Noel Taylor

Noel Taylor (January 17, 1913 – November 4, 2010) was an American costume designer of the stage, television, and film. A four-time Emmy nominee, Taylor won an Emmy Award in 1978 for his designs for the PBS drama Actor: The Paul Muni Story. Taylor, who designed costumes for more than 70 Broadway shows, as well as thirty films and television shows, was the recipient of the Costume Designers Guild lifetime achievement award in 2004. Life and career Taylor was born Harold Alexander Taylor Jr. in Youngstown, Ohio on January 17, 1913. He was the second of his family's two sons. He moved to Paris, France, with his family when he was seven years old. Taylor dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to pursue a career as an actor. His first and only leading role on Broadway was in 1935 at the age of 18 as Peter in Cross Ruff, a play which he had also written. Abandoning his acting career, he studied painting and design during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Taylor began vacationing in Austria when he was in his 20s, where he began to witness growing discrimination against Jewish residents in the years preceding World War II. Taylor asked his mother for help raising $200,000 USD for Jewish refugees who had fled from the Nazis. He was arrested by for attending pro-Jewish meetings, but was released by an Austrian interrogator after four days and returned to the United States. He worked as an equestrian trainer for the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.