Rod Taylor, Star of Hitchcock's 'The Birds,' Dies at 84

Rod Taylor, the rugged leading man best known for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and the sci-fi classic The Time Machine, has died at age 84. Taylor passed away Wednesday of natural causes, according to his daughter, former CNN correspondent Felicia Taylor.

The Australian-born Taylor racked up more than 90 film and TV credits, ranging from the voice of Pongo the dog in Disney’s 1961 animated classic 101 Dalmatians to his final film role, as Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 Oscar winner, Inglourious Basterds. Taylor also shared screen time with John Wayne and Ann-Margret in The Train Robbers (1973)  and appeared with Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, and Debbie Reynolds in The Catered Affair (1956).

Taylor in Inglourious Basterds

Although he had minor film roles in the 1950s, including in the James Dean-Rock Hudson-Elizabeth Taylor classic Giant, his Hollywood breakthrough came in George Pal’s 1960 adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, which established him as a bankable star.

But it was Hitchcock’s 1963 classic horror film, pitting Taylor and Tippi Hedren against flocks of murderous birds, that proved to be the actor’s most enduring role.

"There are so many incredible feelings I have for him. Rod was a great pal to me and a real strength, we were very, very good friends," Hedren, 84, said in a statement via People. “He was one of the most fun people I have ever met, thoughtful and classy, there was everything good in that man.”

From The Time Machine

Taylor’s other notable film credits included The V.I.P.s with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Young Cassidy with Julie Christie and Maggie Smith, the Doris Day vehicles Do Not Disturb and The Glass Bottom Boat, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point.

As his film career stalled in the 1970s, he turned to TV with such series as Bearcats, The Oregon Trail, and recurring stints on Falcon Crest and Walker, Texas Ranger. He also appeared in the TV movies Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy” and Charles and Diana: A Royal Love Story.

Tarantino, a fan of Taylor’s 1960s work, cast the actor as Churchill in Inglourious Basterds — a part that earned him late-career acclaim; he shared the Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Ensemble.

Taylor, far left, in The Birds

Taylor is survived by wife Carol and daughter Felicia, who said in a statement: “My dad loved his work. Being an actor was his passion – calling it an honorable art and something he couldn’t live without.”

Watch Taylor in The Liquidator: 

Photo: Everett Collection