Dub Taylor

Born

February 26, 1907

Died

October 3, 1994 (87 years old)

Known For

Acting

Place of Birth

Richmond, Virginia, USA

IMDb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Clarence Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994), known as Dub Taylor, was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extensively in films and on television, often in Westerns but also in comedies. He was the father of actor Buck Taylor, who played the character Newly O'Brien on Gunsmoke.

Walter C. Taylor Jr. was born in 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, the middle child of five children of Minnie and Walter C. Taylor, Sr. According to the federal census of 1920, young Walter had two older sisters, Minnie Marg[aret] and Maud, a younger brother named George, and a little sister, Edna Fay. The family moved to Augusta, Georgia around 1912 when Walter was five years old, and the Taylors lived in this city until he was 13. The census of 1920 also documents that Dub's mother was a native of Pennsylvania and his father was a native of North Carolina, who worked in Augusta at that time as a "Cotton Broker". While living in Georgia as a boy, Walter, Jr., got his lifelong nickname when his friends began calling him "W" (double-u) and then shortened his nickname even farther, to just "Dub". It was in Georgia, too, where Taylor befriended Ty Cobb, Jr., the son of the legendary professional baseball player.

A vaudeville performer, Dub Taylor was a member of the 1937 Alabama Crimson Tide football team that played in the 1938 Rose Bowl. He stayed behind to establish a career in films, making his film debut in 1938 as the cheerful ex-football captain Ed Carmichael in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You. Taylor secured the part because the role required an actor who could also play the xylophone. Later, during the 1950s and early 1960s, he demonstrated his considerable talent for playing the xylophone on several television shows, including an episode on the syndicated series Ranch Party hosted by Tex Ritter.

In 1939, he appeared in the film Taming of the West, in which he originated the character of Cannonball, a role he continued to play for the next ten years, in over 50 films. Cannonball was a comic sidekick to Wild Bill Saunders (played by Bill Elliott), a pairing that continued through 13 features, during which Elliott’s character became Wild Bill Hickok.

Despite his extensive career as a character actor in a wide range of roles, Dub Taylor continued to find his niche in Westerns, a genre in which he performed in literally dozens of more films and in episodes of many television series. Taylor often appeared in the guise of talkative hotel or postal clerks, court bailiffs, cooks, or dissolute doctors. He portrayed, for example, an ill-tempered chuckwagon cook in the 1969 film The Undefeated, starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson. He appeared as well in the 1971 movie Support Your Local Gunfighter as the drunken Doc Shultz. Taylor played Houston Lamb over the course of four episodes of Little House On The Prairie in seasons six and seven (1979 to 1981). Taylor made at least two film cameos in the early 1990s. In Back to the Future Part III, he appeared with veteran Western actors Pat Buttram and Harry Carey Jr.. His last appearance was in the film Maverick as a hotel room clerk.

Dub Taylor died of a heart attack on October 3, 1994 in Los Angeles. In addition to being father to Buck Taylor, Dub had a daughter, Faydean Taylor Tharp. CLR

Known For

7.5

The Wild Bunch

Maverick

Room Clerk

6.9

1994

Falling from Grace

Grandpa Parks

4.7

1992

The Gambler: The Luck Of The Draw

The Westerner's Friend

5.0

1991

Conagher

6.6

1991

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

Gimme Cap

6.1

1991

Back to the Future Part III

Saloon Old Timer

7.5

1990

Once Upon a Texas Train

Charlie Lee

5.4

1988

Designing Women

(2 episodes)

6.7

1986

The Best of Times

Mac

5.6

1986

The Cosby Show

Slim Claxton · (1 episode)

7.0

1984

The Outlaws

L.D. Sloane

0.0

1984

Cannonball Run II

Police Officer

5.4

1984

Bret Maverick

(1 episode)

4.0

1981

Soggy Bottom, U.S.A.

Cottonmouth Gorch

4.5

1981

Used Cars

Tucker

6.4

1980

1941

Mr. Malcomb

5.8

1979

They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way

Gunner

4.0

1978

Doc Hooker's Bunch

Dr. Isaiah Beauregard Hooker

0.0

1978

The Great Smokey Roadblock

Harley Davidson

5.9

1978

Beartooth

3.2

1978

The Rescuers

Digger (voice)

6.8

1977

Moonshine County Express

Uncle Bill

4.9

1977

Great Day

Doc

0.0

1977

How the West Was Won

Moss · (1 episode)

6.9

1977

Kit Carson and the Mountain Men

Stableman

0.0

1977

Pony Express Rider

Boomer Riley

5.0

1976

Burnt Offerings

Walker

6.5

1976

Gator

Mayor T.L. Caffery

5.2

1976

Treasure of Matecumbe

Sheriff Forbes

6.5

1976

The Winds of Autumn

Rattler S. Gravley

5.8

1976

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

(archive footage)

9.0

1976

Creature from Black Lake

Grandpaw Bridges

5.2

1976

Hearts of the West

Nevada Ticket Agent

5.4

1975

Poor Pretty Eddie

Justice of the Peace Floyd

5.0

1975

Flash and the Firecat

Sheriff C.W. Thurston

7.0

1975

The Fortune

Rattlesnake Tom

5.3

1975

The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return

Bitteroot

5.5

1975

Movin' On

(1 episode)

