Rod Taylor
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
A trained painter, Australian-born Rod Taylor switched to acting in his early twenties, toting up Australian stage credits before making his first Aussie film, The Stuart Exposition, in 1951. A villainous stint as Israel Hand in the 1954 Australian/U.S. production Long John Silver gave evidence that Taylor might be able to handle leading roles. However, he was still among the supporting ranks in his first American film, The Virgin Queen (1955). Signed to a nonexclusive contract by MGM in 1957, Taylor was cast in predominantly American roles, and accordingly managed to submerge his Australian accent in favor of a neutral "mid-Atlantic" cadence; even when playing an Englishman in 1960's The Time Machine, he spoke with barely a trace of a discernable accent. His film career peaked in the early to mid 1960s; during the same period he starred in the TV series Hong Kong (1961), the first of several weekly television stints (other series included Bearcats, The Oregon Trail, Masquerade and Outlaws). He was so long associated with Hollywood that, upon returning to Australia to appear in the 1977 film The Picture Show Man, Taylor was cast as an American. In his later career, Taylor thrived in character roles as ageing, but still virile, outdoorsmen, appearing in television shows like The Oregon Trail and Outlaws. He had recurring roles on Falcon Crest, Murder, She Wrote and Walker, Texas Ranger before mostly retiring from acting. In 2009, director Quentin Tarantino lured him out of retirement with the chance to play Winston Churchill in Inglourious Basterds. Taylor died in 2015, at age 84.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Rod Taylor: Pulling No Punches |
|
— | 2018 |
89% | Inglourious Basterds |
|
$120.6M | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Kaw |
|
— | 2007 |
No Score Yet | High Commissioner |
|
— | 2004 |
33% | Welcome to Woop Woop |
|
— | 1998 |
39% | The Man Who Knew Too Little |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Open Season |
|
— | 1996 |
No Score Yet | Nowhere to Hide |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | The Fantasy Film World of George Pal |
|
— | 1985 |
No Score Yet | Marbella, un Golpe de Cinco Estrellas |
|
— | 1985 |
No Score Yet | A Time to Die |
|
— | 1982 |
No Score Yet | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy |
|
— | 1981 |
No Score Yet | Cry of the Innocent |
|
— | 1980 |
No Score Yet | The AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Alfred Hitchcock |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | The Treasure Seekers (Jamaican Gold) |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | The Picture Show Man |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | Hell River |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | Partizani (Tactical Guerilla) |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | Germicide |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | The Deadly Trackers |
|
— | 1973 |
33% | The Train Robbers |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | Trader Horn |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | Darker than Amber |
|
— | 1970 |
64% | Zabriskie Point |
|
— | 1970 |
No Score Yet | Man Who Had Power Over Women |
|
— | 1970 |
No Score Yet | Powderkeg |
|
— | 1970 |
67% | The Mercenaries (Dark of the Sun) |
|
— | 1968 |
No Score Yet | The High Commissioner |
|
— | 1968 |
No Score Yet | Chuka |
|
— | 1967 |
100% | Hotel |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | The Liquidator |
|
— | 1966 |
57% | The Glass Bottom Boat |
|
— | 1966 |
No Score Yet | Do Not Disturb |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | Young Cassidy |
|
— | 1965 |
80% | 36 Hours |
|
— | 1965 |
40% | Fate Is The Hunter |
|
— | 1964 |
100% | Sunday in New York |
|
— | 1963 |
0% | The V.I.P.s |
|
— | 1963 |
95% | The Birds |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | Seven Seas to Calais (Il dominatore dei 7 mari) |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | A Gathering of Eagles |
|
— | 1963 |
98% | 101 Dalmatians |
|
— | 1961 |
76% | The Time Machine |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | Colossus and the Amazon Queen |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | Ask Any Girl |
|
— | 1959 |
65% | Separate Tables |
|
— | 1958 |
11% | Raintree County |
|
— | 1957 |
93% | Giant |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | The Rack |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | King Of The Coral Sea |
|
— | 1956 |
17% | The Catered Affair |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | World Without End |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | The Virgin Queen |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Long John Silver |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Hell on Frisco Bay |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Top Gun |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Long John Silver's Return to Treasure Island |
|
— | 1953 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
Walker, Texas Ranger
1993-2001
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murder, She Wrote
1984-1996
|
|
|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Tales of the Unexpected
1979-1988
|
|
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Quotes from Rod Taylor's Characters
Bruce Templeton: | I hate bananas. And I hate cream pie. So that makes banana cream pie a double hate! |
George H. G. Wells: | What have you done? Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating so you can let it crumble to dust. A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams... FOR WHAT? So you can swim and dance and play. |
George H. G. Wells: | When I speak of time, I'm speaking of the fourth dimension. |