Roderick Taylor, also known as Rod Taylor or Roderick Falconer, is an American poet, recording artist, screenwriter, television producer and television director. Taylor is the father of screenwriter and television/film producer Bruce A. Taylor with whom he often collaborates.
Taylor holds an MA from Stanford University where he was a Stegner Fellowship winner in poetry and where he later taught creative writing. Taylor is also a Woodrow Wilson fellowship winner and winner of the (American Academy of Poets Prize) for his first collection, Florida East Coast Champion (1972).
While still at Stanford, Taylor moonlighted as a singer in a rock band and started writing songs. He signed with Geffen Records and began a musical career that produced seven albums, principally under the name Roderick Falconer. Later, he wrote music for film and television, including the TV series Witchblade.
Taylor then began write story ideas and screenplays for television and film, often with his son Bruce, leading to the scripts for theatrical movies such as The Star Chamber and scripts for pilots like Annihilator and the Western-themed movies Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues and Wild Horses. In 1985 he developed the science fiction series Otherworld, for which he served as narrator and also executive produced; the series failed to even run a full season. In 1998, he produced and directed his own scripted project, the 1998 television movie Inferno.
He wrote the scripts for American Outlaws (2001) The Brave One (2007). In 2009, Taylor and son Bruce completed work on Open Graves, a contemporary horror film.