Jack Taylor, American Actor in European Horror and Fantasy Films, Dies at 99
Jack Taylor, the actor from Oregon who found fame in European horror/fantasy films and worked for directors including John Milius, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Milos Forman and Jesús Franco, has died. He was 99.
Taylor, who lived in the Chamberí district of Madrid for more than six decades, died Tuesday, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported.
Taylor portrayed a priest alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Milius’ Conan the Barbarian (1982) and an antique-book collector opposite Johnny Depp in Polanski’s The Ninth Gate (1999), and he appeared in Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and Forman’s Goya’s Ghost (2006) as well.
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In Spain, he acted in several films directed by Franco, including the X-rated Succubis (1968) and Eugenia (1970), the Christopher Lee-starring Count Dracula (1970), Night of the Blood Monster (1970), Sex Charade (1972), The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse (1972), Female Vampire (1973), Sexy Sisters (1977) and Voodoo Passion (1977).
He was born George Brown Randall on Oct. 21, 1926, in Oregon City, a suburb of Portland. After a year in San Francisco, he came to Los Angeles and appeared with Marilyn Monroe on a 1953 episode of CBS’ The Jack Benny Program.
Finding the going tough in Hollywood, Taylor drove to Mexico, quickly learned the language and found work in films south of the border, including The Ivory Tower (1958), Nostradamus y el Destructor de Monstruos (1962) and two features featuring the masked superhero wrestler Neutrón.
In 1961, he arrived in Madrid to perform onstage in the Mexican musical comedy La Pelirroja (The Redhead) and afterward decided to make the country his home. Two years later, he played one of Julius Caesar’s (Rex Harrison) slaves in Cleopatra (1963). “If you blink, you won’t see me, but I’m there,” he said.
Taylor’s film résumé also included Robert Siodmak’s Custer of the West (1967), The Mummy’s Revenge (1975), Pieces (1982), Monte Hellman’s The Iguana (1988), Wax (2014) and Buffet Libre (2025).
He recently published his memoirs, My 100 Years of Cinema.
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