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Rod Taylor considered himself retired. Then Quentin Tarantino came calling.
“I don’t even have an agent anymore,” says Taylor by phone from Beverly Hills. “But one day my business manager called and said, ‘I got a call from this strange guy. Tara … Taranteen … something like that.’ I said, ‘Well did you get his number?’ So I called him and Quentin was in a casting meeting, and they told me to be sure and stay at the number I was at.
“And Quentin called, and went straight into the movies of mine that he likes. And then he said, ‘How about doing a movie with me? I want you to play Churchill. We’re shooting in Germany.’
“I said, ‘Well, you’re just across the channel from Albert Finney, aren’t you?’ And he said, ‘Well, if Rod Taylor turns me down, then I’ll get Albert Finney.’ ”
He got Taylor, who plays Churchill in the set-up scene for Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s World War II movie with Brad Pitt, which opens today. It’s the first time Taylor’s been seen in awhile, since at the age of 79, he had settled into a comfortable, active retirement that didn’t include acting.
Taylor was one of the primary leading men of the 1960s, starting out at the very top in 1956 with George Stevens on Giant, and continuing with starring roles for Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds), John Ford (Young Cassidy), two movies opposite Doris Day, and a succession of good, very tough action pictures — Darker Than Amber, in which he played Travis McGee, and Dark of the Sun. For Baby Boomers, his most prestigious credit may well be The Time Machine, or the voice of Pongo in 101 Dalmatians.
He agreed to do Inglourious Basterds because of Tarantino’s passion for movies.
“Quentin’s magical. He thinks of nothing but movies. I enjoyed every second of the 10 days. He does three takes of every shot, no more, no less. One day I asked him ‘Why are we doing another take?’
“Because we f——- love making movies.’
Taylor let the makeup people worry about the outside, and he focused on the inside. He watched dozens of DVDs to get Churchill’s voice, complete with lisp, and the hunched body language.
Taylor characterizes some of the other directors he worked for thusly. “Ford was a painter in oils; Hitchcock was an architect. George Stevens was fatherly, cuddling, but then he’d turn around and be brutal to Elizabeth Taylor.
“Quentin is crazy — genius crazy. He has no idea of time; he’ll go till 9 at night. One night I said to the assistant, ‘Do I get to have dinner with my wife?’ ‘It could be 11 tonight, Mr. Taylor.’
“Finally, they told me we were done and I went to my dressing room, and a little assistant said, ‘Mr. Tarantino wants you to wait here, he wants a meeting.’
“Five minutes later he knocks on the door with a bucket of Victoria bitters, made by Foster’s. Ice cold. In cans. ‘OK,’ he says, ‘let’s talk movies!’
“He particularly loves Dark of the Sun. After two hours of talking, I said, ‘The guys are waiting to take the makeup off me.’ So he took his beer and called on someone else.”
Taylor is a joyous, high-energy raconteur, full of life. Something about the shoot confused him, however. The young members of the German crew knew all about him and peppered him with questions about his movies. “It turns out that Quentin had run all my movies and made people stay after work to look at them. They had seen Dark of the Sun, they had seen Young Cassidy.”
Tarantino’s use of the camera is very precise, which means his actors also have to be precise, although Taylor says that the predominant feeling is one of freedom. “He’s not confining, he’s not strictly disciplined. He lets you go. Whatever you want to do. He’s brilliant with actors, and he’s totally passionate. One day I was on the set, and he was behind the camera, and I’m watching him looking at me. Not looking at me as Churchill, looking at me.
“What? What’s the matter?”
“ ‘I’ve got Rod Taylor on my set,’ he said. He was so overjoyed. He lies down at the feet of the people he likes.”
Great article about this “joyous, high-energy raconteur”! Thanks for shining the spotlight on Rod Taylor. I’m glad to see he enjoyed his Tarantino experience … and that Tarantino enjoyed him.
Thanks for a great article on Rod! Like Diane, I’m delighted it was such a great experience for both Tarantino and Taylor (sounds like a talent agency). I saw the film yesterday and was blown away – audacious, outrageous and truly original (although filled with dozens of movie references). Now we need to focus on finally getting a DVD release of “Dark of the Sun”.
Hooray for Tarantino, for choosing Rod Taylor to play Winston Churchill, in his latest movie.
Rod should have been used more in movies in the 70′s and 80′s.
It has been our loss, that he wasn’t!
Now all we need is Scorcese and Eastwood, to climb on board the bandwagon,and use Rod some more!
Now MGM/UA should release Dark of the Sun on DVD, and if they are privy to some deleted scenes between Rod and Yvette Mimeaux, then make sure we get a special edition to boot!
