William Desmond Taylor
| William Desmond Taylor | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
William Cunningham Deane-Tanner 26 April 1872 County Carlow, Ireland |
| Died | 1 February 1922 (aged 49) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Homicide |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Nationality | Irish-American |
| Other names | William D. Taylor William Taylor |
| Occupation | Director, actor |
| Years active | 1913–1922 |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel May Hamilton (m. 1901–12) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Denis Gage Deane-Tanner (brother) |
Coordinates: 34°03′39″N 118°16′24″W / 34.06091°N 118.27336°W
William Desmond Taylor (26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Irish-born American director and actor. He was a popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion-picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s, having directed 59 silent films between 1914 and 1922 and acted in 27 between 1913 and 1915.
Taylor's murder on 1 February 1922, along with other Hollywood scandals, such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial, led to a frenzy of sensationalist and often fabricated newspaper reports. The murder remains an official cold case.
William Cunningham Deane-Tanner was born into the Anglo-Irish gentry on 26 April 1872, at Evington House, County Carlow, Ireland, one of five children of a retired British Army officer, Major Kearns Deane-Tanner of the Carlow Rifles, and his wife, Jane O'Brien. His siblings were Denis Gage Deane-Tanner, Ellen "Nell" Deane-Tanner Faudel-Phillips, Lizzie "Daisy" Deane-Tanner, and Oswald Kearns Deane-Tanner. The Home Rule MP Charles Kearns Deane Tanner was his father's youngest brother.
From 1885-1887 Taylor attended Marlborough College in England. In 1890, Taylor left Ireland for a dude ranch in Kansas. At the time, it was a short-lived trend among some of the Anglo-Irish and English gentry to send their sons to the United States to become "gentleman farmers". In Kansas, William became reacquainted with acting (his first experiences being at school) and eventually moved to New York. While in New York, he worked in The Antique Shoppe and eventually married Ethel May Hamilton. The Episcopal ceremony took place on 7 December 1901, at the Little Church Around the Corner; they divorced in 1912.
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