FORREST TAYLOR
December 29th, 1883 -- February 19th, 1965

Above: Forrest Taylor (left) in his last serial, THE LOST PLANET (Columbia, 1953). Taylor is explaining some scientific principle to hero Judd Holdren.

"Those who also serve" is the quote William Cline used to describe the serial character actors, a class of little-known and--too often--little-praised--performers. These were the men who handled any role that did not fall into the principal categories (hero, villain, henchman, or sidekick) and one of the greatest among them was Forrest Taylor. Taylor's square jaw, authoritative voice, and shrewd face made him a perfect choice for scientists, lawyers, and other brainy types, but he could just as easily portray cringing, sneaky weasels or rugged old frontiersmen. Need an actor to dub the voice of the mystery villain? Call Forrest Taylor. Need a suspect for the mystery villain? Call Forrest Taylor. Need an actor to play the professional stoolpigeon who spies upon the good guys? Call Forrest Taylor. Need an actor to play the respectable, upright inventor who refused to turn his invention over to the bad guys? Call Forrest Taylor. Need an actor to fill any role--big or small--with talent and enthusiasm? Call Forrest Taylor.

Taylor was born Edwin Forrest Taylor in Bloomington, Illinois. No information is available as to his early life, but we can only imagine that he must have done a good deal of stage acting (or else entered acting after trying his hand at something else) as his screen debut was at the mature age of 33 in a 1915 James W. Horne film called SOCIAL PIRATES. He played several leading roles--in films like APRIL, TRUE NOBILITY, and THE ABANDONMENT--during the next year, but his career was interrupted when he entered World War One in 1916. He didn't return to films until 1926, when he played supporting roles in A POOR GIRL'S ROMANCE and NO MAN'S GOLD (a Tom Mix western). Now 44, he apparently decided that starring roles were now out of the question, and we find him entering the sound era as a bit player. He found a new niche, though, when he played the evil villain Kincaid in the John Wayne B-western RIDERS OF DESTINY. This plum part cemented Forrest as a very dependable character actor, and he played many similar villainous roles--along with many kindly ones-- in B-westerns throughout his career . He made his serial debut with a bit in THE MIRACLE RIDER (Mascot, 1935), but his first big cliffhanger part was in SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (Victory, 1936). In this Sam Katzman serial, Forrest played Police Captain Walters, who was in charge of investigating several strange crimes that had been perpetrated in the Chinatown area. The man responsible was insane Eurasian inventor Victor Poten (Bela Lugosi), and Taylor and his police force needed the help of novelist Herman Brix and reporter Joan Barclay to run down the madman. Though Taylor, like all serial policemen, left a lot of his work to the stars, he still made his character a competent, experienced law officer. Captain Walters was the first of a long line of authority figures that Forrest would enact in later outings.

Above: Forrest Taylor (second from left) and Herman Brix (center) ask Luana Walters and her entourage some questions in SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (Victory, 1936).

Forrest, though very active in B-westerns, didn't do any more serials until 1938, when he appeared in Republic's FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS. An atmospheric chiller-diller that ranks among the best cliffhangers ever made. The serial starred Lee Powell and Herman Brix as a pair of Marines who set out to track down the Lightning, a masked megalomaniac who was out to conquer the world with the aid of devastating electrical power and a "flying wing." Suspects for the Lightning included Crenshaw (Perry Ivins), a scientist; Sam Hedges, a gardener; and Benson (Forrest Taylor), a butler. In the end, though (SPOILERS AHEAD!) the Lightning proved to be the kindly, helpful Professor Warfield (Hugh Sothern), and was subsequently destroyed in a tense and suspenseful climax. Forrest's part in DEVIL DOGS was not too big, but he got to do plenty of lurking and peering in the best red herring tradition. The part of red herring, by the way, was another role that Taylor would play again in the coming years. Forrest played one other part at Republic in 1938: a Naval commander who sought the help of Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) in recovering a valuable set of plans stolen by gangster Pa Stark (Charles Middleton) in DICK TRACY RETURNS.

Above: Montagu Love, Perry Ivins, Forrest Taylor, Eleanor Stewart, Herman Brix (standing) and Lee Powell (kneeling) prepare to combat the Lightning in FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS (Republic, 1938).