We are so proud of you Rod!
Rod Taylor was actualy considered to play James Bond, before Sean Connery!
It seems the Produces were keen for him to screen test, but Rod thought it was below him.A move he has regretted ever since!
He was also first choice for the Omar Sharif role in Dr Zhivago and the Charlton Heston part in Planet of the Apes.
I wonder how life for him would have been, if he had done all three roles?
And to top things off,the writer of The French Connection, wanted Rod to star as Popeye in the movie, but it ended up going to Gene Hackman.
I can think of lots of movies, I would have liked Rod to have been the leading man in,such as:
The Blue Max: Instead of George Peppard.
The Wild Bunch: Instead of William Holden
War of the Worlds: Instead of Gene Barry
The Forbin Project
The Sundowners.
The Domino Principal.
As the previous writer said, Rod was so under-utilized in the 70′s and 80′s.
Still he has given us a great body of work, and I hope he appears in a few more movies.Even at almost 80 years of age, his screen presence is still wonderfully powerful!
I grew up in Australia doting on ‘our guys’ making it in movies overseas – Peter Finch, Rod Taylor following Errol Flynn. Chips Rafferty (you see, we had no movie industry to speak of in the
50′s, 60′s, decades before Mel, Russell, Hugh, Cate, Nicole, etc),
and this had heaps to do motivating me into the business in the
70′s, 80′s, getting to write/produce Russell’s first movie, ‘Blood
Oath’… so imagine the kick in the mid-90′s being invited to lunch
with Rod Taylor on one of his visits back to his Sydney stomping grounds of the 40′s & 50′s. To say it was a delight to spend a couple of hours chewing the fat with Rod about his experiences and
the legends he worked with would be understating the exchange. I have a prized pic of the the meeting. Rod read and responded with a terrific letter a westen screenplay I had written a couple of years prior. We spoke by phone a month or so later when I was passing through L.A. and sadly he was off sailing. Great to see he is in good shape and in front of the camera again. Agree with Glenn – alert Eastwood and Scorcese!
Hi Denis,
I have just read your your letter regarding Rod Taylor.
Your lunch with him, must have been a real eye opener!?
I met him back in 1968, at the premier of The High Commissioner.
He had such an enthusiasm for the movie industry, and was such a down to earth character!
I am the proud owner of 10 episodes of his great TV series HONG KONG.
I really hope Rod writes a book of all his exploits, both here, while growing up and the Hollywood days.
He has such a great sense of humour, and it would make a very interesting read I’m sure!
Hi, Glenn. Great to know the “Hong Kong” series is still around in some form. I’m in HK, am a writer and preparing a “50th anniversary” article about the series for local publication. While trying to find a “care of” (e.g., agent’s) address to write to Mr Taylor, research tells me he came to HK in mid June 1960 to join the 20th Century Fox TV unit for 3 weeks of shooting locales and even a police raid for cutting into the series staged in LA. I saw the series on Australian TV from late 1962 so memories are hazy. Seeing local shots now of HK from the time would be fantastic. Many thanks for your/others comments and the top article. All of much interest. (Frank)
Lovely article and comments from all.
I just, coincidentally, watched Dark of the Sun this morning on pay tv. I didn’t mean to as it was taping anyway but there’s something about Rod Taylor that just made me keep watching. It’s a brutal but brilliantly made film. I can see the direct influence on Tarantino right there.
My plans for a productive day went out the window, I thought, but what a film education that movie is!
Funnily enough I had also just watched a childhood favourite of mine, The Time Machine, also starring Yvette Mimieux, a few days earlier. Six years earlier than Dark of the Sun and it seems Taylor is living in the world he was so disillusioned by in TTM.
He would have been great as the lead in Avatar if he his time machine were real and Sam Worthington wasn’t available.
Just putting it out there.
It’s so good to see so many people still interested in Rod Taylor.
I have just purchased a new book about him called Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood, by Stephen Vagg.
It is a great read, and although Rod did not contibute directly to the book, still makes for interesting reading.
It’s a shame Rod did not make some better movie choices during the 60′s, as his fall from grace in the early 1970′s, may have been avoided.According to the book, that and his massive ego and drinking,assured him of being on the fringe of greatness.
I love Rod Taylor! I just watched inglourious basterds last night for the first time and I had no idea that he was Winston Churchill. I just was looking stuff up today on the movie and found this out. I loved The Time Machine as a kid (I’m 34 now) and I finally bought the DVD a couple years ago. I also saw him in The Birds, Glass Bottom Boat and Twilight Zone