Johnny Eager, 1941, is playing on Turner Classic Movies on Friday, August 20 at 8 p.m. This is one of Mr. Taylor’s best. Don’t miss it.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin, Robert Sterling, Patricia Dane, Glenda Farrell, Barry Nelson. Slick MGM melodrama with convoluted plot about sociology student (and daughter of D.A. Arnold) Turner falling in love with unscrupulous racketeer Taylor. Heflin won Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Taylor’s alcoholic friend.(TCM)
Having only been familiar with Robert Taylor’s body of forgettable [humpf!] work from the thirties (The Broadway Melodies, Camille, etc), seeing him in the title role of Johnny Eager was stunning. Tom Hanks’s 180 degree turn from silly comedies to Philadelphia might be a modern day equivalent. Taylor steps into a role that would seem tailor made for Bogart, Cagney or Robinson, and does an arguably better job than any of them could have. Yes, Lana Turner is present, and yes, Van Heflin won a supporting Oscar, but Taylor owns this film.
Johnny Eager is one of the best films of the 40s, as well as one of the all time greats. (Taken from a review by Justin Behnke on the IMDB).
Some behind the scenes photos:
Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Director Mervyn LeRoy
Robert Taylor and Mervyn LeRoy
Robert Taylor, Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Robert Sterling
The Gage County Museum in Beatrice, Nebraska is holding a celebration to celebrate the 110th Anniversary of Robert Taylor’s birth on August 20-22. Guests will include Mr. Taylor’s biographers Linda Alexander and Charles Tranberg. Other guests, including Terry Taylor, Mr. Taylor’s son, will be appearing virtually. There will be film showings. Contact the Museum via their website for more information.
Robert Taylor was born in 1911. He died from lung cancer in 1969. In his short life he made 77 films, starred in a two TV shows, Robert Taylor’s Detective and Death Valley Days, served in World War II, married twice (Barbara Stanwyck and Ursula Thiess) and fathered two children. If he had lived, I believe he would have eventually moved into character parts. He was embarrassed by being paired romantically with women young enough to be his daughter. Mr. Taylor’s peers thought highly of him:
Elizabeth Taylor, actress
“He is just as wonderful as everyone in Hollywood told me he was. I have to admit I did get nervous when he took me in his arms and made love to me, but the director said I shouldn’t be upset.”(Wayne, p. 142)
Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor in Ivanhoe, 1952
Richard Thorpe, director.
“He’s a rarity. A lot of big stars are really heels off screen and the public doesn’t know it at first. It takes them awhile to discover it. But Bob is really a nice guy and it comes through on screen. Also, he’s a rugged, handsome man and they’re pretty few and far between these days.” (Wayne, p. 206)
Robert Taylor, Lewis Stone, Richard Thorpe, Director, All the Brothers Were Valiant, 1953
William Wellman, director
“I was crazy about Bob Taylor…..I think Bob Taylor’s probably one of the finest men I’ve known in my whole life. And he was an actor. And he was probably the handsomest one of them all. He did everything I asked him to. He was wonderful.” (William A. Wellman by Frank Thompson.)
William Wellman and Robert Taylor, 1951
Edwin Knopf, producer.
“Those character traits (normalcy and decency) which are so inbred communicate themselves to the audience. Audiences sense the fine qualities and like them. In addition, he’s a fine artist, a no-nonsense guy who studies his script more thoroughly than any actor I know.” (Wayne, p. 206)
Edwin Knopf, Producer of Tip on a Dead Jockey
Robert Taylor and Dorothy Malone in Tip on a Dead Jockey, 1957
Robert Loggia, actor.
“Bob was an extremely talented artist. He was also the ultimate gentleman and a true professional who followed the rules of the day—arrive on time, know your lines and be willing to do what had to be done to make the picture successful. Here was a guy who could convincingly play the romantic lead opposite Garbo in a picture like Camille and be just as convincing playing a cowboy. Now that’s range, but the critics really never gave him his due.” (Tranberg)
Robert Loggia, Robert Ivers, Robert Taylor in Cattle King, 1963
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Harry Lauter, actor.
“Robert Taylor was a very dear friend of mine, one of the nicest men in the business. I did one of his last pictures (Return of the Gunfighter). He was very ill, and I knew it. They came in on a close-up on me, and they say, ‘We’ll get Mr. Taylor.’ He was lying down in his bungalow, and I said, ‘No, don’t bother him. Let the script girl read the lines.’ I usually liked the actors there—but in this case, and gosh, I looked up and there he was. I said, ‘Bob, you don’t have to.’ He said, ‘No, you deserve the courtesy as an actor for me to be here and read the lines, just as well off camera as on.’ That’s one of the things you don’t get anymore from people. I’ll never forget that.” (Tranberg)
Harry Lauter, who was in Return of the Gunfighter
Robert Taylor in Return of the Gunfighter, 1966
For many more quotes, see “What His Peers Said” on this blog.
