RIP Rod Taylor (1930-2015)

A 1960 publicity shot for the TV series Hong Kong

Australian-born actor Rod Taylor has died, four days short of his 85th birthday, following a heart attack in Los Angeles. Taylor appeared in more than 50 films, including leading roles in The Time Machine and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

 A development of the original time machine, the Sholes & Glidden

Rodney Sturt Taylor was born on January 11, 1930, at 40 Mary Street, Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, the only child of William Sturt Taylor (born Two Wells, South Australia, 1903), a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and Mona Thompson Taylor, a writer of more than a 100 short stories and children's books.

Rod Taylor's middle name came from his great-great-grand uncle, Captain Charles Sturt, a British explorer of the Australian Outback in the 19th century. Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College.

With Doris Day in Do Not Disturb in 1965