Rod Taylor
Rod Taylor (born January 11, 1930, Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia—died January 7, 2015, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was an Australian-born American actor who achieved considerable success in Hollywood during the 1950s and ’60s. His notable roles include the time-traveling inventor in The Time Machine (1960) and the hero in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller The Birds (1963).
Taylor was born to William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor who was also a commercial artist, and Mona (née Thompson) Taylor, a writer of children’s stories. His parents’ work and interests ensured that Taylor experienced the arts at a young age. He studied graphic arts at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College, but he also pursued acting classes and was part of some theatre productions, including Julius Caesar in 1950. Taylor divided his attention between different artistic passions until he saw Laurence Olivier in a British touring company’s production of William Shakespeare’s Richard III and decided to become an actor.
Taylor secured roles on stage and screen and starred in several popular radio shows in Australia throughout the early 1950s, including Tarzan, The Dambusters, and Blue Hills. In 1954 he received a significant award for his performance on O’Sullivan’s Bay, and that same year he moved to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1956.
Taylor’s rugged leading-man looks and his talent for American and British accents earned him supporting parts in such films as The Catered Affair (1956), Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957), Separate Tables (1958), and Ask Any Girl (1959). In 1960 he appeared as H. George Wells in The Time Machine, George Pal’s adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel of the same name. It was his first starring role, and it skyrocketed his fame. His turn as the lawyer Mitch Brenner in Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), alongside Tippi Hedren, confirmed his standing as a leading man. For the rest of his career he was able to move easily between action-adventure dramas and romantic comedies. His action films include A Gathering of Eagles (1963); Fate Is the Hunter (1964); Chuka (1967), a film he also produced; and Dark of the Sun (1968; original title The Mercenaries). Some of his notable romantic comedies are Sunday in New York (1963), with Jane Fonda, and two Doris Day movies, Do Not Disturb (1965) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966).
In The V.I.P.s (1963) Taylor made a rare appearance as an Australian character. He provided the voice of Pongo in Walt Disney’s animated 101 Dalmatians (1961) and starred in the biographical Young Cassidy (1965), based on the life of Irish playwright Sean O’Casey.
Taylor’s frequent TV appearances include recurring roles on Hong Kong (1960–61), The Oregon Trail (1976–78), Masquerade (1983−84), and the soap opera Falcon Crest (1988–90). Throughout the 1990s, Taylor acted in more films, including Open Season (1995), and television shows, including Walker, Texas Ranger (1996−2000) and Murder, She Wrote (1995). His final film is Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), in which he played Winston Churchill. He was the subject of the documentary Pulling No Punches: Rod Taylor (2016), which chronicles his career and personal life.
In 1951 Taylor married Peggy Williams, and they divorced in 1954. In 1963 Taylor married Mary Hilem. They had a daughter, Felicia, in 1964 before divorcing in 1969. In 1980 Taylor married Carol Kikumura, and they remained together until his death in Los Angeles in 2015.