Dub Taylor
Encyclopedia
Walter Clarence Taylor, Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994), better known as Dub Taylor, was an American
actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy
from the 1940s into the 1990s.
. Walter was shortened to "W" by his friends, and then "Dub." His family moved to Augusta, Georgia
, when he was five years old and lived in that city until he was 13. During that time he befriended Ty Cobb
's son and namesake, Ty Cobb, Jr. He had four siblings: Minnie Margret Taylor, Maud Clare Taylor, George Taylor and Edna Fay Taylor.
performer, Taylor made his film debut in 1938, playing cheerful ex-football
captain Ed Carmichael in Frank Capra
's You Can't Take It with You
. The following year, Taylor appeared in The 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 fifty films. "Cannonball" was a comic sidekick
to "Wild Bill" Saunders (played by Bill Elliott), a pairing that continued through thirteen features, during which Elliott’s character became Wild Bill Hickok
.
During this period, a productive relationship with Tex Ritter
as Elliott's co-hero began with King of Dodge City. That partnership lasted through ten films, but Taylor left after the first one, carrying his "Cannonball" character over to a new series with Russell "Lucky" Hayden. ("Wild Bill" brought in Frank Mitchell to play a very different character, also named "Cannonball," in the remainder of his shows with Tex Ritter.)
Taylor moved again to a series of films starring Charles Starrett
, who eventually became "The Durango Kid", once again, playing his sidekick, Cannonball. These films had been produced at Columbia Pictures
, Capra's studio, and had a certain quality of production that seemed to be lacking at the Monogram
lot, where Taylor brought his "Cannonball" character in 1947
. There he joined up with Jimmy Wakely for a concluding run of 16 films (in two years). These final episodes may have been unpleasant experiences for Taylor, as he never wanted to talk about them thereafter. After 1949
, Taylor turned away from Cannonball, and went on to a busy and varied career, but for many growing up in this period, this character is the one they call to mind when they remember Dub Taylor.
His acting roles, even during his Cannonball period, were not confined to these films. He had bit parts in a number of classic films, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
, A Star Is Born
, and Them!, along with dozens of television roles. Dub featured regularly alongside Alan Hale, Jr.
in the syndicated
Casey Jones
television series, in the role of Jones's fireman, Wally. Taylor can also be seen in a brief role in No Time for Sergeants
as the Callville representative of the draft board who summons Andy Griffith
from his rural home to the United States Air Force. Observant fans who saw the 1954 feature film "Dragnet" watched him in an uncredited role at the start of the movie; his character, gangster Miller Starkie, gets killed in the opening scene.
He joined Sam Peckinpah
's famous stock company in 1965
's Major Dundee
as a professional horse thief, and appeared subsequently in that director's The Wild Bunch
, as a prohibition
ist minister who gets his flock shot up by the title outlaws in the film's infamous opening scene, Junior Bonner
, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
, The Getaway
, and Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
, as an aging, eccentric outlaw friend of Billy's. Despite his extensive career as a character actor in a wide array of varying roles, Taylor's niche was in Westerns, of which he appeared in literally dozens of films. He was in The Undefeated
with John Wayne
and Rock Hudson
where he played an ill-tempered chuckwagon
cook with a cat. Arguably, his most memorable role was playing the father of Michael J. Pollard
's C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde
. He also co-starred in the 1966 Movie [Support Your Local Gunslinger] starring Jams Garner as the drunken Doctor promising to remove Garners chest tattoo "Goldie".
He is also remembered for his trademark bowler hat
, which he wore in most of his appearances. He was also known for his wild gray hair, an unshaven bristly face, squinty eyes, and his raspy voice and cackle. He put that voice to use, alongside fellow western veterans like Jeanette Nolan
and Pat Buttram
, in the Disney animated feature The Rescuers
, as Digger the mole. In the early 1980s, Taylor appeared as the cartoonish sidekick of a John Wayne-like cowboy called "The Gumfighter", exclaiming "Hubba Bubba wins again!" in a series of Western-themed Hubba Bubba
bubble gum commercials. He also wore it when he played Mr. Tucker, a political party chairman, in Used Cars
.
