| Noah George Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 4 1969 London, England |
Noah George Taylor (born September 4, 1969) is a London-born Australian actor.
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Early life
Born in London, England, the elder of two boys, Taylor's Australian parents returned to Australia when he was 5, and he grew up in Clifton Hill and St Kilda, Victoria, suburbs of Melbourne. His parents, Paul and Maggie Taylor, both journalists, divorced when he was 14. Taylor left both school and home at 16 with no intention of becoming an actor; a friend, however, suggested that he try the theater as 'something to do at the weekends', and Taylor found the experience so enjoyable that he opted to make it his career. After performing in plays at St Martin's Youth Theater in South Yarra for a year, he gained the attention of director John Duigan, who cast him in the 1987 film The Year My Voice Broke, the first part of a planned trilogy. Taylor also appeared in its sequel, 1991's Flirting; the third installment has not yet been filmed.
Works
Taylor first gained international attention playing the tormented young pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film Shine.
Taylor's résumé includes action movies (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), comedies (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) and historical dramas (Max, in which he played the young Adolf Hitler.) Taylor once commented in an interview that he was sick of acting out the nostalgic reminiscences of other people. He has done this in a number of films including The Nostradamus Kid which was based, apparently, on the memories of the Australian author Bob Ellis, and Almost Famous, based on the memories of the film's writer and director, Cameron Crowe. He appears and is credited at the end of Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow video, a song by fellow Aussie Nick Cave and his band The Bad Seeds.
Personal life
When not acting, Taylor draws and paints, and is also an accomplished musician, playing viola and French horn as a young teenager, and guitar from the age of 16. He plays the piano by ear. He has sung and played guitar in several of his own bands, including Honky Tonk Angels, Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey, and The Thirteens, a country-western rock band described by Taylor as, "three manic depressives playing sad angst and western music for sad people." He names Johnny Cash and Lou Reed as two of the artists he admires.
Taylor currently lives in Kilburn, London.
Partial filmography
- Lecture 21 (2008; aka Lesson 21, Lezione 21, in production)
- The New World (2005)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Mr Bucket
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) Vladimir Wolodarsky
- Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) Bryce Turing
- He Died With A Felafel In His Hand (2002)
- Max (2002) Adolf Hitler
- Vanilla Sky (2002) Edmund Ventura
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) Bryce Turing
- Almost Famous (2000) Dick Roswell
- Simon Magus (1999) Simon
- Shine (1996) David Helfgott
- The Nostradamus Kid (1992)
- Flirting (1991; sequel to The Year My Voice Broke)
- "The Promised Land" episode of TV's Inspector Morse (1991)
- Bangkok Hilton (1989)
- The Year My Voice Broke (1987)
