Australian actor Rod Taylor dies, aged 84

[dutchman]

Rod Taylor, the Australian-born actor who starred in George Pal’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” and in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” died Wednesday of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 84.



His daughter Felicia, a former CNN correspondent, confirmed the news Thursday.

Taylor made his feature starring debut in 1960 sci-fier “The Time Machine,” portraying a fictionalized Wells, who invents a time machine in Victorian England and travels to the distant future. He also starred in a brief ABC adventure series, “Hong Kong.”

The next year he voiced the lead canine, Pongo, in Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.” Even after an impressive performance in Hitchcock’s well-received 1963 “The Birds” (in photo above), the actor never quite made it into the first rank of Hollywood actors.

He was part of the starry ensemble of Liz Taylor-Richard Burton starrer “The V.I.P.s” and was second lead in “A Gathering of Eagles,” “Fate Is the Hunter” and “36 Hours.”