Roderick Taylor, also known as Rod Taylor or Roderick Falconer, is an American poet, recording artist, screenwriter, television producer and television director. Taylor is the father of screenwriter and television/film producer Bruce A. Taylor, with whom he often collaborates.

Career

Taylor holds an MA from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

where he was a

Stegner Fellowship The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), a historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty m ...

winner in poetry and where he later taught creative writing. Taylor is also a Woodrow Wilson fellowship winner and winner of the ( American Academy of Poets Prize) for his first collection, ''Florida East Coast Champion'' (1972). While still at Stanford, Taylor moonlighted as a singer in a rock band and started writing songs. He signed with

Geffen Records Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...

and began a musical career that produced seven albums, principally under the name Roderick Falconer. Later, he wrote music for film and television, including the TV series ''

Witchblade ''Witchblade'' is an American comic book Ongoing series, series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint (trade name), imprint of Image Comics, which ran from November 1995 to October 2015. The series was created by Top Cow founder and owne ...

''. Taylor then began write story ideas and screenplays for television and film, often with his son Bruce, leading to the scripts for theatrical movies such as '' The Star Chamber'' and scripts for pilots like '' Annihilator'' and the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

-themed movies '' Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues'' and ''Wild Horses''. In 1985 he developed the science fiction series ''

Otherworld In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his desc ...

'', for which he served as narrator and also executive produced; the series failed to even run a full season. In 1998, he produced and directed his own scripted project, the 1998 television movie '' Inferno''. He wrote the scripts for '' American Outlaws'' (2001) '' The Brave One'' (2007). In 2009, Taylor and son Bruce completed work on '' Open Graves'', a contemporary horror film. He won a Golden Spur Award from the WWA for ''Wild Horses'', and two Crystal Reel "Best Director" Awards for the Viacom series '' Super Force''. In 1995 he was awarded the Genesis Award from the Ark Trust Foundation for his work as executive producer and writer of the MTV '' Dead at 21''. In 2001 Rod and Bruce received a Prism Award Commendation for their work as writers / executive producers on the VH 1 '' At Any Cost'', for which he also wrote and produced the songs. When not writing for television and film Roderick teaches creative writing at

Selected filmography

Discography

Albums

* ''Rod Taylor'' (Asylum, 1973) * ''New Nation'' (United Artists, 1976) * ''Victory in Rock City'' (United Artists, 1977) * ''Straight'' (Metronome Musik ermany 1980) * ''Rules of Attraction'' (MCA, 1984)

Poetry

* ''Florida East Coast Champion'' Photo by

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American Portrait photography, portrait photographer best known for her portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid ...

* ''the sex life of fire''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Roderick American film producers American male singer-songwriters American male poets Stanford University alumni American television directors American television producers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)