Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Leigh Taylor-Young

  • Actress
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Leigh Taylor-Young
Spiritual Warriors is the story of a misguided actor, FINN (Jsu Garcia), who meets a mysterious elderly man, ROGER (Robert Easton), claiming to know him from the past.  Roger convinces an extremely skeptical and reluctant Finn to become his student a
Play trailer2:20
Spiritual Warriors (2007)
16 Videos
49 Photos
Entrancing Leigh Taylor-Young was born on January 25, 1945, in Washington, D,C,. to a diplomat father and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the older sister of future actress Dey Young and writer/director Lance Young. She studied classical ballet and, following high school, attended Northwestern University where she initially majored in economics. She switched gears after developing an interest in theater, however, and studied under drama teacher Alvina Krause, and would apprentice as the youngest member of the Eaglesmere Summer Repertory Theatre.

Leigh eventually moved to New York with designs on a professional career and studied under acting guru Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her major break came when she was cast in the already firmly established prime-time TV soap Peyton Place (1964). She played the mysterious Rachael Welles, whose character was brought in to provide clues to the disappearance of Allison MacKenzie (played by Mia Farrow who shocked ardent viewers by abruptly leaving the series). A mysterious girl herself, Leigh proved to be a fetching figure with her slightly off-kiltered beauty and unsympathetic countenance.

Like Farrow, Leigh developed a bit of bad publicity when she too walked off the weekly series after only one season. She also fell into the arms of the very popular -- and very married -- series star Ryan O'Neal. The couple would marry in 1967 following his divorce from actress Joanna Moore. By then, Leigh was already pregnant with their child Patrick O'Neal, who would later become an actor before turning to sportscasting.

Leigh started off in films auspiciously as a "flower child" of the psychedelic (late) 1960s. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Newcomer," when she played opposite Peter Sellers, in the eccentric comedy, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), but then appeared opposite her husband in The Big Bounce (1969), a kinky misfire. She went on to appear in a cameo in her husband's British-made movie, The Games (1970), but her career sputtered again with a series of misguided features, including the star-heavy epic, The Adventurers (1970); another kinky British film, The Buttercup Chain (1970), which dealt with kissing cousins who don't quite stop at kissing; the beautifully photographed but rather hollow action-adventure The Horsemen (1971) co-starring Omar Sharif; and the mild romp, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) which is best remembered for starting Robert De Niro off and running in films. Arguably, Leigh's best remembered role during that period came alongside Charlton Heston in the controversial film Soylent Green (1973), although she was a bit overshadowed by the grisly topic material and showier performances of co-stars Heston and Edward G. Robinson.

Following her separation from O'Neal in 1971 (they didn't actually divorce until '74), the actress made herself somewhat scarce while raising her young son. In 1978, she married agent/director Guy McElwaine, but that marriage would also end in divorce. In the 1980s, she made a comeback of sorts as a mature -- but still spicy -- presence. Taking a back seat to Albert Finney in the film thriller Looker (1981) and to Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges in the whodunnit Jagged Edge (1985), she found her best results back on TV.

Leigh would nab a supporting Emmy award in 1994 for her portrayal of vixen Rachel Harris on the acclaimed series drama Picket Fences (1992). In addition, she performed in several plays, in the US, England and Scotland, including "The Beckett Plays", "Knives" and "Sleeping Dogs". More recently, she appeared in her writer/director brother Lance Young's film Bliss (1997). Leigh also would play a regular role on the daytime soap, Passions (1999) as wealthy Katherine Crane.

A few movie roles have come her way into the millennium, including the film comedy Slackers (2002); a cameo role (as Mrs. Leigh Taylor Young) in (then) husband Craig Sheffer's film Ritual (2002); the comedy crimer Klepto (2003); the comedy A-List (2006); as a psychiatrist in the sci-fi adventure Spiritual Warriors (2007) and, more recently, the drama The Wayshower (2011).