On television, Taylor appeared often, including the role of a talkative hotel clerk and court bailiff in The Outlander, the fifth episode of ABC
's Cheyenne
Western series, starring Clint Walker
. He guest starred in the episode "The Last Rebellion" of the syndicated
Western series 26 Men
, true stories of the Arizona Rangers
. He also starred in two episodes of CBS's anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show
(1962–1963) in episodes entitled "My Child Is Yet a Stranger" and "The Tyrees of Capital Hill". In 1967, he appeared on the short-lived ABC military-western Custer
, starring Wayne Maunder
in the title role. Taylor also appeared in The Andy Griffith Show
as the brother-in-law of town handyman Emmett Clark, who convinced Emmett to give up his shop and sell insurance for a living.
Taylor appeared with Lucille Ball
in an episode of I Love Lucy
and also guest-starred on The Brian Keith Show
and in a fourth-season episode of The Cosby Show
, both NBC sitcoms. A good portion of his later years on television was consumed by his weekly appearances on the long-running country music/comedy show Hee-Haw. Taylor's participation lasted six seasons, 1985–1991, where he was mostly seen as a regular in the Lulu's Truck Stop skit featuring Lulu Roman
and Gailard Sartain
. Taylor's routine was to complain about the food being served. And, in a classic portrayal of his comic abilities, Taylor appeared in several episodes of Designing Women
as a somewhat off-the-beam rustic who becomes enamored of the women from Sugarbaker's during a camping expedition.
Dub Taylor made at least two cameos in the early nineties. In Back to the Future III, he appeared alongside veteran Western actors Pat Buttram
and Harry Carey, Jr.
. His last appearance was in the film Maverick
, as a hotel room clerk.
In 1994, he appeared in a commercial for Pace Foods
, where he portrays one of four participants in a fair's "Dip-Off" contest, where he and two other competitors use their "secret ingredient" of Pace Picante Sauce in their dips. When the fourth participant holds up a jar of "Mexican Sauce" as a "secret ingredient", Taylor shouts, "That stuff's made in New York City!", causing his competitors to shout "NEW YORK CITY?!" and all three give the "Mexican Sauce" user the rough treatment.
Dub loved shotgunning and was seen often with his much loved 28 gauge Parker shotguns. He was a common fixture at many of the popular Southern California trap and skeet ranges around the LA area. In later years he was profoundly deaf, perhaps from the many years of shooting before hearing protection was common.
, California. In addition to son Buck, he had a daughter, Faydean Taylor Tharp (born ca. 1931) of the Greater Los Angeles Area
.
, is also an actor and a painter. Buck Taylor played deputy Newly O'Brien on CBS's long-running Gunsmoke
. Before he joined the Gunsmoke cast, Buck Taylor appeared in ten episodes of the largely forgotten ABC western, The Monroes
in 1966-1967. Dub Taylor appeared in two of those episodes and also guest starred numerous times on Gunsmoke. Buck and Dub Taylor appeared together in the 1991 Turner Network Television
film Conagher
starring Buck Taylor's friend Sam Elliott
and Elliott's wife, Katharine Ross
.
In early 2006, filmmaker Mark Stokes began directing a feature-length documentary on the life of Dub Taylor, That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor, which has received support from the Taylor Family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby
, Peter Fonda
, Dixie Carter
, John Mellencamp
, Don Collier
, and Cheryl Rogers-Barnett. The project is from executive producers Stokes and James Kicklighter
from JamesWorks Entertainment and Professor Pauper Productions.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
from the 1940s into the 1990s.
Early life
Taylor was born in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. Walter was shortened to "W" by his friends, and then "Dub." His family moved to Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
, when he was five years old and lived in that city until he was 13. During that time he befriended Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
's son and namesake, Ty Cobb, Jr. He had four siblings: Minnie Margret Taylor, Maud Clare Taylor, George Taylor and Edna Fay Taylor.
Career
A vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performer, Taylor made his film debut in 1938, playing cheerful ex-football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
captain Ed Carmichael in Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You (film)
You Can't Take It With You Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The cast includes James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold....
. The following year, Taylor appeared in The 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 fifty films. "Cannonball" was a comic sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
to "Wild Bill" Saunders (played by Bill Elliott), a pairing that continued through thirteen features, during which Elliott’s character became Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach...
.
During this period, a productive relationship with Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...
as Elliott's co-hero began with King of Dodge City. That partnership lasted through ten films, but Taylor left after the first one, carrying his "Cannonball" character over to a new series with Russell "Lucky" Hayden. ("Wild Bill" brought in Frank Mitchell to play a very different character, also named "Cannonball," in the remainder of his shows with Tex Ritter.)
