DON TAYLOR

Don Taylor (Freeport, December 13, 1920) is an American film and television actor and director.
Born in Pennsylvania, after studying at Penn State University, Taylor arrived in Hollywood in 1942, where he was signed by MGM who put him under contract for small roles. Enlisted in the United States Army Air Force (AAF) during the second world war, the actor appeared in the theatrical version of Winged Victory staged on Broadway, and in the subsequent film reduction (1944) directed by George Cukor, where he was credited as " Cpl. Don Taylor ".
After the war, Taylor began to obtain more significant roles, particularly in the metropolitan noir The nude city (1948) by Jules Dassin, in which he played the part of the detective Jimmy Halloran. In 1950 he was cast in the comedy The Father of the Bride by Vincente Minnelli, in which he could fully exploit his affable air and his natural charge of boyish sympathy in the role of Buckley Dunstan ("Poldo" in the Italian version), engaged and then groom by Elizabeth Taylor. The comedy was a huge success with the public and critics, so as to have a follow-up the following year, Dad becomes grandfather (1951), in which Taylor played the same role.
The first half of the fifties offered Taylor other interesting roles, such as that of Vern "Cowboy" Blithe in Nicholas Ray's war film The Devils Winged (1951), alongside John Wayne and Robert Ryan. The actor consolidated his success in 1953, distinguishing himself in the role of the dynamic lieutenant James Dunbar in the film Stalag 17 - The Hell of the Living by Billy Wilder, an adventurous and ironic drama set in a German prison camp during the Second World War.
In 1954 he made a brief foray into British cinema to play a handsome and bold Robin Hood in the film The Sword of Robin Hood, directed by Val Guest. After a last important role in the drama Piangerò domani (1955), alongside Susan Hayward, Taylor began to be interested in directing rather than acting, but the transition behind the camera at first was problematic for the actor.
«It was not easy at first, because I was a happy actor and nobody took me seriously»
(Don Taylor)
Taylor began directing TV shows and telefilms of popular series such as Alfred Hitchcock presents, remaining active as a director for the small screen in the following three decades. Among his major successes are the serials Dr. Kildare (1961) and Cannon (1971). In the meantime, his activity as a director brought him back to the big screen, where he started out directing The Gang of Diamonds (1967).