Dub Taylor

Walter Clarence Taylor, Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994), better known as Dub Taylor, was a prolific American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.

Biography

Early life

Taylor was born in Richmond, Virginia. Walter was shortened to "W" by his friends, and then "Dub." His family moved to Augusta 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.^[1]

Career

A vaudeville 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 (1941). 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, 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 (1939), A Star Is Born (the 1954 version), and Them! (1954), 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.

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 (1969), as a prohibitionist minister who gets his flock shot up by the title outlaws in the film's infamous opening scene, Junior Bonner (1972), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1972), The Getaway (1972), and Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (1973), 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 (1969) with John Wayne and Rock Hudson where he played an ill-tempered chuckwagon cook with a cat. Taylor also had an uncredited role in the 1954 feature film "Dragnet" as the murder victim killed by fellow Los Angeles mobsters in the opening minute of the film. Arguably, his most memorable role was playing the father of Michael J. Pollard's C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

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" 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 (1980).

On television, Taylor appeared often, including the role of a talkative hotel clerk and court baliff in "The Outlander" (1955), 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 appeared with Lucille Ball in her CBS comedy series 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 Gailord Sartain. Taylor's routine was to complain about the food being served.

His last appearance was in the film Maverick. He died of heart failure on October 3, 1994 in Los Angeles. He was cremated, with ashes scattered near Westlake Village, California. In addition to son Buck, he had a daughter, Faydean Taylor Tharp (born ca. 1931) of the Greater Los Angeles Area. (Internet sources do not mention Mrs. Taylor.)^[2]

Legacy

His son, Buck Taylor, 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,^[3] which has received support from the Taylor Family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby, Peter Fonda, Dixie Carter, John "Cougar" Mellencamp, Don Collier, and Cheryl Rogers-Barnett. The project is from executive producers Stokes and James Kicklighter from JamesWorks Entertainment and Professor Pauper Productions.

References

External links

• Dub Taylor at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Website for "That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor"
• Press Release for "That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor"
• Behind the Scenes of "That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor"
• Appreciation of "Cannonball"
• Find-A-Grave biography