Larry Taylor (1918–2003)

Peterborough-born Larry Taylor was one of British cinema’s dependable character actors and stunt performers, building a screen career that stretched from post-war films to international productions made in South Africa.

Peterborough and the Army

Larry Taylor was born in Peterborough on 13 July 1918. Although relatively little has been published about his childhood in the city, his birthplace remained the starting point of a career that would eventually take him through the British film studios and on to South Africa.

Published accounts record that Taylor spent several years in the British Army before entering the film industry following his demobilisation. That military experience suited the physically imposing screen presence for which he later became known, particularly in films that cast him as a soldier, guard, sailor or hard-edged authority figure.

A post-war film career

Taylor began appearing on screen during the immediate post-war period. One of his earliest recorded appearances was as an uncredited sergeant in The Captive Heart in 1946. By the end of the decade, he had accumulated further small parts and played the more substantial role of Nick in Dick Barton Strikes Back in 1949.

During the 1950s, Taylor became a reliable supporting player in British crime films, adventures and historical dramas. His rugged appearance made him a natural choice for policemen, prison guards, sailors, hired muscle and assorted henchmen. His credits from the period included Sea Devils, Alexander the Great, Port Afrique, Robbery Under Arms and The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw.

He also appeared as a bearded seaman in the acclaimed 1958 Titanic drama A Night to Remember. Like much of Taylor’s work, the part was modest but helped create the convincing, densely populated world around the principal cast.

A familiar face of the 1960s

The 1960s brought Taylor roles in several productions that remain widely watched. In Walt Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson in 1960, he played Battoo, one of the pirates threatening the shipwrecked family. He also undertook uncredited work in large-scale productions including Lawrence of Arabia and Cleopatra.

One of his best-known credited appearances came in Zulu in 1964. Taylor played Hughes in the epic reconstruction of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, appearing alongside Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Nigel Green and Jack Hawkins. In the same year, he played a sergeant major in Joseph Losey’s First World War drama King and Country.

Comedy brought a different set of opportunities. Taylor played Riff in Follow That Camel in 1967, appeared as a Burpa warrior in Carry On Up the Khyber in 1968 and later returned to the series as a tough man in Carry On Dick. He was also seen as a military lieutenant in the much-loved musical fantasy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Television appearances

Taylor’s distinctive features and physical confidence also made him a familiar presence in the adventure and espionage programmes that flourished on British television during the 1960s and early 1970s.

He appeared in series including Danger Man, The Avengers, The Saint and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). His television characters ranged from criminals and foreign agents to guards, fighters and menacing bystanders.

He made two appearances in the cult series The Prisoner. In “Many Happy Returns” he appeared as a gypsy man, while the Western-inspired episode “Living in Harmony” cast him as Mexican Sam. These parts typified Taylor’s ability to add an immediately recognisable presence to a story without needing to occupy its centre.

South Africa and later work

By the middle of the 1970s, Taylor had moved to South Africa. The relocation opened a new chapter in his career, allowing him to work in both domestic South African productions and international films using the country’s locations and studios.

His later credits included De Wet’s Spoor, One Away, Golden Rendezvous and Zulu Dawn. The last of these returned him to the Anglo-Zulu War, 15 years after his appearance in Zulu.

Taylor continued working through the 1980s in adventure and action productions such as Prisoners of the Lost Universe, Gor, Outlaw of Gor and Skeleton Coast. His final recorded film role was Sheriff Hughes in Tobe Hooper’s horror film The Mangler, released in 1995.

Family and legacy

Larry Taylor was the father of Rocky Taylor, who followed him into the film industry and became one of Britain’s most experienced stunt performers. Rocky began by assisting his father and went on to work on numerous James Bond films and major international productions.

Larry Taylor died in Johannesburg on 6 August 2003, aged 85. His career had lasted almost half a century and encompassed historical epics, crime pictures, comedies, family adventures, cult television and South African productions.

Taylor was rarely the name above the title, but his work represents the craft on which film and television depend: the character actor who makes a scene believable, the stunt performer who gives it physical force and the familiar face an audience remembers long after the credits have rolled.