'Time Machine', 'Birds' actor Rod Taylor dead at age 84

[January 09, 2015] (Reuters) - Rod Taylor, the Australian-born actor who helped actress Tippi Hedren battle swarms of vicious birds in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film "The Birds", has died at the age of 84, his daughter announced on a fan website.

Taylor, who would have been 85 on Sunday, died at home in Los Angeles after suffering a fall two weeks ago, the website said.

His first leading role was in the 1960 film version of the H.G. Wells classic "The Time Machine", but he was best known for co-starring in the Hitchcock film about a massive bird attack on a small northern California coastal town.

Taylor also appeared in "The Train Robbers" and, most recently, in a cameo role as the late British wartime leader Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".

(Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

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