Veteran actor Jack Taylor, known for his roles in beloved genre films like Conan the Barbarian and Count Dracula and for appearing alongside icons like Marilyn Monroe, has died.
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Taylor, an Oregon native who lived in Madrid’s Chamberí district for over six decades, died on May 12, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The 99-year-old worked for several high-profile directors across his decades-long career, including John Milius, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, and Miloš Forman.
Throughout his decades-long career, the 99-year-old actor worked with several high-profile directors, including John Milius, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, and Miloš Forman. He famously portrayed a priest alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Milius’s Conan the Barbarian (1982) and an antique book collector opposite Johnny Depp in Polanski’s The Ninth Gate (1999). Taylor also appeared in Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts (2006).
Meanwhile, the 1970s saw Taylor become a mainstay in the horror genre. He starred opposite horror legend Christopher Lee in Count Dracula (1970) and appeared in Night of the Blood Monster (1970), The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse (1972), Female Vampire (1973), and Voodoo Passion (1977).
How Jack Taylor Came to Share the Small Screen with Marilyn Monroe
George Brown Randall was born on October 21, 1926, in Oregon City, a suburb of Portland. A year after moving to San Francisco, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he appeared with Marilyn Monroe on a 1953 episode of CBS’s The Jack Benny Program, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
When Hollywood proved a tough nut to crack, Taylor drove south of the border. After quickly learning Spanish, he found work in films like The Ivory Tower (1958), Nostradamus y el Destructor de Monstruos (1962), and two features starring the luchador Neutrón.
In 1961, Taylor arrived in Madrid to perform in the Mexican musical comedy La Pelirroja (The Redhead). He decided to make Spain his home afterward. Two years later, he played one of Julius Caesar’s (Rex Harrison) slaves in Cleopatra (1963).
Taylor’s extensive film credits also include Jesús Franco’s X-rated Succubis (1968) and Eugenia (1970), Robert Siodmak’s Custer of the West (1967), and The Mummy’s Revenge (1975). Later, he appeared in films like Pieces (1982), Monte Hellman’s The Iguana (1988), Wax (2014), and Buffet Libre (2025).