Noah Taylor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Noah Taylor
Born Noah George Taylor
(1969-09-04) 4 September 1969
London, England
Occupation Actor
Years active 1987–present

Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is an English-born Australian actor and musician.[1]

Early life

Taylor, elder of two boys, was born in London, England, the son of Maggie (née Miller), a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist.[2] Taylor's Australian parents returned to Australia when he was five, and he grew up in Clifton Hill and St Kilda, Victoria, suburbs of Melbourne. His parents divorced when he was 14. Taylor left both school and home at 16 with no intention of becoming an actor; a friend, however, suggested that he try the theatre as 'something to do at the weekends', and Taylor found the experience so enjoyable that he opted to make it his career. After performing in plays at St Martin's Youth Theatre in South Yarra for a year, he gained the attention of director John Duigan, who cast him in the 1987 film The Year My Voice Broke, the first part of a planned trilogy. Taylor also appeared in its sequel, 1991's Flirting, which also starred Nicole Kidman.

Career

Taylor first gained international attention playing the tormented young pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film Shine. Taylor's resume includes action movies (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), comedies (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), psychological thrillers (Vanilla Sky) and historical dramas (Max, in which he played the young Adolf Hitler.)

Taylor once commented in an interview that he was sick of acting out the nostalgic reminiscences of other people. He has done this in a number of films including The Nostradamus Kid, which was based, apparently, on the memories of the Australian author Bob Ellis, a young David Helfgott in Shine, based on the book by Helfgott's sister, the protagonist in John Birmingham's memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, and Almost Famous, based on the memories of the film's writer and director, Cameron Crowe.

He appears in the video Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow – a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, along with the video for M.O.R. by British alternative rock group Blur. Taylor stars in Simon Rumley's mystery thriller Red White & Blue,[3] which had its world premiere as part of the SXSW Film Festival in March 2010.[4]

In 2011, he released his first EP, Live Free or Die!!!, with his band Noah Taylor & the Sloppy Boys on Z-Man Records.[5]

Personal life

When not acting, Taylor draws and paints, and is also an accomplished musician, playing viola and French horn as a young teenager, and guitar from the age of 16. He plays the piano by ear. He has sung and played guitar in several of his own bands, including Honky Tonk Angels, Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey, Access Axis, and The Thirteens, a country-western rock band described by Taylor as, "three manic depressives playing sad angst and western music for sad people". He names Johnny Cash and Lou Reed as two of the artists he admires. On 14 November 2012 he married Dionne Harris, an Australian fashion designer.

Taylor lives in Brighton, East Sussex.[citation needed]

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ↑ Noah Taylor and The Sloppy Boys: Inspired by the Aussie music scene of the '60s
  2. ↑ Noah Taylor Biography (1969–)
  3. ↑ SXSW '10: Official Festival One Sheet for 'Red White & Blue'
  4. ↑ SXSW '10: Second Character Teaser for 'Red White & Blue'
  5. ↑ Mess+Noise: Noah Taylor & The Sloppy Boys – Live Free Or Die!!!

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.