Rod Taylor

 
Quote: I can fight, and I have, but so help me I haven't hit anybody in 20 years. Not rafts of girls any more, and no wives coming up or thought of.

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Suave and handsome Australian actor who came to Hollywood in the 1950s, and built himself up from a supporting actor into taking the lead in several well-remembered movies. Arguably his most fondly remembered role was that as George (Herbert George Wells), the inventor, in George Pal's spectacular The Time Machine.

He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including The Birds, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 36 Hours, The Glass Bottom Boat, Hotel, Chuka, and The Hell with Heroes.

He originally planned to become an artist, and as a teenager he studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. He became interested in acting. He saw Laurence Olivier in "Richard III" on an Old Vic tour, and this inspired him to become an actor.

In or around 1960, he was approached regarding the role of James Bond in the first feature-length Bond film. Taylor reportedly declined to become involved because he considered the character of Bond "beneath him". Taylor later commented: "Every time a new Bond picture became a smash hit ... I tore out my hair."