Ray Taylor

One of the more prolific American directors, Ray Taylor was a Midwesterner who began his show-business career as an actor and stage manager in regional theater, a career that was interrupted by army service in World War I. After his discharge he ventured to Hollywood, where he got a job with Fox Films and worked as an assistant director, often with John Ford. In the 1920s Taylor traveled crosstown to Universal Pictures, where he got the opportunity to become a director, initially of one- and two-reelers. His proficiency in that niche impressed Universal execs enough to promote him to features and serials. When talkies made their debut, Taylor--unlike many of his silent-era colleagues--had no trouble adapting to the techniques of sound films, and in fact his career went on the fast track. Universal put him in the director's chair on many of its top western series and eventually placed him at the helm of one of its most popular and fondly remembered serials, "Flash Gordon." However, due