Rod Taylor (1930-2015)

Was any other actor directed by Hitchcock, Antonioni (see above) and Tarantino? To note that is not even to mention his two perhaps-most-beloved roles, in The Time Machine and the latterly-appreciated Dark of the Sun. Taylor was never a major star yet is arguably an iconic figure of his heyday, the Sixties. His casting by Antonioni in Zabriskie Point, a film much concerned with the iconography of the consumer landscape, makes sense in that regard. Taylor had a meandering up-and-down career, bouncing between movies and TV through the late Fifties and even making an Italian peplum film, Colossus and the Amazon Queen before finally establishing himself fairly firmly as a Hollywood leading man. In the Seventies he headed back to TV but had a memorable turn against type as a vicious villain in The Deadly Trackers, a film so transgressive that Al Lettieri was a good guy in it. It isn't really that hard to think of a film Rod Taylor was cool in, and I'm sure readers will think of some I haven't even seen. He may not rank among the most beloved stars, but we're sure to see now just how many movie fans really liked the guy.