Taylor headed over to Universal Pictures for THE OREGON TRAIL and THE PHANTOM CREEPS (both made in 1939). In TRAIL, starring Johnny Mack Brown, he did an excellent job as the sneaky, outwardly-respectable henchman of profiteer James Blaine, while in CREEPS he played a small role as Black, one of the spies seeking the inventions of mad scientist Bela Lugosi. He again sought Ralph Byrd's help in DICK TRACY'S G-MEN (Republic, 1939); this time he was an airplane designer whose plans were stolen by spy Nicholas Zarnoff (Irving Pichel). His first Columbia outing, 1940's TERRY AND THE PIRATES, reunited him with the director of his first movie--James W. Horne. Horne was now directing Columbia's serials, and filling them with absolutely screwy bits of comedy and slapstick--to the point that they were more like self-parodies then straight adventures. TERRY was one of the silliest of all Horne's cliffhangers, due mainly to the outrageous depiction of the "star" Terry (William Tracy) and the villains (headed by Dick Curtis). Taylor was Allan Drake, the heroine's (Joyce Bryant) father; his performance was more restrained, and was thus lost among the slapstick shenanigans of the rest of the cast.

Above: Jack Ingram (left) grapples with Forrest Taylor in this crop from a pressbook photo for TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940).

Horne next enlisted Taylor for DEADWOOD DICK (Columbia, 1940), in which Forrest was heard but not seen as the voice of the mystery villain, the Skull. The Skull was an outlaw leader who held the Deadwood area in a grip of iron, and it took newspaper editor Dick Stanley (Don Douglas) disguised as the masked avenger Deadwood Dick, fifteen chapters to smash the Skull's gang. Taylor's great voice was put to good use in creating a memorable mystery villain, and DEADWOOD DICK proved to be one of the best of Horne's cliffhangers. Forrest popped over to Universal for a small thug role in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN before tackling his third Horne cliffhanger: THE GREEN ARCHER (Columbia, 1940). Again Taylor was the father of the heroine (Iris Meredith), but he was also a "red herring" in a manner of speaking. Meredith and hero Victor Jory were frequently aided by the mysterious Green Archer in their struggles against the evil Abel Bellamy (James Craven), and Forrest became one of the prime suspects for the mysterious hero. However, Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan), Abel's supposedly-dead brother, proved to be the Green Archer instead, and rescued Forrest, Meredith, Jory, and Dorothy Fay from a collapsing dungeon in the final chapter. GREEN ARCHER was another one of Horne's wackier serials, featuring an incredibly hammy, ranting performance from Craven and an exaggeratedly energetic one from Jory.

Above: James Craven has the drop on Forrest Taylor and Iris Meredith in THE GREEN ARCHER (Columbia, 1940). In the small right-hand picture, Victor Jory is about to be hit on the head by a thug-butler.

Forrest went completely "over the top" himself for his next two serials, THE SPIDER RETURNS (Columbia, 1941), and THE IRON CLAW (Columbia, 1941). In SPIDER, Horne cast him again as the voice of the mystery villain, this time a robed gang leader called the Gargoyle, who battled the heroic Spider (Warren Hull) for control of the city. As the Gargoyle, Taylor ranted and raved at his henchmen on a regular basis, and reached a high point of hysteria when he caught his men throwing a shindig in his headquarters. "No wonder my plans never get anywhere! These wild parties must stop!" Taylor proclaimed. THE SPIDER RETURNS was a big disappointment to those who had enjoyed the earlier SPIDER'S WEB, but it certainly provided Forrest with some good fun. The same can be said of IRON CLAW, in which Taylor played Anton Benson, the sneaky patriarch of the rapacious Benson family. Anton was in possession of a cache of Spanish gold and feigned paralysis as part of his attempts to hide his treasure from his kinfolks. Taylor spent most of the serial hopping in and out of his unneeded wheelchair, rushing in and out of secret passageways, devising outrageous charades to protect his gold, and browbeating his butler/accomplice John Beck. His performance was entirely over-the-top, but quite hilarious.

Above: Charles Quigley (far left), Walter Sande (center), Forrest Taylor (seated), and Joyce Bryant in THE IRON CLAW (Columbia, 1940).