Taylor moved again to a series of films starring Charles Starrett
Charles Starrett
Charles Starrett was an American actor best known for his starring role in the Durango Kid Columbia Pictures western series. He was born in Athol, Massachusetts.-Career:...
, who eventually became "The Durango Kid", once again, playing his sidekick, Cannonball. These films had been produced at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, Capra's studio, and had a certain quality of production that seemed to be lacking at the Monogram
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
lot, where Taylor brought his "Cannonball" character in 1947
1947 in film
The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
. There he joined up with Jimmy Wakely for a concluding run of 16 films (in two years). These final episodes may have been unpleasant experiences for Taylor, as he never wanted to talk about them thereafter. After 1949
1949 in film
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
, Taylor turned away from Cannonball, and went on to a busy and varied career, but for many growing up in this period, this character is the one they call to mind when they remember Dub Taylor.
His acting roles, even during his Cannonball period, were not confined to these films. He had bit parts in a number of classic films, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
, A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1954 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1954 American musical film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay written by Moss Hart was an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell...
, and Them!, along with dozens of television roles. Dub featured regularly alongside Alan Hale, Jr.
Alan Hale, Jr.
Alan Hale, Jr. was an American film and television actor, best known for his role as Skipper on the popular sitcom Gilligan's Island. Hale was the lookalike son of popular supporting film actor Alan Hale, Sr....
in the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
Casey Jones
Casey Jones (TV series)
Casey Jones is an American children's Western series that ran during the '58-'59 television season, based around the pioneering western railroads. The series aired in syndication in the United States...
television series, in the role of Jones's fireman, Wally. Taylor can also be seen in a brief role in No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants is a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was later adapted into a teleplay on The United States Steel Hour, a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronicles the misadventures of a country bumpkin named Will...
as the Callville representative of the draft board who summons Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...
from his rural home to the United States Air Force. Observant fans who saw the 1954 feature film "Dragnet" watched him in an uncredited role at the start of the movie; his character, gangster Miller Starkie, gets killed in the opening scene.
He joined Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
's famous stock company in 1965
1965 in film
The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
's Major Dundee
Major Dundee
Major Dundee is a 1965 Western film written by Harry Julian Fink and directed by Sam Peckinpah. It starred Charlton Heston and Richard Harris as officers from opposing sides in the American Civil War who band together to hunt down a band of Apaches....
as a professional horse thief, and appeared subsequently in that director's The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913...
, as a prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
ist minister who gets his flock shot up by the title outlaws in the film's infamous opening scene, Junior Bonner
Junior Bonner
Junior Bonner is a film released in 1972 directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen, Joe Don Baker, Robert Preston and Ida Lupino. The film focuses on a veteran rodeo rider as he returns to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona to participate in an annual rodeo competition and reunite with...
, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a 1974 American crime film written and directed by Michael Cimino and starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, and Geoffrey Lewis.-Plot:...
, The Getaway
The Getaway (1972 film)
The Getaway is a 1972 American action-crime film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw.The film is based on a novel by Jim Thompson, with the screenplay written by Walter Hill...
, and Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Co-star Bob Dylan composed multiple songs for the movie's score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year.The film was noted for...
, as an aging, eccentric outlaw friend of Billy's. Despite his extensive career as a character actor in a wide array of varying roles, Taylor's niche was in Westerns, of which he appeared in literally dozens of films. He was in The Undefeated
The Undefeated (1969 film)
The Undefeated is a 1969 American Western film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and John Wayne and starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson. The film portrays events surrounding the French Intervention in Mexico and is also loosely based on General J. O...
with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
and Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
where he played an ill-tempered chuckwagon
Chuckwagon
A chuckwagon or chuck wagon is a type of wagon historically used to carry food and cooking equipment on the prairies of the United States and Canada. Such wagons would form part of a wagon train of settlers or feed traveling workers such as cowboys or loggers.In modern times, chuckwagons feature...
cook with a cat. Arguably, his most memorable role was playing the father of Michael J. Pollard
Michael J. Pollard
- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...
's C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde (film)
The film was originally offered to François Truffaut, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard next...
. He also co-starred in the 1966 Movie [Support Your Local Gunslinger] starring Jams Garner as the drunken Doctor promising to remove Garners chest tattoo "Goldie".
