Editing Rod Taylor (section)

==Early life==
Taylor was born on 11 January 1930<ref>Birth Announcements. ''Sydney Morning Herald''. 18 January 1930. page 16.</ref> in [[Lidcombe, New South Wales|Lidcombe]], a suburb of Sydney, the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and Mona Taylor (née Thompson), a writer of more than a hundred short stories and children's books. His middle name comes from his great-great-granduncle, Captain [[Charles Sturt]], a British explorer of the Australian [[outback]] in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite news| date=2015-01-09| title=Rod Taylor obituary| url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/09/rod-taylor| first=Ronald| last=Bergan| access-date=2023-10-29| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| location=[[London]]| language=en}}</ref>

Taylor attended [[Parramatta High School]] and later studied at the [[UNSW Art & Design|East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College]] and took art classes. His mother wanted him to be an artist, and pressured him into taking the art classes. While at ''the tech'' he met young potter [[David Boyd (artist)|David Boyd]] and with their respective companions began a pottery concern.<ref>[[The Sun-Herald|The Sunday Herald]], August 14 1949. Four Young Artists have Success with Ceramics.(Official Rod Taylor site)[http://www.rodtaylorsite.com/media/art_ceramics.pdf]</ref> For a time he worked as a commercial artist, but he decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of ''Richard III''.<ref>{{cite book| first=Stephen| last=Vagg| title=Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood| publisher=Bear Manor Media| year=2010| isbn=978-1-5939-3511-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Rod Taylor| url=http://nyx.uky.edu/dips/xt780g3gxz2r/data/0725.pdf| newspaper=[[The Mountain Eagle (newspaper)|The Mountain Eagle]]| location=[[Whitesburg, Kentucky]]| date=9 September 1971| page=5| access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> He had caught [[Acting|the bug]].