Rod Taylor appeared in more than 50 feature films, including The Time Machine, The Birds, and Inglourious Basterds, and voiced a lead role in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
37 Facts About Rod Taylor
2.
Rod Taylor began taking art classes in high school, and continued in college.
3.
Rod Taylor decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of Richard III.
4.
Rod Taylor made his feature film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film King of the Coral Sea.
5.
Rod Taylor soon started acting in television films, portraying several different characters in the 1950s anthology series Studio 57.
6.
Rod Taylor started to gain popularity after starring in The Time Machine, as H George Wells.
7.
Rod Taylor later starred in the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, as Pongo.
8.
Rod Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College and took art classes.
9.
Rod Taylor's mother wanted him to be an artist, and pressured him into taking the art classes.
10.
Rod Taylor acquired extensive radio and stage experience in Australia, where his radio work included a period on Blue Hills and a role as Tarzan.
11.
Rod Taylor made his feature film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film King of the Coral Sea, playing an American.
12.
Rod Taylor later played Israel Hands in a Hollywood-financed film shot in Sydney, Long John Silver, an unofficial sequel to Treasure Island.
13.
Rod Taylor soon landed roles in television shows such as Studio 57 and the films Hell on Frisco Bay and Giant.
14.
Rod Taylor had a significant role in Separate Tables, which won Oscars for two of its stars, David Niven and Wendy Hiller.
15.
Rod Taylor made a strong impression guest-starring in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "And When the Sky Was Opened".
16.
Rod Taylor played a character not unlike that of his Twilight Zone episode of a year earlier and the film World Without End in 1956.
17.
Rod Taylor reportedly declined to become involved because he considered the character of Bond "beneath him".
18.
Rod Taylor starred in Alfred Hitchcock's horror thriller The Birds, along with Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy and Veronica Cartwright, playing a man whose town and home come under attack by menacing birds.
19.
Rod Taylor then starred with Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy Sunday in New York.
20.
Rod Taylor began to change his image toward the end of the decade to more tough-guy roles, such as Chuka, which he produced, and he starred in Hotel with Catherine Spaak; Dark of the Sun, again with Yvette Mimieux; Nobody Runs Forever where he played New South Wales Police Sergeant Scobie Malone, this being Taylor's first starring feature film role as an Australian; and Darker than Amber as Travis McGee.
21.
Rod Taylor was reportedly up for the role of martial artist Roper in the Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon.
22.
Rod Taylor was supposedly deemed too tall for the part, and the role instead went to John Saxon.
23.
In 1973, Rod Taylor was cast in The Train Robbers alongside long time friend John Wayne and Ann-Margret.
24.
Rod Taylor had a regular role in the short-lived spy drama series Masquerade and played one of the leads in the equally short-lived series, Outlaws.
25.
From 1988 to 1990, Rod Taylor appeared in the CBS drama series Falcon Crest as Frank Agretti, playing opposite Jane Wyman.
26.
Rod Taylor recreated his role as George, reuniting him with Filby.
27.
Rod Taylor returned to Australia several times over the years to make films, playing a 1920s traveling showman in The Picture Show Man and a paid killer in On the Run.
28.
Rod Taylor appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in 2009, portraying Winston Churchill in a cameo.
29.
In 2017, a documentary on Rod Taylor's life, "Pulling No Punches", was released and entered into the Beverly Hills Film Festival.
30.
Rod Taylor later claimed that they divorced because they felt they were too young to have a healthy marriage.
31.
Rod Taylor dated and was briefly engaged to Swedish actress Anita Ekberg in the early 1960s.
32.
Rod Taylor dated model Pat Sheehan in the late 1960s.
33.
Rod Taylor bought a home in Palm Springs, California in 1967.
34.
Rod Taylor married his third wife, Carol Kikumura, in 1980.
35.
Rod Taylor died of a heart attack at his home, surrounded by his family, on 7 January 2015, in Beverly Hills, California, four days before his 85th birthday.
36.
Rod Taylor was survived by his wife, Carol, and his daughter Felicia.
37.
Rod Taylor had several lead roles in television, from the early 1960s to the early first decade of the 21st century.