouthed redneck Daddy-O.
By the late 1990s, Taylor had moved into semiretirement. In 2007, he appeared in the horror telemovie Kaw, which revisits the idea of marauding birds turning on their human tormentors. In this film, however, the cause of the disturbance was discovered by Taylor, who plays the town doctor. He appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in 2009, portraying Winston Churchill in a cameo. In 2017, a documentary on Taylor's life, Pulling No Punches, was released and entered into the Beverly Hills Film Festival.
His second marriage, to model Mary Hilem, lasted from 1963 until they divorced in 1969. The couple had one daughter, former CNN financial reporter Felicia Taylor (1964-2023). Taylor bought a home in Palm Springs, California, in 1967.
He married his third wife, Carol Kikumura, in 1980. They had originally dated in the early 1960s when she was an extra on his TV series Hong Kong. The couple got back together in 1971 and dated for an additional nine years before marrying.
Hollywood
Taylor soon landed roles in television shows such as Studio 57 and the films Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) and Giant (1956). In 1955, he guest-starred as Clancy in the third episode ("The Argonauts") of the first hour-long Western television series, Cheyenne, an ABC program starring Clint Walker.
Stardom
Taylor's first leading role in a feature film was in The Time Machine (1960), George Pal's adaptation of the science-fiction classic by H. G. Wells, with Taylor as the time traveller who, thousands of years in the future, falls for a woman played by Yvette Mimieux. Taylor played a character not unlike that of his Twilight Zone episode of a year earlier and the film World Without End in 1956.
Later career
In 1973, Taylor was cast in The Train Robbers alongside long-time friend John Wayne and Ann-Margret. The film was a box-office success. Taylor also had some television roles: he starred in Bearcats! (1971) on CBS and in The Oregon Trail (1976) on NBC. He had a regular role in the short-lived spy drama series Masquerade (1983), and played one of the leads in the equally short-lived series, Outlaws (1986). From 1988 to 1990, Taylor appeared in the CBS drama series Falcon Crest as Frank Agretti, playing opposite Jane Wyman. In the mid-1990s, he appeared in several episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Walker, Texas Ranger.
Personal life
His first wife was model Peggy Williams (1951–1954). They divorced after allegations of domestic violence. Taylor later claimed that they divorced because they felt they were too young to have a healthy marriage. Taylor dated and was briefly engaged to Swedish actress Anita Ekberg in the early 1960s. He dated model Pat Sheehan in the late 1960s.
(2026). 9781479328598, Horatio Limburger Oglethorpe. ISBN 9781479328598
Death
Taylor died of a heart attack at his home, surrounded by his family, on 7 January 2015, in Beverly Hills, California, four days before his 85th birthday.
Filmography
Feature films
Long John Silver Israel Hands Top Gun Lem Sutter World Without End Herbert Ellis The Catered Affair Ralph Halloran Giant Sir David Karfrey The Rack Al Uncredited
1957 Raintree County Garwood B. Jones Separate Tables Charles 1959 Ask Any Girl Ross Tayford Colossus and the Amazon Queen Pirro 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians Pongo Voice role
1962 Seven Seas to Calais Francis Drake The V.I.P.s Les Mangrum A Gathering of Eagles Francis Drake Col. Hollis Farr
Sunday in New York Mike Mitchell 1964 Fate Is the Hunter Capt. Jack Savage Young Cassidy John Cassidy The Liquidator Boysie Oakes Do Not Disturb Mike Harper 1966 The Glass Bottom Boat Bruce Templeton Chuka Chuka Nobody Runs Forever Scobie Malone a.k.a. The High Commissioner
The Hell with Heroes Brynie MacKay Darker than Amber Travis McGee The Man Who Had Power Over Women Peter Reaney 1971 Powderkeg Hank Brackett TV movie/pilot for Bearcats!
1972 Family Flight Jason Carlyle TV movie
Gli eroi Lieutenant Bob Robson a.k.a. The Heroes
Trader Horn Trader Horn The Deadly Trackers Frank Brand 1974 Hell River Marko a.k.a. Partizani
1975 A Matter of Wife... and Death Shamus McCoy TV movie
The Oregon Trail Evan Thorpe TV series
The Picture Show Man Palmer 1979 The Treasure Seekers Marian Casey 1980 Cry of the Innocent Steve Donegin TV movie
1981 Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy 'Black Jack' Bouvier TV movie
A Time to Die Jack Bailey On the Run Mr. Payatta 1984 Terror in the Aisles Himself (stock footage) Half Nelson TV series
Mask of Murder Supt. Bob McLaine 1991 Danielle Steel's 'Palomino' Bill King TV movie
1992 Grass Roots Gen. Willoughby TV movie
Point of Betrayal Ted Kitteridge 1997 Welcome to Woop Woop Daddy-O 1998 General Sorenson TV movie
2007 Kaw Doc TV movie
2009 Inglourious Basterds Winston Churchill Final film role
Documentaries
Television
As a regular
Taylor had several lead roles in television, from the early 1960s to the early first decade of the 21st century. Among his television shows as a regular are:
Guest appearances
Theatre credits
External links
Categories: Official Website, 1930 Births, 2015 Deaths, 20th-century Australian Male Actors, 21st-century Australian Male Actors, Australian Expatriate Male Actors In The United States, Australian Male Film Actors, Australian People Of English Descent, Australian Male Radio Actors, Australian Male Television Actors, Male Actors From Sydney, Male Actors From Palm Springs, California, Metro-goldwyn-mayer Contract Players, Burials At Forest Lawn Memorial Park, People Educated At Parramatta High School
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