The three pictures were Undercurrent, High Wall and The Bribe.High Wall is exceptional, with Mr. Taylor giving one of his best performances. Undercurrent, according to Vincente Minelli is a picture that Mr. Taylor ran away with, outshining co-stars Katharine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum. The Bribe is a routine adventure story, saved by the heat generated by Ava Gardner and Mr. Taylor. They were at that time lovers both on and off screen.
I don’t remember where I got this but if anybody wants a credit, let me know.
All I know about this article is the date. The captions are original.
ROBERT TAYLOR is one star who’ll never have an ulcer . . He’s been plagued by a pretty boy tag (which he simply lived down in no uncertain style) Manhandled by mobs of women (who’ve torn his clothes and once gave him a beaut of a shiner) … Attacked by Moscow for his courageous testimony on his role in Song of Russia (which gives this strong anti-Communist great satisfaction.)
Through these, and all other clashes, even-tempered Mr. Taylor is always calm. Like his idol, Clark Gable, he’s very much a man’s man, is more at home in a duck blind than a drawing room . . . Hunting trips are his delight, with fishing ranking a close second . . . And no plushy visits to luxurious resorts are these, but rugged treks into the wilderness Pals on these occasions are sports-loving non-professionals.
Bob loves horses and dogs. Raised prize pointers until too many location trips abroad interfered . . . Flying is almost as important as acting in his life. He thinks nothing of piloting his twin-engine Beechcraft from distant location points to Hollywood for a dinner date, and back again. He’s made the cross-country flight in eleven hours. Flies as time-saver on business trips to New York, sometimes taking his close friend, Ralph Couser, a former Navy buddy, along as copilot.
In the food line, his tastes are strictly man-style, too. Thick, juicy steaks are tops, and you can keep the fancy casseroles. He’s a coffee fiend, always has a pot perking in his dressing room . , . On location trip to England, he took a portable electric burner for the purpose, blew the fuses of an entire floor of his hotel when he plugged it in! Clothes he’s not fussy about, long as they’re comfortable.
He’s neither terribly impressed, nor indifferent, to his amazingly indestructible position as a top star . . Keenly interested in the technical aspects of his work, as any successful man would be, he masters each new role with the easy efficiency of long experience. And that’s that.
Those close to him feel there’s a certain emptiness, a lack of zest for living, in Bob since the breakup of his 11-year marriage to Barbara Stanwyck . . . Of many lovelies he’s been linked with, none has a real hold on Mr. Taylor’s heart . Smitten with Ursula Thiess, he probably recognized the attachment as only the result of mutual loneliness. [wrrong] Dates with Barbara afterward led to speculation that they might remarry, and those who thought his departure for Egypt to make Valley of the Kings finished the renewed flame could be wrong . .. Barbara’s corresponding with Bob.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder … And one of his greatest talents is the ability to write charming, interesting—and persuasive—letters!
Here’s a very short and odd article–with two very nice photos.
FLYING HIGH AS AN AIRPLANE PILOT—AND CAREER-WISE—MR. TAYLOR IS LEARNING THERE’S NO FUN IN IT WHEN YOU’RE TRAVELING ALONE
MOVIE LIFE 31 (early Fifties)
“You’ve got any more like Taylor in Hollywood, send them on, we’ll take take them.”
“Mistah Taylor? Yas suh, he’s plenty okay in mah books.
“The way we figure, he’s just another guy.”
There you have a lieutenant, a janitor and a student speaking—and still Bob Taylor’s scared. Scared that now he’s got his wings it’ll be the same story all over again. The old friends thinking he’s too big shot to stay on the old footing and never believing he’s aching to stay there. Bob’s always had to be twice as terrific to get away with half the stuff the rest of us pull. Like having to put on the growl act after he’d made a splash in flickers to make the old college gang understand that Tony’s Joint was still okay for a midnight beer. And displaying a chip big like a boulder out Hollywood way to wipe off the “pretty boy” tag that had the town smirking. And now, practically disowning the bright lights in the hope that the pals he’s made in the service won’t disown him as soon as the “Lieut. j. g.” handle dissolves into plain “actor.” In the beginning he was sore, resented the jabber about strength of his fame, sorer still that no one had troubled to check that he’d enlisted and had been accepted (and minus pre-flight, too) because he was a college grad with enough civilian flying hours. Well, he’s still in there punching for you and me.
Robert Taylor Actor 