Rod Taylor

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rodney Sturt "Rod" Taylor (born January 11, 1930 in Sydney , New South Wales , † January 7, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an Australian actor . He experienced the peak of his career in the 1960s with leading roles in Hollywood films such as The Time Machine and The Birds .

Life

Rod Taylor was born in 1930 as the only child of steel structure builder William Sturt Taylor and his wife Mona Taylor in the Australian metropolis of Sydney. His mother worked as an author of children's books and short stories. An extensive relative of his was the British explorer Charles Sturt . Taylor grew up in Lidcombe , a western suburb of Sydney. He studied for a year at Sydney's Independent Theater School and then worked in various theater, radio and film roles in Australia for several years. He made his film debut in 1951 in the Australian short film Inland with Sturt . In 1953 he played in a US production that was filmed in Australia. Taylor first attracted more attention in 1954 with his role in King of the Coral Sea , one of the most successful Australian films of the 1950s. That same year he came to the United States in hopes of a Hollywood career. There he worked as a supporting actor for several years, including in large-scale productions such as George Stevens ' Texas epic Giants (1956) with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, as well as in the comedy Immer die Verdamixten Frauen , in which Shirley MacLaine and David Niven played the leading roles. He also took on guest roles in numerous US television series in the 1950s.

Taylor had his breakthrough as a film star in 1960 in the film adaptation of the novel The Time Machine by HG Wells , in which he travels into the future as the inventor George. After the success with The Time Machine , he took on the lead role in the Hong Kong television series , which only ran for one year until 1961. Also in 1961, he spoke the dog Pongo in the original version of the classic Disney film 101 Dalmatians .

In 1963, Taylor played the male lead in Alfred Hitchcock's animal horror classic The Birds, based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier . He was seen in the role of the young lawyer Mitch Brenner, who is dominated by his mother ( Jessica Tandy ) and can only fall in love with a millionaire's daughter ( Tippi Hedren ) in the course of the attacks by the various birds . In the same year he played an American pilot alongside Jane Fonda in the comedy Sunday in New York . In the following years he played the playwright and activist Sean O'Casey in the biopic Cassidy, the Rebel (1965) and starred with Doris Day in the lead roles in the comedy Spy in Lace Panties (1966). The Western Chuka (1967) was Taylor's only film in which he was also involved as a producer. After Chuka , Taylor was increasingly seen in adventure, action and western films.

From 1970 onwards, Taylor, like many stars of the 1960s, increasingly had to shift his activities to television productions. In the 1970s, he starred in the western series Without Fear and Saddle and The Oregon Trail . Later he mainly took on guest roles in series such as Falcon Crest (in a recurring role as Frank Agretti), Murder is her Hobby or Walker, Texas Ranger . Taylor returned time and again to his native Australia, where he played the lead role in smaller films. In 2009, at the age of 79, he had his last film appearance as Winston Churchill in Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino .

Taylor was married to Carol Kikumura Taylor in third marriage from 1980 until his death; his previous marriages were divorced. From his second marriage there is a daughter, the US television reporter Felicia Taylor (* 1964). He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in January 2015, four days before his 85th birthday.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : Rod Taylor  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anita Gates: Rod Taylor, Hollywood Leading Man Who Battled 'The Birds,' Dies at 84. In: The New York Times, January 9, 2015 (accessed January 9, 2015).
  2. ^ HG Wells: The Time Machine. Text and Study Aids . Edited and with comments by Werner Sedlak. Ernst Klett Sprachen, Stuttgart, 2010, ISBN 978-3-12-579800-7 , p. 116
  3. ↑ Carmel Dagan: Rod Taylor, 'The Birds' and 'The Time Machine' Star, Dies at 84. In: Variety, January 8, 2015 (accessed January 9, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Rod
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taylor, Rodney (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , New South Wales , Australia
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 2015
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States