Early life, family, educational background

american actor, John Taylor Robert was born on November 12, 1963 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He moved to a mining town in Western Australia and lived with his aunt and uncle after his parents separated when he was nine. As a teenager he worked as a miner and later got a job as a lifeguard and then a bouncer. He went to college three times.

When he was 21, he worked on an oil rig in the Indian Ocean. Off the west coast of Australia his ship collided with another and sank, luckily escaping on a lifeboat with his two crew members.

He suffered broken ribs and a broken arm, but while in hospital he saw an advertisement for auditions to attend a drama school in Perth. He auditioned at the age of 24 and enrolled at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

He shares a name with 1940s and 1950s American actor Robert Taylor and has fond memories of growing up with his “movie star” moniker. When he was a child and lived in northwestern Australia, he was part of a Cub Scout group. He remembers that Aboriginal people tend to name their children after movie stars, so his scout troop included ‘Gary Cooper, John Wayne and Matt Dillon’ – of course his name comes from his father, who was also called Robert Taylor.

The personal life of the family

He is married to Australian film producer Ayisha Davies, famous for producing well-known films, including 2007’s ‘The Bloody Sweet Hit’ and 2009’s ‘Coffin Rock’. Ironically, Robert starred in both films. She worked for an Australian television series, “Halifax”, as a production secretary before becoming a film producer, and then became a literary manager, representing David Lightfoot and the filmmakers of “SAW”, among several other talents in the Australian film industry.

She currently works for Ultra Films. In 2007, she got her first chance to produce the short film “The Bloody Sweet Hit” directed by Damian Walshe-Howling which was a huge success.

It was selected to play at various venues including The St Kilda International Film Festival, Flickerfest, Miami Film Festival, Shorts Film Festival, Movie Extra and Rushes Soho in London; MTV Italy recently bought the film. Her other work as a producer includes ‘What Lola Wants’, ‘John Doe: Vigilante’, ‘Press’, ‘Skylab’ and ‘Rogue’.

Career

In

Television series

In 1988, Robert graduated from WAAPA and started professionally acting career, as Nicholas Walsh in the Australian soap opera, “Home and Away”, which was his first major role. His first starring role was in the 1993 mini-series ‘The Feds’ as David Griffin.

In 2001, he played Father Vincent Sheahan in “Ballykissangel” – the BBC television drama set in Ireland and directed by Kieran Prendiville. The series follows a rural Irish community in a small village called Ballykissangel and focuses specifically on the local church and pub. The series had a total of six seasons, but Robert only appeared in the last one – his character is from Australia and deals with the strange disappearance of Brian Quigley and a new online confessional.

In 2002, he played Paul Bennett in “MDA” and Nicholas Ray in 2004’s “The Mystery of Natalie Wood”, directed by American director Peter Bogdanovich. In 2005, he played Kiron in the NBC telemovie ‘Hercules’, John McCoy in 2010’s ‘Satisfaction’, Tom O’Neill in ‘Cops LAC’ and Tim Watson-Munro in 2011’s ‘Killing Time’.

From 2012 to 2017, he played Sheriff Walt Longmire in ‘Longmire’, the lead in A&E’s crime drama series, which moved to Netflix after its third season. The American-Western series had a total of six seasons, premiered on June 3, 2012 on A&E, and was based on Craig Johnson’s mystery novels, “Walt Longmire.” Although it was the highest rated original drama in A&E history, they did not renew the series beyond their third season, so as of August 2014, the fourth and subsequent seasons were picked up by Netflix. Speaking about the show, Robert said how much of an honor it is to work on the show. ‘I have worked in Ireland, England, New Zealand, Asia and Canada. This is a great project with some great people, and it’s no relinquishing my homeland at all to have the privilege of coming here and working on this show with these people.”

His career spans over three decades and during that time he starred in several other Australian and American TV productions, including ‘Mr. & Mrs Murder’ on the TEN Network, ‘Ned Kelly’, ‘Nash’s Vision’ and Screentime’s ‘Underbelly – Tell Them Lucifer Was Here’.

Movies

In 1999, he played Agent Jones in the hit movie “The Matrix” which is considered his big break in Hollywood. In 2000, he played Skip Taylor in ‘Vertical Limit’ alongside Scott Glenn and Chris O’Donnell. The action thriller was directed by Martin Campbell, who also directed ‘GoldenEye’ and ‘Casino Royale’. In 2002’s “The Hard Word,” he played the lead, Frank, opposite Rachel Griffiths and Guy Pearce.

He appeared in three films in 2007, the short film ‘The Bloody Sweet Hit’ as Lindsay, as Everett in ‘Rogue’ directed by Greg McLean and in ‘Storm Warning’ as Rob, starring opposite French actress Nadia Fares. – Jamie Blanks directed the film for the American film production company Dimension films.

In 2009, he played the lead role of Rob Willis in “Coffin Rock” for Head Gear Films. In 2015, he starred alongside Margot Robbie and Will Smith as McEwen in “Focus”, directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. That same year, he played another supporting role, as Jed in ‘What Lola Wants’, opposite Sophie Lowe in the Rupert Glasson directed film. In 2016, he played Clive Struthers in the Australian feature film ‘Menkoff Method’ directed by David Parker.

In 2017, he appeared in two movies: ‘Kong: Skull Island’ and ‘Don’t Tell’. In the Australian film ‘Don’t Tell’ he plays Robert Brewster and stars opposite Jacqueline McKenzie, Rachel Griffiths, Aden Young and Jack Thompson directed by Tori Garrett. “Kong: Skull Island” was written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly, and Robert’s role as captain of the Athena ship is minor; Jordan Vogt-Roberts directed the film. In 2018, he played Heller in the Jon Turteltaub directed action sci-fi “The Meg”, opposite Jason Statham. In 2019, he appeared in ‘Blood Vessel’ as Malone and as Frank Parson in ‘Into the Ashes’.

He has appeared in several Australian television films, including a few guest roles. Such appearances include “Stingers” and “Blue Heelers” – he is often cast as a police officer.

He co-founded Veg Out, a community garden and farmers’ market in St Kilda, Victoria. In 2019 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the community of St Kilda.

Private life

After 16 years of dating, Taylor and Ayisha got married on July 12, 2017. In 2011, their daughter Scarlet was born.

Appearance

He has reddish brown hair and blue eyes. He is 1.88 m tall and weighs 78 kg.

Wealth and salary

As of early 2020, his net worth is estimated to be $6.45 million.