Kent Taylor was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Born Louis William Weiss in Nashua, Iowa

Nashua, Iowa

Nashua is a city in Chickasaw and Floyd counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 1,663 an increase of 45, or 2.8%, from 1,618 reported at the 2000 census...

, Taylor appeared in more than 110 films, the bulk of them B-movie

B-movie

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....

s in the 1930s and 1940s, although he also had roles in more prestigious studio releases, including I'm No Angel

I'm No Angel

I'm No Angel is Mae West's third motion picture. West received sole story and screenplay credit. A young Cary Grant plays her leading man for the second time. Being Pre-Code, this was one of the few Mae West movies that was not subjected to heavy censorship...

(1933), Death Takes a Holiday

Death Takes a Holiday

Death Takes a Holiday is a 1934 romantic drama starring Fredric March, Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing, based on the Italian play La Morte in Vacanze by Alberto Casella.-Synopsis:...

(1934), Payment on Demand

Payment on Demand

Payment on Demand is a 1951 drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution.-Plot synopsis:...

(1951), and Track the Man Down

Track the Man Down

Track the Man Down is a 1955 British drama film written by Paul Erickson and directed by R.G. Springsteen.The melodramatic crime caper centers on a robbery at a greyhound racetrack that results in the unintentional murder of a guard...

(1955).

In the 1950s, with his movie career on the decline and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 production on the upswing, he played the title role in 58 episodes of the detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 series Boston Blackie

Boston Blackie

Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle . Originally a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's novels, he became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."-Literature:Jack...

and the lead in 39 episodes of ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's The Rough Riders

The Rough Riders (TV series)

The Rough Riders is an American Western television series set in the West after the American Civil War. It aired on ABC for the 1958-1959 television season...

(1958–1959). Other small screen credits include My Little Margie

My Little Margie

My Little Margie is an American situation comedy that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California at Hal Roach Studios by Hal Roach, Jr. and Roland D...

, Tales of Wells Fargo

Tales of Wells Fargo

Tales of Wells Fargo is an American Western television series that ran from March 18, 1957 to June 2, 1962 on NBC. Produced by Revue Productions, the series aired in a half-hour format until its final season when it expanded to an hour.-Synopsis:...

, Zorro, Bat Masterson

Bat Masterson (TV series)

Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black and white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961...

, Peter Gunn

Peter Gunn

Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...

, and Hawaiian Eye

Hawaiian Eye

Hawaiian Eye is an American television series that ran from October 1959 to September 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company television network.-Premise:...

. The last years of his career were spent in slasher and horror films with titles like Satan's Sadists

Satan's Sadists

Satan's Sadists is a 1969 biker film directed by Al Adamson and starring Russ Tamblyn.-Plot:...

, Blood of Ghastly Horror

Blood of Ghastly Horror

Blood of Ghastly Horror is a 1972 horror film directed by Al Adamson and starring John Carradine. Much of the footage in the film was previously released in 1965 as part of a crime thriller feature entitled Psycho A-Go-Go...

, I Spit on Your Corpse

I Spit on Your Corpse

I Spit on Your Corpse, also known as Fatal Pursuit and Girls for Rent, is a 1974 crime film directed by cult director Al Adamson and distributed by Troma Entertainment.-Plot:...

, and Hell's Bloody Devils.

Along with Clark Gable

Clark Gable

William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

, Kent Taylor served as the inspiration behind the name of Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

's alter-ego - Clark Kent

Clark Kent

Clark Kent is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Appearing regularly in stories published by DC Comics, he debuted in Action Comics #1 and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman....

.

Taylor is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery

Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery

The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood....

 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

External links