Dub Taylor

Acting • Born 1907-02-26 – Died 1994-10-03

Acting4Richmond, Virginia, USA

Biography

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

Filmography

239 credits

Back to the Future Part III

Movie • 1990

Saloon Old Timer

The Cincinnati Kid

Movie • 1965

Dealer

Bonnie and Clyde

Movie • 1967

Ivan Moss

The Wild Bunch

Movie • 1969

Reverend Wainscoat

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Movie • 1939

Reporter (uncredited)

The Shakiest Gun in the West

Movie • 1968

Pop Cushings

The Getaway

Movie • 1972

Laughlin

The Best of Times

Movie • 1986

Mac

1941

Movie • 1979

Mr. Malcomb

The Rescuers

Movie • 1977

Digger (voice)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Movie • 1974

Station Attendant

Cannonball Run II

Movie • 1984

Police Officer

Maverick

Movie • 1994

Room Clerk

You Can't Take It with You

Movie • 1938

Ed Carmichael

Burnt Offerings

Movie • 1976

Walker

Parrish

Movie • 1961

Teet Howie

The Outlaws

Movie • 1984

L.D. Sloane

A Man Called Horse

Movie • 1970

Joe

Creature from Black Lake

Movie • 1976

Grandpaw Bridges

Spencer's Mountain

Movie • 1963

Percy Cook

Poor Pretty Eddie

Movie • 1975

Justice of the Peace Floyd

Great Day

Movie • 1977

Doc

Pocketful of Miracles

Movie • 1961

Man (uncredited)

Shootout in a One-Dog Town

Movie • 1974

Halsey

Support Your Local Gunfighter

Movie • 1971

Doc Schultz

How the West Was Won

Movie • 1962

Man (uncredited)

No Time for Sergeants

Movie • 1958

Mr. McKinney

Crime Wave

Movie • 1953

Gus Snider

Falling from Grace

Movie • 1992

Grandpa Parks

The Fortune

Movie • 1975

Rattlesnake Tom

Country Blue

Movie • 1973

J.J. 'Jumpy' Belk

Death of a Gunfighter

Movie • 1969

Doc Adams

Tall Man Riding

Movie • 1955

Townsman (uncredited)

I Died a Thousand Times

Movie • 1955

Ed (uncredited)

Moonshine County Express

Movie • 1977

Uncle Bill

Hot Rod Gang

Movie • 1958

Landlord

Major Dundee

Movie • 1965

Priam

Riding High

Movie • 1950

Joe

Man and Boy

Movie • 1971

Atkins

Once Upon a Texas Train

Movie • 1988

Charlie Lee

The Return of Daniel Boone

Movie • 1941

Cannonball

The Bounty Hunter

Movie • 1954

Eli Danvers

Evel Knievel

Movie • 1971

Turquoise Smith

One Man's Law

Movie • 1940

Nevady

Gun Law Justice

Movie • 1949

Cannonball

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

Movie • 1978

Gunner

The Marshall of Trail City

Movie • 1950

Cannonball

Across The Rio Grande

Movie • 1949

Cannonball Taylor

Kit Carson and the Mountain Men

Movie • 1977

Stableman

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Movie • 1976

(archive footage)

The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return

Movie • 1975

Bitteroot

Black Gold

Movie • 1962

Doc

A Hole in the Head

Movie • 1959

Fred

Dragnet

Movie • 1954

Miller Starkie

The Losers

Movie • 1963

Gregory

Movie • 1969

McCartney

Movie • 1943

Cannonball

Minesweeper

Movie • 1943

Seaman Stubby Gordon

Conagher

Used Cars

Movie • 1980

Tucker

Who Killed the Mysterious Mr. Foster?