In between these two gloriously hammy parts, however, Taylor had to "settle down" for his role in SEA RAIDERS (Universal, 1941). The first of his many inventor parts (or "pawn" roles, as William Cline calls them), his character in RAIDERS was a scientist named Fenwick, whose valuable invention was protected from the foreign Raiders (headed by Reed Hadley) by the Dead End Kids (headed by Billy Halop). Following IRON CLAW, he played a small part (a plant worker) in KING OF THE TEXAS RANGERS (Republic, 1941) and a slightly bigger one (as a crooked butler) in DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. (Republic, 1941). In the latter, Taylor (or rather his stunt double) engaged hero Ralph Byrd in one of Republic's most spectacular fight sequences. PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942), was Forrest's last cliffhanger for Horne, and it gave him, once again, some latitude to ham it up as a timorous backwoods preacher who was really a spy for outlaw Kenneth MacDonald. Taylor’s incredibly over-the-top whining when concerned about exposure was matched only by his overdone mildness when “preaching” the Gospel to the indifferent townspeople.

Above: Robert Kellard (second from left) issues orders to Kermit Maynard, as Tom London, Hank Bell (coonskin cap), Richard Fiske (behind London and Bell) listen, and Forrest Taylor (far right) eavesdrops, in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942).

Taylor next appeared as an old timer (named Taylor!) in the first chapter of OVERLAND MAIL (Universal, 1942). A crony of sidekick Don Terry, Taylor was shot in the back by Robert Barron when he tried to warn hero Lon Chaney Jr. of a time bomb aboard a stage Terry was driving. Forrest then played, in quick succession, an Arab translator in NYOKA AND THE TIGERMEN (Republic, 1942), a telegrapher in KING OF THE MOUNTIES (Republic, 1942), and a doctor in VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN (Columbia, 1942). THE DESERT HAWK (Columbia, 1944) featured Taylor in a slightly more noticeable part as a cagey moneylender who helped the heroic Hawk (Gilbert Roland) regain the throne of the kingdom of Ahad from his treacherous twin brother (also Gilbert Roland). Forrest’s next large cliffhanger role was in HAUNTED HARBOR (Republic, 1944). As island doctor Oliver Harding, the father of heroine Patricia Harding (Kay Aldridge), Forrest lasted four episodes before being bumped off by henchman Kenne Duncan. It seems that Taylor was the only man who could identify Roy Barcroft as the man who had committed a murder that hero Kane Richmond had been framed for, so Barcroft naturally sent Duncan to plug the good doctor.

After playing another small townsman role (Becker in ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP, a 1944 Republic release) Taylor returned to playing father-of-the-heroine in MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (Republic, 1945). This time, however, he lived through all fifteen chapters and was given a fair amount of screen time in each one. In fact, one could say Forrest was the pivot of the plot: as Professor William Forrest, kidnapped by the evil Captain Mephisto (Roy Barcroft) Taylor was the "pawn" that set the plot in motion, as his disappearance caused his daughter Claire (Linda Stirling) and the private detective Lance Reardon (Richard Bailey) to arrive on Mystery Island to search for him. Mephisto was determined to force Forrest to give him the secret of his remote control machine, but the scientist refused to be intimidated by the Captain's "piratical swashbuckling" and was rescued in the end by Lance and Claire. MYSTERY ISLAND marked the first time that Forrest was given co-star billing--along with Bailey, Stirling, Barcroft, and Kenne Duncan--instead of being relegated to the second cast card--a distinction he certainly deserved.

Above: Linda Stirling and Forrest Taylor in MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (Republic, 1945).

THE MASTER KEY (Universal, 1945), featured Forrest as an unnamed doctor who appeared in episodes Five and Eleven, and FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (Republic, 1945), gave him the small but flavorful role of Otto Wolfe, an unscrupulous attorney. Crippled, as Taylor's character had been in IRON CLAW, Wolfe was nevertheless a brainy fellow, and attempted to strike an equal deal with ruthless crime boss Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis) for possession of a fortune in stolen gold. Lewis double-crossed Forrest and had his minion Tom Steele shoot Taylor, but hero Marten Lamont showed up and engaged Steele in a fistfight, which ended in the mortally-wounded Taylor plugging his killer and giving Lamont the secret of the gold's hiding-place.

