Mostly drawn from E.A. Kral. Accomplishments and Recognition of Robert Taylor (1911-1969). Gage County Historical Society, Beatrice Nebraska, 2009. Mr. Kral is an historian who has done extensive research on Mr. Taylor’s life and work.  His work, Robert Taylor’s Nebraska Years is available online as a PDF file.

1. 1929 -Placed first in state oratorical contest held at Nebraska Wesleyan College in Lincoln as a senior at Beatrice High School.
2. 1929 -Graduated from Beatrice High School in 1929, was one of three gold medal finalists and one of ten members of the National Honor Society.
3. 1934 -Holds Hollywood record for lowest initial contract salary ($35 a week).
4. 1934 -1958 -Holds Hollywood record for longest contract with one studio (MGM).
5. 1935-1954 -Seven Robert Taylor movies were in the 10 ten grossing films of their year.
6. 1935-1964 -Robert Taylor movies received 34 Oscar nominations and 4 Oscars.
7. 1936 -Placed first in a nationwide poll of girls from ages 16-20 according to Ladies Home Journal, Sept.

8. 1936 -”1936 will go on record as the year of Edward VIII, the Spanish War and Robert Taylor.” London Observer.
9. 1936 -Ranked fourth in Box Office Appeal.
10. 1937 -Ranked third in Box Office Appeal.
11. 1937 -Named in January Time magazine as “cinema’s most passionately admired matinee idol since the late Rudolph Valentino.”
12. 1937 -Placed second to Clark Gable in 1937 in “King of Hollywood” poll.
13. 1938 -Ranked sixth in Box Office Appeal.
14. 1938 -Norman Rockwell painting of girls admiring pictures of Taylor done for the Saturday Evening Post cover.

15. 1938 -First American actor to appear in a film made in England. (A Yank at Oxford.)
16. 1939 -Ranked 8th as the biggest box office star of the 1930s, according to the trade journal Motion Picture Herald.
17. 1940 -earned his pilot’s license.
18. 1941 -Had footprints, hand prints and autograph placed in cement in forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood in June, with then wife Barbara Stanwyck.
19. 1943-1945 -Served in the United States Navy as a flight instructor, earning the rank of Lieutenant and narrated 17 training films.
20. 1944 -Was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American ideals, a conservative, anti-communist organization.
21. 1947 -Testified in October 1947 in Washington DC before the House un-American Activities Committee regarding Communist influence in Hollywood.

22. 1948 -Designated Admiral in the mythical Nebraska Navy.
23. 1951 -Played lead role in Quo Vadis? the most expensive movie ever made up until then. ($7 million)
24. 1951-1953 -Robert Taylor movies received 4 Golden Globe nominations and 2 Golden Globes.
25. 1952 -First Hollywood contract star to appear on television; the Ed Sullivan Show to promote Above and Beyond.
26. 1953 -Received citation of appreciation from the Omaha, Neb. Based Strategic Air Command.
27. 1954 -First American actor to appear in a film made in Egypt; Valley of the Kings.
28. 1954 -Recipient of the Henrietta Award as the world’s male film favorite at the Golden Globes. (tied with Alan Ladd).

29. 1954 -Received Outdoorsman of the Year Award for 1954 from Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven CT.65t
30. 1960 -Was one of the original 1558 performers to have a star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Robert Taylor’s star is at 1500 Vine Street.
31. 1963 -Awarded honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Doane College in Crete, Neb.
32. 1963 -Awarded Nebraskaland stamps by Information and Tourism Division of Nebraska Games and Parks Commission for his contributions to the pioneer and cowboy heritage of Nebraska.
33. 1966 -Asked by the California Republican Party to consider running for governor. Mr. Taylor declined and his close friend Ronald Reagan ran.
34. 1969 -Funeral eulogy delivered by Ronald Reagan in June 1969, when he was Governor of California. Reagan became President in 1981.
35. 1970 -Posthumously inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers by the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, OK.

36. 1973 -Publication of Robert Taylor: the Man with the Perfect Face. By Jane Ellen Wayne. Warner, 1973, St. Martin’s Press, 1987.
37. 1975 -Publication of The Films of Robert Taylor by Lawrence J. Quirk. Citadel Press.
38. 1983 -Seven Robert Taylor movies included in Magill’s American Film Guide of the 1,000 best movies.
39. 1988 -The Lion’s building on Lorimar Telepictures lot (formerly MGM lot) renamed for Robert Taylor, “honoring what many consider to be one of the most professional, consummate actors of our time.” The building has since been razed.
40. 1991 -The Comoro Islands office the coast of Africa issued a stamp bearing Taylor’s image as he appeared in Bataan.
41. 1994 -Robert Taylor Memorial Highway, a section of US 136 in Nebraska, designated by the state Highway Commission.
42. 1995 -Robert Taylor Memorial Scholarship initiated by Doane College, Crete, Neb.

43. 1996 -Honored with a U.S. Postal Service cachet and cancellation in Beatrice, Neb.
44. 2001 and 2010 -Turner Classic movies made him Star of the Month in Sept. 2001 and April 2010.
45. 2002 -Camille (1936) was selected as the 33rd best romance film by the American Film Institute.
46. 2003 -Publication of But I Have Promises to Keep: my life before, with and after Robert Taylor by Ursula Thiess, Creative Arts Book Company.
47. 2007 -First recipient of Robert Taylor Scholarship granted.
48. 2008 -Publication of Reluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood and Communism by Linda J. Alexander. North Carolina, Tease Publishing.
49. 2010 -Publication of Robert Taylor: a Biography by Charles Tranberg. Bear Manor Publishing.
50. 2010 -Plaque honoring him added to the Kanab Utah, Little Hollywood Walk of Fame.