For me, Rod Taylor was one of the most rugged leading men of the 1960s. I enjoyed many of his movies, but one of my all-time favorites was Dark of the Sun with Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, and Jim Brown. I love adventure movies set in Africa (though this was filmed in Jamaica), and this one delivers nonstop action with Taylor and Brown as mercenaries in the Congo jungle during its 1960s civil wars. Hired to retrieve diamonds, they also reluctantly try to save the trapped mine workers and their families plus aid worker Mimieux. Just check out the trailer for a small taste.
I was about 8 years old when THE TIME MACHINE hit big in 1960. He will always be remembered for that film.
A year or two later, I saw his earlier sci-fi film WORLD WITHOUT END (1956), another film in which a monstrous, mutated race of ogres harasses a more effete, weaker populace of nuclear survivors. Taylor was listed as “Rodney” Taylor then, and was making no attempt to hide his Aussie accent.
Among other films, I liked Taylor in THE BIRDS, THE LIQUIDATOR, and THE PICTURE SHOW MAN.