Elaine Taylor (actress)
Encyclopedia
Elaine Regina Taylor is an English
-born actress, best known as a leading lady in comedy films of the late 1960s and early 70s. She is married to the Canadian
actor Christopher Plummer
.
, Hertfordshire
. With the encouragement of her mother Frances, she took dancing lessons as a child and, as early as 1950, had her hair styled by the celebrated Raymond Bessone
(“Mr Teasy Weasy”) for the part of Will O’the Wisp
. Taylor later studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and joined the London Festival Ballet.
(1965), The Lance Percival
Show (1966), in which she sang as well as taking part in comedy sketches, The Old Campaigner (1967), which featured Terry-Thomas
as a womanising plastics salesman, and Mr. Rose
, starring William Mervyn
as a retired senior policeman (1968). Her appearance with Benny Hill
on 18 December 1965 included a gender-reversal parody of the 1956 film Baby Doll
that Hill repeated in 1974 with Diana Darvey
. Taylor is thought also to have been the announcer of a sketch in which Hill first performed his song "Those Days" in imitation of Sonny and Cher. She worked again with Hill in the third series of his BBC radio show Benny Hill Time, which started on the Light Programme on 27 February 1966 and featured, among others, Patricia Hayes
and Peter Vernon.
” (with, among others, Jacqueline Bisset
, Barbara Bouchet
and Alexandra Bastedo
) as Peg in Casino Royale
and played on both stage and screen with Tommy Steele
in Half a Sixpence
. In 1968 she took the modish role of Victoria Ponsonby in the comedy film Diamonds for Breakfast
- in Leslie Halliwell
's view, a "yawning comedy caper yarn embellished with sex and slapstick" - that featured also Marcello Mastroianni
, in his first English language film, and Rita Tushingham
. In the same year she played Shirley Blair, pregnant fiancée of Tom Taggart (Christian Roberts
), in Hammer
's adaptation of Bill MacIlwraith's play The Anniversary
, a "high camp" black comedy starring Bette Davis
and Sheila Hancock
. Tom Chantrell
’s famous poster for The Anniversary featured a front-on still of Taylor in brassiere
and panties below the slogan (attributed to Davies’ character) “I Spy with my little eye/Something beginning with SEX … and I mean to put a stop to it”.
(1965), while they were both filming Lock Up Your Daughters
in Kilkenny
, Ireland
. Plummer was almost fourteen years older, twice divorced, and had recently been partnering Richard Harris
' ex-wife Elizabeth
. Taylor's usually "mousy" hair, which was tinted red on location, is said to have appealed to Plummer. For her part, Taylor, who initially thought Plummer "a most conceited prig", agreed to meet him again in London
provided that he reduced his consumption of alcohol.
Taylor and Plummer were married in Montreal
, Quebec
on 2 October 1970. The best man was Plummer’s childhood friend Toby Johnson and the only other guest was Johnson's wife Alice, who was bridesmaid. The officiant, the Reverend Philip Moreton, had married Richard Burton
and Elizabeth Taylor
in 1964. The couple reached their ruby wedding anniversary in 2010.
Since the 1970s Plummer and Taylor have lived on a rambling English style estate at Weston, Connecticut
. Taylor has no children of her own, but her stepdaughter is the actress Amanda Plummer (born 1957), Plummer’s daughter from his first marriage to Tammy Grimes
. Over the years she appears to have moderated aspects of Plummer's behavior; a few months after their marriage, Alan Bennett
remarked wryly to Kenneth Tynan
that Plummer was "his own worst enemy - but only just", while Plummer's own autobiography almost forty years later was entitled In Spite of Myself. Plummer has described Taylor's positive influence on his life as follows:
's The Games
(about marathon
runners' preparations for the 1960 Rome Olympics) and All the Way Up
(both 1970), an episode of ITC
's Jason King
("A Royal Flush", 1972) and various televised dramas for the BBC
, including Trelawny of the Wells
(as Rose Trelawny, 1972) and Kingsley Amis
' Dr. Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery (as Emily, Lady Fairfax alongside Edward Fox
's Watson, 1974). In the mid 1980s she returned to television in America in The George McKenna Story (1986) and Sharing Richard (1988) and co-produced the 1987 film Love Potion. Taylor’s most recent appearance is thought to have been in the TV film Till Death Us Do Part (1992) (based on a true crime and unrelated to the long-running British TV comedy series of the same name).
and London before settling in Weston.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born actress, best known as a leading lady in comedy films of the late 1960s and early 70s. She is married to the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
actor Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
.
Early life
Elaine Taylor was born in Hemel HempsteadHemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
. With the encouragement of her mother Frances, she took dancing lessons as a child and, as early as 1950, had her hair styled by the celebrated Raymond Bessone
Raymond Bessone
Raymond Bessone , was a British hairdresser of the 1950s and 1960s.-Personal life:...
