Leigh Taylor-Young Biography

Leigh Taylor-Young (born January 25, 1945) is an American actress who has appeared on stage, screen, and television.

Early life

Leigh Taylor-Young was born on January 25, 1945, in Washington, D.C. Her last name is an amalgamation of the last names of her father, a diplomat, and her stepfather, a successful Detroit executive. Her younger siblings are actress and sculptor Dey Young and writer/director Lance Young. Taylor-Young was raised in Oakland County, Michigan, and graduated from Groves High School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, in 1963. Before attending Northwestern University as an economics major, she spent a summer shifting scenery and sweeping up at a Detroit little theater. However, she left before graduating to pursue a full-time acting career, making her professional debut on Broadway in Three Bags Full. About dropping out of college, the actress explained:

"I left there because I lost the most wonderful teacher. I didn't want to go back when she left. My parents naturally were upset, and I spent four months at home thinking what to do, then went to New York."

Career

1960s

Taylor-Young got her first big break in 1966, when she was cast as Rachel Welles in the prime time soap opera Peyton Place. Her character was written in the show as a replacement for the character of Allison MacKenzie, previously played by Mia Farrow. The show's producer, Everett Chambers, cast her because of her "great warmth and sweet angelic qualities not unlike Mia". At the time she received the role, Taylor-Young had been in California for only a few days. She initially went there in April 1966 to recuperate from an attack of pneumonia. She impressed the head producer of Peyton Place, Paul Monash, with a performance from The Glass Menagerie and was immediately signed a seven-year television and multiple motion picture contract. Shortly after, she told the press: "I'd have preferred to stay in New York to establish myself as an actress before coming to Hollywood."

It was on this series that she met Ryan O'Neal, whom she later married. Taylor-Young had difficulty working on the show, explaining in an April 1967 interview:

"When I got my first check for [Three Bags Full], I thought to myself, 'isn't this wonderful "? being paid to have fun.' But after working in 70 chapters of Peyton Place out here in Hollywood, I'm glad to get my paycheck. I can now understand why good actors complain about going stale in television. It's difficult to give a character depth when there's a man with a stop watch standing beside you complaining that the company is spending $3,000 a minute. Yes, I've learned that when you act in a TV series it becomes your whole life."

Despite the huge amount of publicity she received while working on Peyton Place, Taylor-Young left the soap opera in 1967 due to her pregnancy. Following this, she pursued a career in films, landing a lucrative seven-year contract with a major studio. Her first film role came opposite Peter Sellers in the 1968 comedy, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. The film was commercially successful, and she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Most Promising Female Newcomer. This was followed by her appearance with husband Ryan O'Neal in The Big Bounce in 1969.

1970s

For the next several years, her pictures tended to be high budget films, such as The Adventurers and The Horsemen. She is perhaps best known for her performance as Shirl, the "furniture" girl, in the 1973 science fiction classic Soylent Green. For almost ten years after her appearance in Soylent Green, however, her career went into an extended hiatus as she concentrated on raising her son Patrick O'Neal.

1980s

The 1980s saw Leigh Taylor-Young return to both film and television, where her looks and voice often led to casting in roles of an aristocratic bent. In 1981, she appeared in the high tech Michael Crichton production Looker. In 1985, she was cast as Virginia Howell in Jagged Edge, and appeared in the romantic comedy film Secret Admirer.

In addition to her film work, Taylor-Young guest-starred on such television series as McCloud, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Hotel and Spenser: For Hire. She returned to her soap opera roots in 1983, appearing in the short-lived primetime series The Hamptons. From 1987 to 1989, she played Kimberly Cryder, a recurring character on Dallas, her first role in a major prime time soap since Peyton Place.

Despite being best known for her film and television work, she has stated a preference for live theatre where her career began. A favorite of Samuel Beckett, she starred opposite Donald Davis in the Irish playwright's one act play Catastrophe (included in a trilogy of one-act plays billed as The Beckett Plays) at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1984. Catastrophe with Taylor-Young also toured Los Angeles, New York City, and London.

1990s and 2000s

Taylor-Young's recent film credits have included minor roles in Honeymoon Academy (1990), Bliss (1997), and Slackers (2002), as well as direct-to-video films Addams Family Reunion (1998) and Klepto (2003).

Perhaps her best-known television work was on the CBS series Picket Fences, in which she played mercurial mayor Rachel Harris from 1993 through 1995. She won an Emmy Award for the role in 1994, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, as well as a Golden Globe nomination the following year. From 2004 through 2007, she played Katherine Barrett Crane on the soap opera Passions.

In addition to her roles on Picket Fences and Passions, Taylor-Young has also appeared on series such as The Young Riders, Murder, She Wrote, Sunset Beach, Malibu Shores, 7th Heaven and Life. She also had recurring roles on Beverly Hills, 90210, The Pretender, and UPN's The Sentinel.

Taylor-Young has also appeared in a handful of television films, including Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987), Who Gets the Friends?, and Stranger in My Home (1997).

Personal life

Leigh Taylor-Young married Ryan O'Neal, her Peyton Place co-star, in 1967. Their wedding was a spontaneous one: While in Hawaii for a promotion for Peyton Place, an ABC manager offered the couple to marry at his home. The marriage produced a son, Patrick O'Neal, but Leigh and O'Neal divorced in 1973.

Taylor-Young is an ordained minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, which was co-founded by her partner, John Morton. Leigh and John Morton married on January 1, 2013.

Filmography

• I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) as Nancy
• The Big Bounce (1969) as Nancy Barker
• Under the Yum Yum Tree (1969) as Jennifer
• The Adventurers (1969) as Amparo Rojo
• The Games (1970) as College Co-ed
• The Buttercup Chain (1970) as Manny
• The Horsemen (1971) as Zareh
• The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) as Angela
• Soylent Green (1973) as Shirl
• Marathon (1980) as Barrie
• Can't Stop the Music (1980) as Claudia Walters
• Looker (1981) as Jennifer Long
• The Devlin Connection III (1982) as Lauren
• Secret Admirer (1985) as Elizabeth Fimple
• Jagged Edge (1985) as Virginia Howell
• Who Gets the Friends? (1988) as Aggie Harden
• Accidents (1989) as Beryl Chambers
• The Ghost Writer (1990) as Elizabeth Strack
• Silverfox (1991) as Nita Davenport
• Dreamrider (1993) as Dr. Sharon Kawai
• An Unfinished Affair (1996) as Cynthia Connor
• Stranger In My Home (1997) as Margot
• Bliss (1997) as Redhead
• Slackers (2002) as Valerie Patton
• Klepto (2003) as Teresa
• Coffee Date (2006) as Diana
• Dirty Laundry (2007) as Mrs. James
• The Wayshower (2011) as Elva Hinkins