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Rod Taylor, On Stage
Rod Taylor was a talented artist who had a love of acting, but any wavering
he did between the two crafts ended after seeing Sir Laurence Olivier in
a performance of "Richard III." Taylor recalls:
Without having seen him in an Old Vic touring production
in Australia, I might have gone on to qualify in engineering, in which
I already had some technical awards as a student. But Sir Larry's performance
that night clinched the deal. After seeing him, I knew I would never be
anything but an actor.
-- Film Review magazine, April 1971
When Taylor left art school at age 17, he dabbled on the edge of theater,
creating window displays for a department store and studying for nearly
a year with the Independent Theatre School. But he realized that actual
experience in acting was the only way to learn, so he quit the school and
made his break professionally.
I learned my craft the right way. Nobody picked me up
in a gas station and said, 'You should be a movie star.' ... I played hooky
from art school and went to a place like Actors' Studio and worked at my
craft. Then I went into the theater and started from the bottom and worked
at that. I gradually got bigger and better roles. But I learned and worked
damn hard.
-- Screenland, March 1961
The producers of the Mercury Theatre cast Taylor in his first professional
performance, George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance." (The Mercury
Theatre was started by Peter Finch and John Kay in the 1940s. After Finch
left Australia for his own Hollywood stardom, Kay revived the Mercury Theatre,
putting on several plays with Taylor.)
Here's a glimpse at Rod Taylor's hours upon the stage in Australia, starting
with comments from one of Taylor's co-stars in "The Witch":
Barbara Brunton ... was irritated by [Taylor's] often
erratic behavior through rehearsals, but when the show began, she found
that he gave a wonderful feeling of reliability on stage. "He was
one of the most giving actors I ever worked with. You had that feeling
of how strongly he was working with you. But he was never a classical actor."
-- The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama
"Julius Caesar" (1950)
- Independent Theatre
- Play by William Shakespeare
- Cast: Bruce Beeby (Brutus), Allan Trevor (Cassius), Moray
Powell (Caesar), Walter Sullivan, Llody Berrell, Rod Taylor, Charles Tingwell.
"Misalliance" (1952)
- Mercury Theatre production. Play by George Bernard Shaw.
- Taylor played John Tarleton.
- Taylor later appeared in a TV adaptation of "Misalliance"
for "Playhouse 90."
"Twins" (February 1952)
- St. James Hall/Mercury Theatre production.
- Play by Plautus.
- Cast: Lloyd Berell, Rod Taylor, Ruth Cracknell, Walter
Sullivan, Jan Boulken, John Brunskill.
"Comedy of Errors" (February 1952)
- St. James Hall/Mercury Theatre production.
- Play by William Shakespeare.
- Cast: John Dease, Rod Taylor, John Ewart, Al Thomas,
Belinda Senders, Maria Halloway, Walter Sullivan, Julien Brumskill, Ruth
Cracknell.
"The Witch" (Aug. 29, 1952)
- St. James Hall/Mercury Theatre production.
- By John Masfield, based on the Norwegian play by Wiers
Jenssen
- Cast: Rodney Taylor (Absolom Pedersson), June Wimble,
Barbara Brunton (Anne Pedersdotter), Roger Climpson, Ruth Parkhill, Mary
Hunt, Lesley Robson, Clare Hutchison, Robert Mowatt, Barry Cookson, Gustl
Korner, Roy Morgan.
"They Knew What They Wanted" (1952)
- St. James Hall/Mercury Theatre production.
- Play by Sidney Howard
- Cast: Henry Gilbert (Tony Patucci), Margaret Christensen
(Amy), Rod Taylor (Joe).
"The Happy Time" (1952)
- St. James Hall/Mercury Theatre production.
- Play by Samuel Taylor
- Cast: Owen Weingott (Papa), Lloyd Berrel (Uncle Louis),
Rod Taylor (young brother), Irene Harspur, Rosamund Warren, David Butter,
Ken Warren.
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Rod Taylor mingled work in theater and radio
during the early 1950s in Sydney, rising to unprecedented fame.
But when he won the Rola Award for his radio acting plus the Australian
critics' award for his work in theater, Taylor noted:
I had reached the point in my Australian career where I
was a fly in a bottle. I could go up and I could go down. It was fantastic.
I was doing about 40 starring roles in radio -- there was no television.
I'd work in radio, then, at night, I'd be at the theater. I was about as
big as I could get in Australia.
-- TV Radio Mirror, January 1961 |
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