THE CRIMSON GHOST (Republic, 1946), returned Forrest to the role of red herring by featuring him as Professor Van Wyck, one of a group of respectable scientists who were (apparently) trying to help hero Charles Quigley recover the dangerous weapon known as the Cyclotrode from the evil Crimson Ghost. Taylor came under suspicion of being the Ghost, especially when he tried to hijack a truck containing evidence against the villain, but he was only trying to move the truck to a safer place, and wound up getting plugged by one of the Ghost's men. THE BLACK WIDOW (Republic, 1947), featured him as a crooked lawyer who helped villainess Carol Forman escape from jail. SUPERMAN, in 1948, was Taylor's first Columbia since PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED. Forrest played a scientist, Professor Leeds, who discovered Superman's (Kirk Alyn) identity when Clark Kent fainted in his office after being exposed to a Kryptonite sample. Forrest agreed to keep Superman's secret--and to get rid of the Kryptonite--but his treacherous assistant, Steven Carr, whose request for a raise had just been turned down, tipped off the evil Spider Lady (Carol Forman) about the Kryptonite, and Taylor was killed when he attempted to keep the villainess's thugs from making off with it.

Above: Forrest Taylor rhapsodizes over a rare sample of Kryptonite, unaware of the effect it's having on Clark Kent (Kirk Alyn) in SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1948).

(SPOILERS AHEAD!) Spencer Bennett, who had helmed many of Taylor's Republic serials, pulled a very clever trick when he cast Forrest as Dr. Alexander Benson in BRUCE GENTRY (Columbia, 1949). The inventor of a flying saucer sought by the villains, Benson seemed to be the type of "pawn" that Taylor had so often played in previous serials. Kidnapped by the bad guys, he (as usual) refused to cooperate with their mystery boss, the Recorder. But surprise! In the last chapter, Taylor himself proved to be the Recorder: he had arranged his kidnapping as a cover-up for his real plans for the saucers. Taylor handled both the upright and the villainous aspects of this character with his usual dependability.

Above: Forrest Taylor (far left) aids Tom Neal (wearing the cap and jacket) and Hugh Prosser in the capture of Jack Ingram and Terry Frost. Prosser is holding Frost and Neal is holding Ingram in this lobby card for BRUCE GENTRY (Columbia, 1949).

The king of the serial character actors only did two more cliffhangers after BRUCE GENTRY: DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1951), and THE LOST PLANET (Columbia, 1953). In DON DAREDEVIL he was Pop Taylor, the crusty old father of hot-headed young rancher Gary Taylor (Robert Einer), and made the most out of a single scene in Chapter Three. He had a bigger role in LOST PLANET, an outrageous Sam Katzman sci-fi cheapie, and, despite the fact that he was now seventy years old, walked off with the serial. Forrest, as Professor Edmund Dorn, a kindly scientist who was being forced to aid the evil Dr. Grood (Michael Fox), gave his usual quiet, dignified performance, and managed to make the most incomprehensible techno-twaddle dialogue sound convincing. In fact, Taylor was the only cast member who managed to accomplish this, and as a result it seemed that Dorn, and not hero Judd Holdren, was the only one who knew just what was going on in the serial.

Above, from left to right: Michael Fox, Judd Holdren, and Forrest Taylor in THE LOST PLANET (Columbia, 1953).

Taylor, as well as playing co-starring roles on the shows THIS IS THE LIFE and MAN WITHOUT A GUN, managed to appear on most of the TV Westerns of the fifties, including MAVERICK, CISCO KID, and THE GENE AUTRY SHOW. His final big-screen film was THE FBI STORY, in which he played a minister, but he continued to work in TV until 1962, when he made his last appearance, at the age of 79, in a BONANZA episode called "The Tall Stranger." Three years later, Forrest Taylor passed away in Garden Grove, California.

As one of "those who also serve", Forrest Taylor never played a serial hero, and, in fact, hardly ever played the main villain, either. Only about half-a-dozen serials even gave him "co-star" billing. And yet Forrest and his fellow character actors were essential to the serial world; they were the gears that kept it running smoothly, the supports that were taken for granted but were nevertheless vital. These men have served in silence for a long time, and now deserve their share of acclamation from serial fans. And deserving of that acclamation as much as any of them is that cliffhanger veteran supreme, Forrest Taylor.