Australia Taylor acquired extensive radio and stage experience in Australia, where his radio work included a period in the historic run of
Blue Hills, the daytime
soaps and a role as a vocally convincing
Tarzan. Earlier in his career, he had to support himself by working at Sydney's
Mark Foy's department store, designing and painting window and other displays during the day. But his radio work was soon at the forefront of his life, making a great impact playing
Douglas Bader in a series to dramatize the narrative of
Paul Brickhill's biography
Reach for the Sky. In 1951, he took part in a re-enactment of Charles Sturt's voyage down the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, playing Sturt's offsider, George Macleay. A short documentary,
Inland with Sturt (1951), was based on it. Taylor also appeared in a number of theatre productions for Australia's
Mercury Theatre. Taylor made his feature-film debut in the Australian
Lee Robinson film
King of the Coral Sea (1954), playing an American. He later played
Israel Hands in a
Hollywood-financed film shot in Sydney,
Long John Silver (1954), an unofficial sequel to
Treasure Island. Following these two films, Taylor was awarded the 1954 Rola Show Australian Radio Actor of the Year Award,
Raintree County (1957), and
Ask Any Girl (1959). He had a significant role in
Separate Tables (1958), which won
Oscars for two of its stars,
David Niven and
Wendy Hiller. He also made a strong impression guest-starring in an episode of
The Twilight Zone titled "
And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959).
Stardom Taylor's first leading role in a feature film was in
The Time Machine (1960),
George Pal's adaptation of the science-fiction classic by
H. G. Wells, with Taylor as the time traveller who, thousands of years in the future, falls for a woman played by
Yvette Mimieux. Taylor played a character not unlike that of his
Twilight Zone episode of a year earlier and the film
World Without End in 1956. In or around 1960, he was approached regarding the role of
James Bond in the
first feature-length Bond film. Taylor reportedly declined to become involved because he considered the character of Bond "beneath him". Taylor later commented: "Every time a new Bond picture became a smash hit ... I tore out my hair." Taylor starred in Alfred Hitchcock's horror thriller
The Birds (1963), along with
Tippi Hedren,
Suzanne Pleshette,
Jessica Tandy, and
Veronica Cartwright, playing a man whose town and home come under attack by menacing birds. Taylor then starred with
Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy
Sunday in New York (also 1963). During the mid-1960s, Taylor worked mostly for MGM. His credits including
The V.I.P.s (1963), his first feature-film role as an Australian, with
Richard Burton,
Elizabeth Taylor, and
Maggie Smith;
Fate Is the Hunter (for
20th Century Fox, 1964) with
Glenn Ford and Suzanne Pleshette;
36 Hours (1964) with
James Garner;
Young Cassidy (1965) with
Julie Christie and Maggie Smith;
The Liquidator (1965) with
Jill St. John;
Do Not Disturb (1965); and
The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), both co-starring
Doris Day. He began to change his image toward the end of the decade to more tough-guy roles, such as
Chuka (1967), which he also produced, and he starred in
Hotel (1967) with
Catherine Spaak;
Dark of the Sun (or
The Mercenaries, 1968), again with Yvette Mimieux;
Nobody Runs Forever (1968) in which 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 (1970) as
Travis McGee. He was also reportedly up for the role of martial artist Roper in the
Bruce Lee vehicle
Enter the Dragon (1973). The film was directed by
Robert Clouse, who had also directed Taylor in
Darker than Amber. Taylor was supposedly deemed too tall for the part, and the role instead went to
John Saxon.
Later career In 1973, Taylor was cast in
The Train Robbers alongside long-time friend
John Wayne and
Ann-Margret. The film was a box-office success. Taylor also had some television roles: he starred in
Bearcats! (1971) on
CBS and in
The Oregon Trail (1976) on NBC. He had a regular role in the short-lived spy drama series
Masquerade (1983), and played one of the leads in the equally short-lived series,
Outlaws (1986). From 1988 to 1990, Taylor appeared in the CBS drama series
Falcon Crest as
Frank Agretti, playing opposite
Jane Wyman. In the mid-1990s, he appeared in several episodes of
Murder, She Wrote and
Walker, Texas Ranger. In 1993, he hosted the documentary
Time Machine: The Journey Back. The special ended with a minisequel written by
David Duncan, the screenwriter of the
George Pal film. Taylor recreated his role as George, reuniting him with Filby (
Alan Young). Taylor returned to Australia several times over the years to make films, playing a 1920s traveling showman in
The Picture Show Man (1977) and a paid killer in
On the Run (1983). In the black comedy
Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), he played the foul-mouthed redneck Daddy-O. By the late 1990s, Taylor had moved into semiretirement. In 2007, he appeared in the horror telemovie
Kaw, which revisits the idea of marauding birds turning on their human tormentors. In this film, however, the cause of the disturbance was discovered by Taylor, who plays the town doctor. He appeared in Quentin Tarantino's
Inglourious Basterds in 2009, portraying Winston Churchill in a cameo. In 2017, a documentary on Taylor's life,
Pulling No Punches, was released and entered into the
Beverly Hills Film Festival. ==Personal life==