Robert Taylor (Australian actor)

Taylor was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia.[1] His parents separated when he was nine, and he moved to a mining town in Western Australia to live with his aunt and uncle.[1][2][3]

He attended university three times.[1][2][4]He worked as a miner when he was a teenager,[1][3] and he later had jobs including lifeguard and bouncer.

At age 21, Taylor went to work on an oil rig in the Indian Ocean.[1][2][3] His ship collided with another and sank off the west coast of Australia, but he and two crew mates escaped on a lifeboat.[4] Taylor suffered a broken arm and ribs.[4]

While recovering in the hospital, he saw an advertisement for auditions for drama school in Perth, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA),[4] which he joined after a successful audition at the age of 24.[1][2][3]

Taylor started acting professionally in 1988 after graduating from WAAPA. His first major role was in 1989 as Nicholas Walsh in the Australian television soap Home and Away.[5] His first lead role came in 1993 when he was cast as David Griffin in the Australian miniseries The Feds.[6][7] He then appeared in various guest roles and on TV movies in Australia, such as Blue Heelers and Stingers, often being cast as a police officer.

Taylor's big break in Hollywood came when he was cast as one of the Agents in the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix.[8] In 2000, he appeared in the action thriller Vertical Limit.[9] His other film credits include The Hard Word (2002), Storm Warning (2007), Rogue (2007), and Coffin Rock (2009).[9]

In 2000, Taylor played Father Vincent Sheehan in Ballykissangel, a British television drama set in Ireland.[10] His television credits after that include MDA (2002), Satisfaction (2010), Cops L.A.C. (2010) and Killing Time (2011).[9][11] In 2011, Taylor was cast for the lead role of Walt Longmire in A&E's crime drama series Longmire.[12] The series moved to Netflix after the third season. Its sixth and final season was released in 2017.[13][14]

In 2024, as his upcoming film Kid Snow under post-production, Taylor was cast as Jackson Gibbs in NCIS Origins[15]

Taylor is married to producer Ayisha Davies; they have a daughter, Scarlet.[1][4]

Taylor co-founded Veg Out, a farmer's market and community gardens in St Kilda, Victoria.[16]

• Robert Taylor at IMDb
• Robert Taylor at TV Guide