Rod Taylor (actor)

Rod Taylor

Rod Taylor (born Rodney Sturt Taylor on January 11, 1930) is an Australian-born film and television actor. (His middle name comes from his great-great-great-uncle, explorer Charles Sturt)

Born in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, Taylor was the only child of a construction contractor father and a writer mother.

He attended Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College before deciding to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production that performed in Australia.

After acquiring radio and stage experience in Australia, Taylor moved to the United States in 1954, where he became a leading man in feature films of the 1960's and '70's.

Equally adept at light comedy and drama, his best-known films are the 1963 Hitchcock classic The Birds, and the 1960 version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Other films include The Hell with Heroes, alongside talented Hollywood actor Pete Duel, and The Teasure Seekers.

Married three times, Taylor is a life-long painter, with homes in southern California, and in his native Australia. He is the father of statuesque New York City WNBC Channel 4 anchorwoman, Felicia Taylor.

Filmography

Taylor's film roles include:
Welcome to Woop Woop (1998)
Open Season (1996)
Point of Betrayal (1995)
Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993) Short
Cry of the Innocent (1980)
The Picture Show Man (1977)
A Matter of Wife and Death (1976)
*The Train Robbers (1973)
*Trader Horn (1973)
*The Deadly Trackers (1973)
*Darker Than Amber (as Travis Magee) (1970)
*Zabriskie Point (1970)
*Dark of the Sun (a.k.a. The Mercenaries) (1968)
*Hotel (1967)
*Chuka (1967)
*The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
*Do Not Disturb (1965)
*Young Cassidy (as the young Sean O'Casey) (1965)
*The Liquidator (1965)
*36 Hours (1965)
*Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
*The Birds (1963)
*The V.I.P.s (1963)
*Sunday in New York (1963)
*A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
*101 Dalmatians (as Pongo) (1961)
*Hong Kong (TV series) (TV series) (1960)
*The Time Machine (1960)
*Ask Any Girl (1959)
*Separate Tables (1958)
*Raintree County (1957)
*Giant (1956)
*The Catered Affair (1956)
*World Without End'' (1956) debut

TV shows

Taylor has had several lead roles in television, from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. Among his own TV shows are
Hong Kong (1960)
Bearcats (1971)
The Oregon Trail (1976)
Masquerade (1983)
Outlaws (1986)

Among semi-regular appearances or multiple episodes:
Playhouse 90
Walker, Texas Ranger
Murder She Wrote
Falcon Crest

External links

*The Complete Rod Taylor site http://www.fanfromfla.net/rodtaylor/