He is also remembered for his trademark bowler hat
Bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
, which he wore in most of his appearances. He was also known for his wild gray hair, an unshaven bristly face, squinty eyes, and his raspy voice and cackle. He put that voice to use, alongside fellow western veterans like Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan was an American radio, film and television actress. Nolan was nominated for four Emmy Awards.-Early life:...
and Pat Buttram
Pat Buttram
Maxwell Emmett "Pat" Buttram was an American actor, known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and for playing the character of Mr. Haney in the TV series Green Acres. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty"...
, in the Disney animated feature The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
, as Digger the mole. In the early 1980s, Taylor appeared as the cartoonish sidekick of a John Wayne-like cowboy called "The Gumfighter", exclaiming "Hubba Bubba wins again!" in a series of Western-themed Hubba Bubba
Hubba Bubba
Hubba Bubba is a brand of bubble gum originally produced by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated, in the United States in 1979 but more recently produced in countries around the world. The bubble gum got its name by the phrase "Hubba Hubba" that World War II soldiers used to...
bubble gum commercials. He also wore it when he played Mr. Tucker, a political party chairman, in Used Cars
Used Cars
Used Cars is a 1980 comedy satire film. It stars Kurt Russell, Jack Warden , Deborah Harmon, and Gerrit Graham.Kurt Russell portrays a devious car salesman working for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Luke Fuchs . Luke's principal rival, located directly across the street, is...
.
On television, Taylor appeared often, including the role of a talkative hotel clerk and court bailiff in The Outlander, the fifth episode of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Cheyenne
Cheyenne (TV series)
Cheyenne is a western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season...
Western series, starring Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
. He guest starred in the episode "The Last Rebellion" of the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
Western series 26 Men
26 Men
26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of...
, true stories of the Arizona Rangers
Arizona Rangers
The Arizona Rangers is an Arizona law enforcement agency modeled on the Texas Rangers. The Arizona Rangers were created by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1901, disbanded in 1909, and subsequently reformed in 1957. They were created to deal with the infestations of outlaws in the sparsely...
. He also starred in two episodes of CBS's anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show is an American anthology drama series produced by Aaron Spelling, which aired on CBS from September 11, 1962 to May 28, 1963, starring and hosted by Lloyd Bridges.-Synopsis:...
(1962–1963) in episodes entitled "My Child Is Yet a Stranger" and "The Tyrees of Capital Hill". In 1967, he appeared on the short-lived ABC military-western Custer
Custer (TV series)
Custer, also known as The Legend of Custer, is a 17-episode military-western television series which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with Wayne Maunder in the starring role of then Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. During the American Civil War, Custer had risen to the...
, starring Wayne Maunder
Wayne Maunder
Wayne E. Maunder is a retired actor, originally from Canada, who starred in three American television series between 1967 and 1974.-Three television series:...
in the title role. Taylor also appeared in The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
as the brother-in-law of town handyman Emmett Clark, who convinced Emmett to give up his shop and sell insurance for a living.
Taylor appeared with Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
in an episode of I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
and also guest-starred on The Brian Keith Show
The Brian Keith Show
The Brian Keith Show is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 1972 to March 1974. The series stars Brian Keith and Shelley Fabares.-Synopsis:...
and in a fourth-season episode of The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, both NBC sitcoms. A good portion of his later years on television was consumed by his weekly appearances on the long-running country music/comedy show Hee-Haw. Taylor's participation lasted six seasons, 1985–1991, where he was mostly seen as a regular in the Lulu's Truck Stop skit featuring Lulu Roman
Lulu Roman
Lulu Roman is a former telephone operator and go-go dancer turned comedian and singer. She is probably best known as a regular on the comedy-music television series Hee Haw....
and Gailard Sartain
Gailard Sartain
Gailard Sartain is an American comedic and serious actor, often playing characters with roots in the South. He is also an accomplished and successful painter and illustrator.-Early years and education:...
. Taylor's routine was to complain about the food being served. And, in a classic portrayal of his comic abilities, Taylor appeared in several episodes of Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
as a somewhat off-the-beam rustic who becomes enamored of the women from Sugarbaker's during a camping expedition.
Dub Taylor made at least two cameos in the early nineties. In Back to the Future III, he appeared alongside veteran Western actors Pat Buttram
Pat Buttram
Maxwell Emmett "Pat" Buttram was an American actor, known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and for playing the character of Mr. Haney in the TV series Green Acres. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty"...
and Harry Carey, Jr.
