Robert Taylor: The ‘Lost’ Star with the Long Career

Abstract

Kelly provides the first academic study of classical Hollywood actor Robert Taylor, identifying him as a star who sustained a long and successful career during his lifetime, but not after it ended. As a result, Kelly calls Taylor an important ‘lost’ or forgotten star of the era, and considers what then makes an enduring star. Addressing key moments across Taylor’s thirty-five-year career, the chapter provides both a filmic and extra-filmic account of the initial construction and subsequent developments of Taylor’s star persona. Kelly further suggests that Taylor is a key example of a wider phenomenon important in both star and celebrity studies today, and concludes that he can be used as a template to investigate similar actors from both the classical and contemporary eras.