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IMDbPro

Kent Taylor(1906-1987)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Soundtrack
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Kent Taylor
Watch Trailer [OV]
Play trailer2:56
Brain of Blood (1971)
6 Videos
99+ Photos
Born Louis William Weiss on May 11, 1907, Kent Taylor was a modestly popular "B" actor of the 1930's and 1940's. The tall, dark and handsome leading man who sported rugged looks, a slick, pencil-thin mustache and solid physique, was star material with the potential and durability of Clark Gable and Errol Flynn, but lacked their consistent leading man quality and charisma. An avid outdoorsman, Taylor churned out over 110 films during his lengthy career, appearing in a number of quality "A" pictures as a second lead.

Born just southeast of Nashua, Iowa, he was a son of farmers. As a teenager, he performed in several high school plays. The family then moved to Waterloo, Iowa, where he worked as a window trimmer in a ladies' clothing shop. After a brief move to Chicago, the family relocated to Los Angeles, where he and his father started an awning company. Taylor pursued acting as a profession after being introduced to director Henry King. After an unbilled debut in The Magnificent Lie (1931), he apprenticed for a couple of years in bit parts. He peaked in the 1930's with prominent support roles in Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) with Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney, I'm No Angel (1933), as one of Mae West's earnest pursuers, the classic Death Takes a Holiday (1934), (again with Fredric March), the Will Rogers vehicles David Harum (1934) and The County Chairman (1935), and Ramona (1936), (directed by his old friend, Henry King), top-lining Loretta Young and Don Ameche.

Taylor then starred in a modest succession of "B" programs with Love in a Bungalow (1937), Pirates of the Skies (1939), Repent at Leisure (1941), Mississippi Gambler (1942), Alaska (1944), The Crimson Key (1947) and The Sickle or the Cross (1949) which, at the very least, kept him busy and in the public eye. More noticeable during this period was his portrayal of Doc Holiday in Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die (1942), opposite Richard Dix's Wyatt Earp.

With his film career on the decline, Taylor turned more and more to TV, becoming the medium's Boston Blackie (1951) for a couple of seasons, a role that followed in the popular footsteps of Chester Morris, (who starred in an earlier series of Boston Blackie films as the urbane master thief-cum-detective), followed with a lead in the series The Rough Riders (1958). Taylor was a frequent visitor on the sets of popular western series, including Zorro (1957), Laramie (1959), The Rifleman (1958) and Rango (1967). Toward the end of his career, however, the elderly actor took a bizarre John Carradine-like turn into Grade "Z" projects. Some of them--including horror movies like The Crawling Hand (1963), Brides of Blood (1968), Satan's Sadists (1969), Hell's Bloody Devils (1970), Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967) and Girls for Rent (1974)--achieved cult infamy as some of Hollywood's most notorious "turkeys." Following a series of heart operations, Taylor died at the age of 79.
BornMay 11, 1906
DiedApril 11, 1987(80)
BornMay 11, 1906
DiedApril 11, 1987(80)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos157

Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Fredric March, Kent Taylor, and Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Katharine Alexander, G.P. Huntley, Gail Patrick, Guy Standing, Kent Taylor, Henry Travers, and Helen Westley in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kathleen Howard, Gail Patrick, Kent Taylor, Evelyn Venable, and Helen Westley in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kent Taylor and Helen Westley in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kathleen Howard, Guy Standing, Kent Taylor, and Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in David Harum (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in David Harum (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in David Harum (1934)
Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in David Harum (1934)

Known for

Linda Hayes and Kent Taylor in I'm Still Alive (1940)
I'm Still Alive
5.8
  • Steve Bennett
  • 1940
Peggy Knudsen and Kent Taylor in Half Past Midnight (1948)
Half Past Midnight
5.7
  • Wade Hamilton
  • 1948
Linda Hayes and Kent Taylor in Sued for Libel (1939)
Sued for Libel
6.2
  • Steve Lonegan
  • 1939
Mary Howard, Alan Marshal, Una Merkel, Florence Rice, and Ann Rutherford in Four Girls in White (1939)
Four Girls in White
6.0
  • Robert Maitland
  • 1939

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Barnaby Jones (1973)
    Barnaby Jones
  • Girls for Rent (1974)
    Girls for Rent
  • The Phantom of Hollywood (1974)
    The Phantom of Hollywood
  • Angels' Wild Women (1971)
    Angels' Wild Women
  • The Blood Drinkers (1964)
    Brain of Blood
  • Hell's Bloody Devils (1970)
    Hell's Bloody Devils
  • Gary Conway in Land of the Giants (1968)
    Land of the Giants
  • William Bonner, Regina Carrol, Greydon Clark, Robert Dix, and Russ Tamblyn in Satan's Sadists (1969)
    Satan's Sadists
  • The Mighty Gorga (1969)
    The Mighty Gorga
  • John Ashley, Eva Darren, Carmelita Estrella, and Beverly Powers in Brides of Blood (1968)
    Brides of Blood
  • Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967)
    Blood of Ghastly Horror
  • Norman Alden, Tim Conway, and Guy Marks in Rango (1967)
    Rango
  • Richard Basehart and David Hedison in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964)
    Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
  • William Bendix, Yvonne De Carlo, and Dale Robertson in Law of the Lawless (1964)
    Law of the Lawless
  • Arline Judge, Rod Lauren, and Sirry Steffen in The Crawling Hand (1963)
    The Crawling Hand

Writer

  • The Vise (1954)
    The Vise

Soundtrack

  • Linda Hayes and Kent Taylor in I'm Still Alive (1940)
    I'm Still Alive

Videos6

Trailer
Trailer 2:09
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:08
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 3:00
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:40
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:02
Official Trailer
Trailer [OV]
Trailer 2:56
Trailer [OV]

Personal details

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    • May 11, 1906
    • Nashua, Iowa, USA
    • April 11, 1987
    • Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA(heart disease)
    • 1930 - April 11, 1987 (his death, 3 children)
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Articles

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Clark" came from Clark Gable, Siegel's idol, and Taylor was Siegel's wife's brother-in-law).
    • Pencil-Thin Mustache

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