Rod Taylor, star of Hitchcock's The Birds, is dead at 84

Rod Taylor, star of Hitchcock&#039;s The Birds, is dead at 84 — (Image credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Australian actor Rod Taylor, best known for his starring roles in The Birds (1963) and The Time Machine (1960), died on Wednesday, his daughter tells the Los Angeles Times. He was 84, a few day shy of his 85th birthday. Along with playing lawyer Mitch Brenner across from Birds actress Tippi Hedren, Taylor acted in dozens of movies and TV shows, including recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, Falcon Crest, and Walker, Texas Ranger. He was also the voice of Pongo in the original 101 Dalmatians.

Taylor is survived by wife Carol Kikumura and daughter Felicia Taylor. Below, you can watch Taylor in his last role, as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009). --Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.