Rod Taylor, the suave Australian actor whose brawny good looks made him a leading man for films ranging from thrillers to Westerns, has died. The actor’s daughter, Felicia Taylor, tells the Los Angeles Times he died Wednesday in Los Angeles. Taylor’s breakthrough came in 1960 with “The Time Machine,” George Pal’s special effects marvel in which Taylor’s dogged British inventor transports himself into a future. His other films included Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and The Train Robbers with John Wayne. Taylor later voiced Pongo in 101 Dalmatians and played Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
