Rodney Stuart "Rod" Taylor was an Australian actor, who provided the voice of Pongo in the 1961 Disney animated feature film One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
Taylor was born in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and Mona Taylor (née Thompson), a writer of more than a hundred short stories and children's books. Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. For a time he worked as a commercial artist, but decided to become an actor instead.
He gained experience through radio and theatre in Australia before making his film debut in King of the Coral Sea and in the unofficial sequel to Disney's Treasure Island, Long John Silver, which starred Robert Newton in the titular role.
Upon moving to Hollywood, Taylor found more opportunities as a supporting and leading actor in films, such as Giant, Ask Any Girl, Separate Tables, The Time Machine, The Birds, Sunday in New York, 36 Hours, The V.I.P.s, The Glass Bottom Boat, Hotel, Chuka, The Hell with Heroes, The Train Robbers, Zabriskie Point, Fate Is the Hunter, Young Cassidy, The Liquidator, Do Not Disturb, The Picture Show Man, On the Run, A Time to Die, Welcome to Woop Woop, and Inglourious Basterds.
Taylor also had leading and guest spots on television, as well with shows, like Hong Kong, The Oregon Trail, Outlaws, Cheyenne, Bearcats!, The Twilight Zone, Walker, Texas Ranger, Murder, She Wrote, and Falcon Crest.
By the 1990s, Taylor entered semi-retirement and only appeared in film and media so often until his death in 2015. He died four days before his 85th birthday.