Finding a fulfilling life off-camera, Leigh became an ordained minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and her voice can be heard in the Search of Serenity series of audio meditations from The Course in Miracles trainings. She is also a grandmother of two granddaughters from son Patrick's relationship with the older Rebecca De Mornay.
BornJanuary 25, 1945
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornJanuary 25, 1945
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Won 1 Primetime Emmy

Photos49

Leigh Taylor-Young in McCloud (1970)
Leigh Taylor-Young, Gregory Walcott, and Dennis Weaver in McCloud (1970)
Leigh Taylor-Young in McCloud (1970)
Leigh Taylor-Young in McCloud (1970)
Leigh Taylor-Young in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)
Leigh Taylor-Young in Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Tom Everett and Leigh Taylor-Young in Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Robert De Niro, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Jo Van Fleet in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971)
Nicole de Boer and Leigh Taylor-Young in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)
Charlton Heston and Leigh Taylor-Young in Soylent Green (1973)
Leigh Taylor-Young in Soylent Green (1973)
Leigh Taylor-Young in Soylent Green (1973)

Known for

Soylent Green (1973)
Soylent Green
7.0
  • Shirl
  • 1973
Peter Sellers and Leigh Taylor-Young in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!
6.2
  • Nancy
  • 1968
The Big Bounce (1969)
The Big Bounce
5.4
  • Nancy Barker
  • 1969
Picket Fences (1992)
Picket Fences
7.8
TV Series
  • Rachel Harris

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • Gallatin 6
    • Pre-production
  • Man in the Long Black Coat
    • Post-production
  • Jon Bernthal in American Gigolo (2022)
    American Gigolo
  • The Wayshower (2011)
    The Wayshower
  • Geraldine O'Rawe in Mariette in Ecstasy (2009)
    Mariette in Ecstasy
  • Spiritual Warriors (2007)
    Spiritual Warriors
  • Life (2007)
    Life
  • Coffee Date (2006)
    Coffee Date
  • Passions (1999)
    Passions
  • Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar, Jenifer Lewis, and Terri J. Vaughn in Dirty Laundry (2006)
    Dirty Laundry
  • A-List (2006)
    A-List
  • Patricia Richardson and Rosa Blasi in Strong Medicine (2000)
    Strong Medicine
    • (as Leigh Taylor Young)
  • Klepto (2003)
    Klepto
  • Tim Curry, Jennifer Grey, and Craig Sheffer in Ritual (2002)
    Ritual
  • Devon Sawa, Jason Schwartzman, Jaime King, Michael C. Maronna, Laura Prepon, and Jason Segel in Slackers (2002)
    Slackers
    • (as Leigh Taylor Young)
  • Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
    Hellraiser: Inferno
    • (uncredited)
  • Richard Burgi in The Sentinel (1996)
    The Sentinel

Videos16

Spiritual Warriors
Clip 1:07
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 5:21
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 5:16
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 4:06
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 3:29
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 2:24
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 1:24
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Clip 1:53
Spiritual Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Interview 2:09
Spiritual Warriors
Trailer
Trailer 2:57
Trailer
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straigh
Trailer 2:27
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straigh
The Horsemen
Trailer 2:20
The Horsemen

Personal details

Edit
    • January 25, 1945
    • Washington, District of Columbia, USA
    • January 1, 2013 - present
    • Patrick O'Neal
    • Dey Young(Sibling)
  • Other works
    Stage: Appeared in one of Samuel Beckett's last works, "The Beckett Plays", directed by Alan Schneider at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Harold Clurman Theatre in New York, the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in Convent Garden, London and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Article
    • 6 Pictorials

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    While filming the shower scene with Charlton Heston in Soylent Green (1973), she tried to break tension by joking that perhaps Heston could part the shower water, a reference to his star-making role as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956). Heston allegedly did not understand the reference.
  • Quotes
    It's about loving one's self, first and absolutely foremost. The more one comes to know the self, forgive the self, and love the self, the better lover one is of anything and everybody in this life.

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.