John Elston Taylor (5 October 1914 – 15 September 1992) was a British

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

maker.John Taylor (XII)
/ref>

Early life

Born in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...

, London, on 5 October 1914, John Taylor had originally set his sights on a career in carpentry; however, shortly after finishing school he was offered a job by his sister's husband, documentary filmmaker

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fla ...

.screenonline: Taylor, John (1914-1992) Biography
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Career

Taylor started work as a film assistant at the

Empire Marketing Board The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote intra-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'. It was established as a substitute for tariff reform and protectionist legislation and ...

and in the years that followed he tried his hand at such jobs as camera operator, assistant director and production assistant. Along with working on Grierson's works, Taylor also had the fortune of working alongside some of his colleagues, such as

Basil Wright Basil Wright (12 June 1907, Sutton, Surrey – 14 October 1987, Frieth, Buckinghamshire, England) was a documentary filmmaker, film historian, film critic and teacher. Biography After leaving Sherborne School, a well known independent schoo ...

('' Song of Ceylon'', 1934),

Robert Flaherty Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, ''Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputatio ...

(''

Man of Aran ''Man of Aran'' is a 1934 Irish fictional documentary (ethnofiction) film shot, written and directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland. It portrays characters living in premodern conditions, ...

'', 1934) and

Alberto Cavalcanti Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and film producer, producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, ...

on several of his travel documentaries, such as ''Men of the Alps'' (1937). By the end of the 1930s, Taylor was directing films himself, including ''Smoke Menace'' (1937) and ''Londoners'' (1939). In the 1940s, Taylor began producing films which helped to expose and improve social issues: Margaret Thomson's ''Clean Milk'' (1943) helped improve the Scottish dairy industry; Alex Strasser's ''Your Children's Eyes'' (1945) showed how a child's squint could easily be corrected with a minor operation; ''

Daybreak in Udi ''Daybreak in Udi'' is a 1949 British documentary film directed by Terry Bishop about cultural changes in Udi, Enugu. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1950. Synopsis It is 1949, and colonial Nigeria is undergoing an ide ...

'' (d. Terry Bishop, 1949) followed the construction of a maternity hospital in a village in Eastern Nigeria. In 1952, Taylor and

Leon Clore Leon Clore (9 July 19189 February 1992) was a British film producer who was primarily involved in documentary and short films, as well as several motion pictures. Biography Leon Clore was born in Brighton on 9 July 1918. He was the nephew ...

set up Countryman Films, a company which made natural history documentaries. Their greatest achievement was probably ''

The Conquest of Everest ''The Conquest of Everest'' is a 1953 British Technicolor documentary film directed by George Lowe about various expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Cameraman Tom St ...

'' (d. Thomas Stobbart, 1953), a record of the successful British Everest expedition of 1953 accomplished by John Hunt,

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropy, philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became th ...

and

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; perhaps 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to reach the su ...

. Taylor was involved in a vast number of documentary films that became classics of the genre. He continued working up to the 1980s, producing quality documentaries on themes of social welfare and conservation.

Personal life

His wife was actress

Barbara Mullen Barbara Mullen (9 June 19149 March 1979) was an American born actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet McPherson, the housekeeper in ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook''. Although the role of Janet brought her fame in later years, she alre ...

, whom he married in 1941.

Death

Taylor died on 15 September 1992, in London, England.

Selected filmography

* '' The Song of Ceylon'' (1934) - Assistant director * ''

Island People An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

'' (1940) (Producer) * '' Letter from Aldershot'' (1940) (Director)

References

External links

*
British Entertainment History Project audio interview/john-taylor
1914 births 1992 deaths English documentary filmmakers English film producers People from Kentish Town 20th-century English businesspeople {{UK-filmmaker-stub