(“Mr Teasy Weasy”) for the part of Will O’the Wisp
Will-o'-the-wisp
A will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus , also called a "will-o'-wisp", "jack-o'-lantern" , "hinkypunk", "corpse candle", "ghost-light", "spook-light", "fairy light", "friar's lantern", "hobby lantern", "ghost orb", or simply "wisp", is a ghostly light or lights sometimes seen at night or twilight over...
. Taylor later studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and joined the London Festival Ballet.
TV and radio
In the mid 1960s Taylor appeared in episodes of various British television series, including The Benny Hill ShowThe Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill.There were various incarnations of the show between 1951 and 1991, and it aired in over 140 countries. The show is generally sketch-based with heavy use of slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre...
(1965), The Lance Percival
Lance Percival
Lance Percival is an English actor, comedian and after-dinner speaker.-Biography:Educated at Sherborne School, Percival first became well known for performing topical calypsos on television satire shows such as That Was The Week That Was. He appeared in the Carry On film, Carry On Cruising...
Show (1966), in which she sang as well as taking part in comedy sketches, The Old Campaigner (1967), which featured Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
as a womanising plastics salesman, and Mr. Rose
The Odd Man
The Odd Man was the first of a trilogy of police series produced in the 1960s by Granada TV, linked by the presence of pompous but increasingly genial police Chief Inspector Charles Rose...
, starring William Mervyn
William Mervyn
William Mervyn was an English actor best known for his portrayal of the Bishop in the clerical comedy All Gas and Gaiters.-Life and career:...
as a retired senior policeman (1968). Her appearance with Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
on 18 December 1965 included a gender-reversal parody of the 1956 film Baby Doll
Baby Doll
Baby Doll is a 1956 black comedy /drama film directed by Elia Kazan. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton...
that Hill repeated in 1974 with Diana Darvey
Diana Darvey
Diana Magdalene Roloff , known professionally as Diana Darvey, was a British actress, singer and dancer, who is most famous for her appearances on The Benny Hill Show.-Early life and career:...
. Taylor is thought also to have been the announcer of a sketch in which Hill first performed his song "Those Days" in imitation of Sonny and Cher. She worked again with Hill in the third series of his BBC radio show Benny Hill Time, which started on the Light Programme on 27 February 1966 and featured, among others, Patricia Hayes
Patricia Hayes
Patricia Lawlor Hayes, OBE was an English comedy actress.Hayes was born in Streatham, London. As a child Hayes attended Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth....
and Peter Vernon.
Early film career
In 1967 Taylor was a “Bond girlBond girl
A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...
” (with, among others, Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Bisset is an English actress. She has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award. She is known for her roles in the films Bullitt , Airport , The Deep , Class , and the TV series Nip/Tuck in 2006...
, Barbara Bouchet
Barbara Bouchet
Barbara Bouchet, is a German-American actress and entrepreneur.She has acted in more than 80 films and television episodes and founded a production company that has produced fitness videos and books as well as owning a fitness studio...
and Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo is a British actress, best-known for her role as secret agent Sharron Macready in the 1968 British espionage/science fiction adventure series The Champions...
) as Peg in Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
and played on both stage and screen with Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...
in Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence is a musical comedy written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele.It is based on H.G. Wells's novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul...
. In 1968 she took the modish role of Victoria Ponsonby in the comedy film Diamonds for Breakfast
Diamonds for Breakfast (film)
Diamonds for Breakfast is a 1968 British comedy film directed by Christopher Morahan.-Cast:* Marcello Mastroianni - Grand Duke Nicholas Wladimirovitch Goduno* Rita Tushingham - Bridget Rafferty* Elaine Taylor - Victoria* Margaret Blye - Honey...
- in Leslie Halliwell
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...
's view, a "yawning comedy caper yarn embellished with sex and slapstick" - that featured also Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
, in his first English language film, and Rita Tushingham
Rita Tushingham
-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
. In the same year she played Shirley Blair, pregnant fiancée of Tom Taggart (Christian Roberts
Christian Roberts (actor)
Christian Charles Roberts is an English actor. He was educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art....
), in Hammer
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
's adaptation of Bill MacIlwraith's play The Anniversary
The Anniversary (film)
The Anniversary is a 1968 British black comedy film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The screenplay by Jimmy Sangster is based on the 1966 play of the same title by Bill MacIlwraith.-Plot:...
, a "high camp" black comedy starring Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
and Sheila Hancock
Sheila Hancock
Sheila Cameron Hancock, CBE is an English actress and author.-Early life:Sheila Hancock was born in Blackgang on the Isle of Wight, the daughter of Ivy Louise and Enrico Cameron Hancock, who was a publican. Her sister Billie is seven years older...
. Tom Chantrell
Tom Chantrell
Tom Chantrell was a British illustrator and film poster artist.-Biography:The son of a trapeze artist, Chantrell was the youngest of nine children...
’s famous poster for The Anniversary featured a front-on still of Taylor in brassiere
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
and panties below the slogan (attributed to Davies’ character) “I Spy with my little eye/Something beginning with SEX … and I mean to put a stop to it”.
