ROD TAYLOR - dies aged 84 - R.I.P.

Rodney Sturt Taylor was born in Lidcombe, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on 11th January 1930, and died at home just days short of his 85th Birthday on 7th January 2015 having suffered a heart attack. He attended Parramatta High School and then East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. Early on he gained much experience in radio and stage performances, and his feature film debut came in 1954's 'King of the Coral Sea' with 'Long John Silver' later that same year.

Securing a ticket to London via Los Angeles as a result of an award win, he stopped off en route at LA and never went on to London. Instead he took his chances in Hollywood and landed roles in television series and feature films including 'Hell on Frisco Bay' with Edward G. Robinson, and 'Giant' with James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. In the latter half of the 50's he secured a long-term contract with MGM Studios and starred in a number of supporting roles.

One of his most famed roles and his first lead role came in 1960 in 'The Time Machine' - the big screen adaptation of the H.G.Wells classic story. In 1961 he was selected by Walt Disney himself to provide the voice for lead dog 'Pongo' in the animated feature '101 Dalmatians'. 1963 brought his other perhaps most notable role in Hitchcock's classic horror thriller 'The Birds' alongside Tippi Hedren.

His work with MGM continued through the late 60's and 70's with roles in 'The V.I.P.'s' with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles' 'Young Cassidy' with Julie Christie and Maggie Smith, 'The Liquidator' with Trevor Howard, and 'The Glass Bottom Boat' with Doris Day. From there he started to take on more tough-guy roles in Westerns and War movies with outings in 'Chuka', 'Dark of the Sun', 'Nobody Runs Forever', and 'The Train Robbers' with John Wayne.

Several times he returned to Australia to make feature films including 1977's 'The Picture Show Man', 1983's 'On The Run' and 1997's 'Welcome to Woop Woop'. He went into semi-retirement in the late 1990's appearing in just two films from that time on including a remake almost of the classic 'The Birds' titled 'Kaw' in 2007. Quentin Tarantino however, coaxed him out of his self-imposed semi-retirement to star as Winston Churchill in 2009's 'Inglourious Basterds'.

He starred in many television series over the years, some in single episodes and other for a longer period of tenure. These included 'Studio 57' in 1955, 'Hong Kong' from 1960-61, 'Bearcats' in 1971, 'The Oregon Trail' from 1976-77, 'Masquerade' from 1983-84, 'Outlaws' from 1986-87, 'Falcon Crest' from 1988-1990 and 'Walker, Texas Ranger' from 1996-2000.

Taylor has 92 acting credits to his name, and he Produced just one movie - 'Chuka', in which he starred in 1967. He had five award wins to his name and three other nominations. He was married to Peggy Williams from 1951-54, to Mary Hilem from 1963-69 and Carol Kikumura from 1980 to the point of his death. He had one daughter Felicia, born in 1964 - a financial reporter for CNN.

An assorted body of work on film and television taking in A-Grade classics and some B-Grade also rans, but nonetheless sixty years of work committed to celluloid with some of the finest Actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood that will ensure his legacy lives on.

Rod Taylor - Rest In Peace
1930 - 2015

-Steve, at Odeon Online-