5.2

1974

Little House on the Prairie

(4 episodes)

7.9

1974

Run, Joe, Run

(1 episode)

6.3

1974

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Station Attendant

6.8

1974

Honky Tonk

0.0

1974

Chopper One

Rudy · (1 episode)

5.0

1974

Shootout in a One-Dog Town

Halsey

0.0

1974

This Is a Hijack

Sheriff Gordon

5.5

1973

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Josh

7.2

1973

Tom Sawyer

Clayton

6.3

1973

Brock's Last Case

Judge Robbins

4.0

1973

Country Blue

J.J. 'Jumpy' Belk

4.3

1973

The Getaway

Laughlin

7.1

1972

The Brian Keith Show

(1 episode)

5.0

1972

Junior Bonner

Del

6.1

1972

The Delphi Bureau

Old Timer

0.0

1972

Wild in the Sky

Officer Roddenberry

0.0

1972

Emergency!

Old Man · (1 episode)

7.8

1972

Emergency!

George · (1 episode)

7.8

1972

Evel Knievel

Turquoise Smith

4.9

1971

Man and Boy

Atkins

6.0

1971

Support Your Local Gunfighter

Doc Schultz

6.6

1971

Who Killed the Mysterious Mr. Foster?

Reed, the Lawyer

8.0

1971

Alias Smith and Jones

(2 episodes)

6.9

1971

The Wild Country

Phil

6.0

1970

The Odd Couple

Slim · (1 episode)

7.8

1970

A Man Called Horse

Joe

6.5

1970

The Liberation of L.B. Jones

Mayor

5.8

1970

Menace on the Mountain

Cicero Everhart

4.0

1970

Tick... Tick... Tick...

Junior

6.5

1970

The Reivers

Dr. Peabody

6.4

1969

The Undefeated

McCartney

6.2

1969

Love, American Style

(1 episode)

6.1

1969

Love, American Style

5.0

1967

The High Chaparral

Oscar Hipple · (1 episode)

6.5

1967

The High Chaparral

Fargo Smith · (1 episode)

6.5

1967

The Guns of Will Sonnett

(1 episode)

6.2

1967

The Guns of Will Sonnett

Henry Jackson · (1 episode)

6.2

1967

Cimarron Strip

(1 episode)

5.0

1967

Custer

(1 episode)

6.0

1967

Bonnie and Clyde

Ivan Moss

7.5

1967

Johnny Banco

4.5

1967

Don't Make Waves

Electrician

5.3

1967

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin

Timekeeper

6.5

1967

Mr. Terrific

Preacher · (1 episode)

7.1

1967

The Monkees

(1 episode)

6.5

1966

That Girl

(1 episode)

6.3

1966

The Monroes

(2 episodes)

5.7

1966

The Cincinnati Kid

Dealer

7.0

1965

The Loner

Jim · (1 episode)

5.7

1965

The Wild Wild West

Guard · (1 episode)

7.5

1965

Laredo

(2 episodes)

6.3

1965

The Big Valley

Doc Tully · (1 episode)

6.1

1965

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Ed Hewley · (58 episodes)

6.6

1965

The Hallelujah Trail

Clayton Howell

6.0

1965

The Decorator

Taxi Driver

6.0

1965

Major Dundee

Priam

6.7

1965

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Preacher · (1 episode)

7.2

1964

Burke's Law

Garnet · (1 episode)

6.0

1963

Temple Houston

Cliff Willard · (1 episode)

5.7

1963

Spencer's Mountain

Percy Cook

6.7

1963

The Losers

Gregory

0.0

1963

Mooncussers

Fire Tender

5.0

1962

How the West Was Won

Man (uncredited)

7.0

1962

Period of Adjustment

Drunk (uncredited)

5.7

1962

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Self · (7 episodes)

7.5

1962

Ensign O'Toole

Clerk · (1 episode)

6.5

1962

The Virginian

Walt Cooper · (1 episode)

6.5

1962

The Virginian

Runty Bojohn · (1 episode)

(1 episode)

5.0

1960

The Andy Griffith Show

Billy Ray Talbot · (2 episodes)

7.6

1960

The Andy Griffith Show

6.1

1959

Bonanza

Simon · (1 episode)

7.5

1959

Bonanza

Otto · (1 episode)

7.5

1959

Bonanza

Luke Calhoun · (3 episodes)

7.5

1959

Bonanza

Barlow · (1 episode)

Yancie · (1 episode)

5.5

1956

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Harper - Auctioneer · (1 episode)

5.5

1956

The Fastest Gun Alive

Nolan Brown (uncredited)

6.9

1956

I Died a Thousand Times

Ed (uncredited)

6.1

1955

Cheyenne

Hoyt · (1 episode)

Rev. Finney Cox · (1 episode)

6.6

1955

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

Hogan · (1 episode)

6.8

1955

Tall Man Riding

Townsman (uncredited)

5.6

1955

The Wonderful World of Disney

Purse · (2 episodes)

7.8

1954

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.9

1951

Life with Buster Keaton

1938