Rod Taylor: The Aussie Actor Who Hit It Big in ‘The Birds’

By Patrick Kiger, January 9, 2015 01:24 PM

You might remember Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, the handsome, stolid lawyer who, despite being something of a mama’s boy, summons up the courage and presence of mind to repeatedly rescue young socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) from flocks of inexplicably murderous avians in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror-suspense classic, The Birds.

Taylor, who died Jan. 7 at age 84 in Los Angeles, was one of the first Australian-born actors to make it big in Hollywood, following in the footsteps of Errol Flynn and paving the way for a succession of stars from Down Under — a list that includes Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Chris Hemsworth. In a career that stretched from the 1950s to the 2000s, he had more than 90 movie and television roles, ranging from a fictionalized version of author H.G. Wells in 1960’s The Time Machine to the mysterious Frank Agretti in the 1980s prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest.

>> Famous People We’ve Lost in 2014

Here are some facts about Taylor and his life and career:

After working as a hospital janitor to support himself while training as an actor, Taylor landed his first professional performance in the George Bernard Shaw play Misalliance and went on to become a popular performer on Australian radio dramas.
Taylor’s first big break was being cast in an American movie made in Australia, Long John Silver (1954), an experience that encouraged him to give Hollywood a try.
Taylor lived for a while in a single room near Malibu beach, where he caught fish to feed himself.
His first Hollywood role was in A Catered Affair (1956), in which he played Debbie Reynolds’ fiancé.
Taylor scored his first starring role in 1960 in The Time Machine and the following year voiced the leading canine, Pongo, in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians.
While he appeared in numerous action pictures, the versatile Taylor also was deft at romantic comedies. He starred opposite Doris Day in 1966’s The Glass Bottom Boat.
His last performance was a small but memorable turn as Winston Churchill in director Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.