![]() ![]() Sorry! There are no volunteers for this cemetery. GREAT NEWS! There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial ![]() This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos You may not upload any more photos to this memorial Taylor is also survived by his son, Alfred Austin, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. This summer, his family plans to scatter his ashes over the Pacific Ocean he loved, his daughter said. "They gave a plane ticket home.''Ī previous prostate cancer diagnosis prompted him to become an educator, often speaking to groups about the importance of early detection, relatives said. Taylor "went to whoever he needed to go, and the man was put off the ship," Sharon Hayes said. "He told the man to cut it out," she said. Later in life, while on a cruise, he found himself assigned to a dinner table with a man who made derogatory, racist comments, his daughter said. He wouldn't tolerate disrespect when he was older, either, his daughter said. When he was younger, he wasn't above using his fists to stand up for himself. "Hollywood is cramming down the world's throat the message that all are pimps and prostitutes," he said. He told Jet magazine he needed a break, because the movie business was constricting him and other African-American actors who wanted significant roles. He performed in Australia for several months in the play "I'm Not Rappaport." He lived in Los Angeles, Newport, Oregon, and Kauai. Taylor loved being near the Pacific Ocean. Eventually he moved to New York, where he worked in the theater, his daughter said.īut Mr. Taylor worked as a CTA motorman, studied acting and performed in local plays. "He was pretty much always talking of helping his mom, little odd jobs to help pay the rent or buy food."Īfter his first marriage ended in divorce, Mr. In Maywood, "there were five brothers, and raised by a single mother, so he didn't really have a childhood," said his daughter. One of his elderly relatives recalled, "You couldn't bump up against a white woman" on the street without inviting danger, said Caples. ![]() They migrated north because of crushing bigotry down South. His mother's family was from Wrightsville, Ga. One of his favorite roles was as a bartender in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play "No Place to Be Somebody," said his sister-in-law, Margaret Caples, executive director of the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. He also played Reverend in Alex Haley's epic 1977 TV miniseries "Roots," which sparked a national conversation on the legacy of slavery. ![]() Elsewhere," "Cagney and Lacy," "Hill Street Blues," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Rockford Files," "Ironside," "Moonlighting," "Falcon Crest," "Webster" and "227." His TV resume reads like a road map of pop culture, including guest shots on "Knight Rider," "Starsky and Hutch," "Sanford and Son," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "St. In 1990, he starred with Yaphet Kotto in "Fences" at Washington, D.C.'s, Arena Stage theater. He also appeared as Walter Lee Younger in "A Raisin in the Sun" at Chicago's Forum Theater. He appeared in the Eddie Murphy vehicle "The Golden Child" in John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" in "Rocky III," and the 1979 version of "When a Stranger Calls."įor the play "The Great White Hope," he understudied James Earl Jones. "When I learned director Ossie Davis was looking for a stunt man to do that bit, I volunteered and said I'd do it if I could keep the few lines I had," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. Taylor was also in an iconic gem of Black Cinema, in "Cotton Comes to Harlem." He played a militant who gets thrown up in the air by Detectives Gravedigger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. In 1972, he was the evil Johnny Kelly in "Shaft's Big Score!" which included this classic bit of Blaxploitation dialogue from Richard Roundtree: "Stay away from black honkies with big flat feet!" Relatives said he was sensitive and gentle in real life, but on screen, he often played the heavy. His rugged intensity and mastery of his craft made him a busy film and TV actor. "He was just fascinated by the movies."Įventually, he would study acting at the Goodman School of Drama. "If they could get enough money with pop bottles, then they would go to the movies," his daughter said. When he scraped together a little cash, he went to the theater. He collected pop bottles and ran errands to make extra money to eat, said his daughter, Sharon Hayes. Growing up in Maywood with four brothers raised by a working single mother, Wally Taylor hustled to help his family. ![]()
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