Marriage to Christopher Plummer
In 1969 Taylor met Christopher Plummer, best known at the time for his role as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
(1965), while they were both filming Lock Up Your Daughters
Lock Up Your Daughters
Lock Up Your Daughters is a musical based on an 18th century comedy, Rape Upon Rape, by Henry Fielding and adapted by Bernard Miles. The lyrics were written by Lionel Bart and the music by Laurie Johnson...
in Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Plummer was almost fourteen years older, twice divorced, and had recently been partnering Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
' ex-wife Elizabeth
Elizabeth Rees-Williams
Joan Elizabeth Rees-Williams, The Hon. Mrs. Aitken , is a Welsh socialite. She had two film roles around her early 40s.She was born in Cardiff, daughter of the politician David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore....
. Taylor's usually "mousy" hair, which was tinted red on location, is said to have appealed to Plummer. For her part, Taylor, who initially thought Plummer "a most conceited prig", agreed to meet him again in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
provided that he reduced his consumption of alcohol.
Taylor and Plummer were married in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
on 2 October 1970. The best man was Plummer’s childhood friend Toby Johnson and the only other guest was Johnson's wife Alice, who was bridesmaid. The officiant, the Reverend Philip Moreton, had married Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
in 1964. The couple reached their ruby wedding anniversary in 2010.
Since the 1970s Plummer and Taylor have lived on a rambling English style estate at Weston, Connecticut
Weston, Connecticut
Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The population was 10,179 at the 2010 census. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the town center. About 19% of the town's workforce commutes to New York City, about to the southwest.Like many towns in...
. Taylor has no children of her own, but her stepdaughter is the actress Amanda Plummer (born 1957), Plummer’s daughter from his first marriage to Tammy Grimes
Tammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
. Over the years she appears to have moderated aspects of Plummer's behavior; a few months after their marriage, Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
remarked wryly to Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
that Plummer was "his own worst enemy - but only just", while Plummer's own autobiography almost forty years later was entitled In Spite of Myself. Plummer has described Taylor's positive influence on his life as follows:
a combination of Edith CavellEdith CavellEdith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse and spy. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from all sides without distinction and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was arrested...
and Julia ChildJulia ChildJulia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
... a nurse and a cook. I feel guilty sometimes that I denied her a wonderful life, that she's wasted it on some terrible old ham. She could have married a duke or a prince! And she knows it. But being British, you see, she never complains. She's very well trained.
Career in 1970s and 80s
In the early 1970s Taylor appeared in two films, Michael WinnerMichael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
's The Games
The Games (film)
The Games is a 1970 film based on the Hugh Atkinson novel and adapted to the screen by Erich Segal. It was directed by Michael Winner.The plot concerned four marathon competitors at a fictitious Olympic Games in Rome, played by Michael Crawford, Ryan O'Neal, Charles Aznavour, and Athol Compton...
(about marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
runners' preparations for the 1960 Rome Olympics) and All the Way Up
All the Way Up
All the Way Up is a 1970 British comedy film directed by James MacTaggart based on Semi-Detached, a 1962 play by Midlands dramatist David Turner. It stars Richard Briers, Warren Mitchell, Pat Heywood, Kenneth Cranham, Adrienne Posta and Elaine Taylor....
(both 1970), an episode of ITC
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade.-History:...
's Jason King
Jason King (TV series)
Jason King was a British television series produced from 1971 to 1972. Each episode was one hour in duration , and the series had a run of one season of 26 episodes. As well as its native UK, the series was also screened in countries as far afield as Australia, Norway, Argentina and Peru...
("A Royal Flush", 1972) and various televised dramas for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, including Trelawny of the Wells
Trelawny of the 'Wells'
Trelawny of the 'Wells' is an 1898 comic play by Arthur Wing Pinero. It tells the story of a theatre star who attempts to give up the stage for love, but is unable to fit into conventional society.-Synopsis:...
(as Rose Trelawny, 1972) and Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
' Dr. Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery (as Emily, Lady Fairfax alongside Edward Fox
Edward Fox (actor)
Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
's Watson, 1974). In the mid 1980s she returned to television in America in The George McKenna Story (1986) and Sharing Richard (1988) and co-produced the 1987 film Love Potion. Taylor’s most recent appearance is thought to have been in the TV film Till Death Us Do Part (1992) (based on a true crime and unrelated to the long-running British TV comedy series of the same name).
Other interests
Taylor is a gourmet French cook and she and Plummer renovated or designed houses in West Hollywood, GrasseGrasse
-See also:*Route Napoléon*Ancient Diocese of Grasse*Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department-External links:*...
and London before settling in Weston.
External links
- IMDb filmography
- Elaine Taylor with Marcello Mastroianni in Diamonds for Breakfast (1968)
- Poster for The Anniversary (Tom Chantrell, 1968)
- Elaine Taylor (front right) in The Anniversary.
- Elaine Taylor (with Christian Roberts) in The Anniversary
- Elaine Taylor and Christopher Plummer at Academy Awards, 2010