Harry Carey, Jr.
Harry Carey, Jr. is an American film actor. He appeared in over 90 films. He is mostly remembered for appearing in Western films — notably those by his friend John Ford — and in television programs.-Early life:...
. His last appearance was in the film Maverick
Maverick (film)
Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film based on the 1950s television series of the same name, created by Roy Huggins. The film was directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by William Goldman and features Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, as well as several cameo appearances...
, as a hotel room clerk.
In 1994, he appeared in a commercial for Pace Foods
Pace Foods
Pace Foods is a producer of a variety of salsas located in Paris, Texas. The company was founded in 1947 by David Pace when he developed a recipe for a salsa he called "Picante" sauce "made with the freshest ingredients, harvested and hand-selected in peak season to achieve the best flavor and...
, where he portrays one of four participants in a fair's "Dip-Off" contest, where he and two other competitors use their "secret ingredient" of Pace Picante Sauce in their dips. When the fourth participant holds up a jar of "Mexican Sauce" as a "secret ingredient", Taylor shouts, "That stuff's made in New York City!", causing his competitors to shout "NEW YORK CITY?!" and all three give the "Mexican Sauce" user the rough treatment.
Dub loved shotgunning and was seen often with his much loved 28 gauge Parker shotguns. He was a common fixture at many of the popular Southern California trap and skeet ranges around the LA area. In later years he was profoundly deaf, perhaps from the many years of shooting before hearing protection was common.
Death
Taylor died of heart failure on October 3, 1994 in Los Angeles. He was cremated, with ashes scattered near Westlake VillageWestlake Village, California
Westlake Village is a planned community that straddles the Los Angeles and Ventura county line. The eastern portion is the incorporated city Westlake Village, located on the western edge of Los Angeles County, California. The city, located in the region known as the Conejo Valley, encompasses half...
, California. In addition to son Buck, he had a daughter, Faydean Taylor Tharp (born ca. 1931) of the Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...
.
Legacy
His son, Buck TaylorBuck Taylor
Walter Clarence "Buck" Taylor, III is an American actor and water color artist best known for his role as gunsmith-turned-deputy Newly O'Brien in 113 episodes during the last eight seasons of CBS's Gunsmoke television series . In recent years, he has painted the portrait of his friend and Gunsmoke...
, is also an actor and a painter. Buck Taylor played deputy Newly O'Brien on CBS's long-running Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
. Before he joined the Gunsmoke cast, Buck Taylor appeared in ten episodes of the largely forgotten ABC western, The Monroes
The Monroes (1966 TV series)
The Monroes is a 26-segment Western television series which ran on ABC during the 1966-1967 season – the story of five orphans trying to survive as a family on the frontier in the area about what is now Grand Teton National Park near Jackson in northwestern Wyoming.Michael Anderson, Jr., then 24,...
in 1966-1967. Dub Taylor appeared in two of those episodes and also guest starred numerous times on Gunsmoke. Buck and Dub Taylor appeared together in the 1991 Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
film Conagher
Conagher
Conagher is a 1991 Turner Network Television western film based on a Louis L’Amour novel of the same name, starring Sam Elliott as Conn Conagher, an honest, hardworking cowboy who learns that his fellow ranch hands plan to steal the boss's cattle. Katharine Ross, Elliott’s wife since 1984, stars...
starring Buck Taylor's friend Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
and Elliott's wife, Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross
Katharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...
.
In early 2006, filmmaker Mark Stokes began directing a feature-length documentary on the life of Dub Taylor, That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor, which has received support from the Taylor Family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
, Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
, Dixie Carter
Dixie Carter
Dixie Virginia Carter was an American film, television and stage actress, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women...
, John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...
, Don Collier
Don Collier
Donald Collier is an American radio personality and a former actor, particularly known for his role in television westerns during the 1960s. He played U.S. Marshal Will Foreman in the 1960-1962 NBC series Outlaws, with Barton MacLane , Jock Gaynor , and Bruce Yarnell...
, and Cheryl Rogers-Barnett. The project is from executive producers Stokes and James Kicklighter
James Kicklighter
James Kicklighter is an American film producer, writer, and director from the small village of Bellville, Georgia.He was recognized by Heather Huhman's series in the National Edition of Examiner.com...
from JamesWorks Entertainment and Professor Pauper Productions.