Movie • 1971

Reed, the Lawyer

The Reivers

Movie • 1969

Dr. Peabody

Tanks a Million

Movie • 1941

Malloy

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

Movie • 1991

Gimme Cap

The Winds of Autumn

Movie • 1976

Rattler S. Gravley

Honky Tonk

Movie • 1974

You Can't Run Away from It

Movie • 1956

Joe

Taming of the West

Movie • 1939

Cannonball

Carefree

Movie • 1938

(uncredited)

Mooncussers

Movie • 1962

Fire Tender

Doc Hooker's Bunch

Movie • 1978

Dr. Isaiah Beauregard Hooker

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw

Movie • 1991

The Westerner's Friend

Riding Shotgun

Movie • 1954

Eddie (uncredited)

The Andy Griffith Show

TV • 1960

Billy Ray Talbot

Movin' On

TV • 1974

77 Sunset Strip

TV • 1958

Burke's Law

TV • 1963

Garnet

Cheyenne

TV • 1955

Hoyt

Little House on the Prairie

TV • 1974

The Odd Couple

TV • 1970

Slim

Love, American Style

TV • 1969

Hawaii Five-O

TV • 1968

Ray Tobias

The Cosby Show

TV • 1984

Slim Claxton

That Girl

TV • 1966

Alias Smith and Jones

TV • 1971

Surfside 6

TV • 1960

The Mod Squad

TV • 1968

Gunsmoke

TV • 1955

Sonny Starr

Perry Mason

TV • 1957

Stroller

Run, Joe, Run

TV • 1974

The Twilight Zone

TV • 1959

Peters

Casey Jones

TV • 1957

Wallie Sims

Laredo

TV • 1965

The Monroes

TV • 1966

The Monkees

TV • 1966

Paw

The Beachcomber

TV • 1962

Pete Dibley

Dennis the Menace

TV • 1959

Opie

The High Chaparral

TV • 1967

Oscar Hipple

The Virginian

TV • 1962

Walt Cooper

I Love Lucy

TV • 1951

Rattlesnake Jones

Lancer

TV • 1968

The Big Valley

TV • 1965

Doc Tully

Hazel

TV • 1961

The Loner

TV • 1965

Jim

Lawman

TV • 1958

The Guns of Will Sonnett

TV • 1967

The Brian Keith Show

TV • 1972

Wichita Town

TV • 1959

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

TV • 1956

Yancie

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

TV • 1965

Ed Hewley

Custer

TV • 1967

26 Men

TV • 1957

Death Valley Days

TV • 1952

Rupert

The Barbara Stanwyck Show

TV • 1960

George B. Glines

Bonanza

TV • 1959

Simon

Mr. Terrific

TV • 1967

Preacher

Love, American Style

TV • 1969

Hazel

TV • 1961

Mitch Brady

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

TV • 1964

Preacher

The Virginian

TV • 1962

Runty Bojohn

The Andy Griffith Show

TV • 1960

TV • 1967

Fargo Smith

Bonanza

TV • 1959

Otto

The Wild Wild West

TV • 1965

Guard

Bonanza

TV • 1959

Luke Calhoun

Bonanza

TV • 1959

Barlow

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

TV • 1955

Hogan

Emergency!

TV • 1972

Old Man

The Lloyd Bridges Show

TV • 1962

Freddy

Chopper One

TV • 1974

Rudy

Emergency!

TV • 1972

George

The Westerner

TV • 1960

Walt Smith

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

TV • 1962

Self

77 Sunset Strip

TV • 1958

Man Tourist

The Wonderful World of Disney

TV • 1954

Purse

Designing Women

TV • 1986

The Wonderful World of Disney

TV • 1954

Fire Tender

How the West Was Won

TV • 1977

Moss

The Guns of Will Sonnett

TV • 1967

Henry Jackson

Love, American Style

TV • 1969

Grover

Temple Houston

TV • 1963

Cliff Willard

The Wonderful World of Disney

TV • 1954

Cicero Everhart

Lawman

TV • 1958

Bartender

Cimarron Strip

TV • 1967

Owley

Bret Maverick

TV • 1981

Toothless Tim Teal

The Partridge Family

TV • 1970

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