Noah Taylor Biography

Date of Birth: September 4, 1969

Although born in London, England to journalist parents, Taylor moved to Australia at the age of five. His early life was spent wanting to be a spy or a commando, but leaving school at 16, someone suggested he could try the theater as something to do on the weekends. Based on that suggestion, he began his acting career at the city's St. Martin's Youth Theatre. The experience was so enjoyable that he decided to make it his career.

His stage credits include leading roles in such productions as Pierrot Lunaire, Bloody Mama, Alien in the Park, The Grim Reaper, Baron in the Trees and Eric and Verna. His work in the theater led to his being cast as Danny Embling in The Year My Voice Broke. The film garnered him three awards for Best Actor from various film festivals. Following the critical success of this film and its sequel, Flirting, Taylor became known as one of his country's most promising actors.

In 1996 Taylor landed a role as the talented young David Helfgott in the Academy Award winning film Shine. He was hesitant to take the role of the tortured adolescent because he would once again be playing the "young, sensitive, serious type." Ultimately, he couldn't resist the role, which takes the character from his teenage years to his early twenties. Taylor was named Best Supporting Actor by the Australian Film Critics Circle and was nominated for a SAG Award.

Taylor starred in Ben Hopkins' acclaimed period drama Simon Magus (1998), and the following year he starred in Michel Blanc's Mauvaise passe (1999), then won a coveted role in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000).

Although Taylor has an impressive resume for his age, he is in no way career driven. "I am finding more and more in life," says Taylor. "The things that are important to me have very little to do with career. I am quite happy to work as an actor so I can afford not to work for six months out of the year and go exploring in the country." When not on set, he goes on travels which have taken him all around the world.

Taylor has also worked on the small screen in Australia performing in mini-series like Bangkok Hilton and Frontier, and a couple of telefilms, including Joh's Jury.

He began the new millennium with a number of feature films, including the computer-game-turned-film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) playing the heroine's technical wizard, Bryce; the unsympathetic role of Hitler in Max (2002); and reprised his role in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003).

In the mid-late 2000s, he appeared in such films as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and Red White & Blue (2010).

His most recent credits include the crime thriller Free Fire (2017) with Brie Larson and Armie Hammer and Skyscraper (2018) with Dwayne Johnson.

Filmography:

Skyscraper (2018)
Paddington 2 (2017)
Free Fire (2017)
The Menkoff Method (2016)
The Windmill Massacre (2016)
Lost in Karastan (2014)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Predestination (2014)
Mindscape (2013)
The Double (2013)
Lawless (2012)
Red Dog (2011)
Submarine (2010)
Red White & Blue (2010)
The New Daughter (2009)
The New World (2005)
The Proposition (2005)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Max (2002)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Almost Famous (2000)
The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)
The Escort (1999)
True Love and Chaos (1997)
Shine (1996)
Secrets (1992)
Dead to the World (1991)
Lover Boy (1989)
The Year My Voice Broke (1987)