Person of the Week: Rod Taylor

Most of us know Rod Taylor from his two most notable film roles. The first was his leading role in The Time Machine (see the clip below) based on H.G. Wells’ immortal story. The second was his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic thriller, The Birds. However, prior to those two break-out performances, Taylor has performed in several pictures including Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift and Giant with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.


Born Rodney Sturt Taylor in New South Wales, Australia in 1930, he was the only child of Mona Thompson, and author, and William Sturt Taylor, an artist. As a young man, Taylor was inspired by a performance by Laurence Olivier and decided that he wanted to be an actor. He found his first success as a radio actor performing various roles on soap operas in Australia.

In 1954, Taylor moved to the United States and quickly found work in both feature films and television shows. He made many successful guest appearances on popular programs and even had a few shows of which he was the central star: 1960’s Hong Kong and 1961’s Bus Stop.



Taylor in 2005

As recently as 2009, Taylor was still working in films—making an appearance in Inglourious Basterds as Winston Churchill. Also a talented painter, Taylor’s art has been displayed in galleries and featured in a variety of different books.
For all of his contributions to the arts over the last eighty years, Rod Taylor is this week’s Person of the Week.

Don’t forget, through November, I’m taking your nominations for “Person of the Year.” Simply email your ideas to me. Voting will begin in December.

A painting by Rod Taylor