After the family moved from New Orleans to Indianapolis, Taylor graduated from Crispus Attucks High School in 1964, where he took an interest in acting, and went on to study in the dramatic arts programs at Wilmington College (Ohio) and Florida A&M University. Leaving Florida A&M a few credits shy of graduation, he worked in Indianapolis as a State House reporter for AM radio station WIFE (now WTLC), where he used the on-air name Bruce Thomas, and as the host of a community-affairs program on television station WLWI (now WTHR), as Bruce Taylor.[2][3][4] In May 1993, he received his bachelor's degree in theatre arts from Florida A&M.[5]
Career
Theater and teleplays
Taylor's first professional acting gig was in a national tour of Hair. He honed his craft in repertory theater as a member of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and the Organic Theater Company alongside Joe Mantegna, André DeShields, Dennis Franz, Keith Szarabajka, Jack Wallace, and director Stuart Gordon. While in Chicago, he appeared in David Rabe's Streamers, Native Son (1979 Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play), The Island and Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, for which he garnered the 1977 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play. He received an Emmy Award for his role as Jim in the WTTW production of Huckleberry Finn and hosted the Chicago television show Black Life. In 1998, Taylor made his Broadway debut as Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, where he starred alongside Toni Braxton.[6] In September 2012, he appeared in Year of the Rabbit at Ensemble Studio Theater-LA as Vietnam veteran JC Bridges.[7]
In 1977, Taylor moved to Los Angeles, where he crafted a gallery of memorable characters in film and on television, including his Emmy-nominated turn in the CBS sitcom Designing Women. Taylor played Anthony Bouvier, the deliveryman at the Sugarbaker interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1989, he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.[1] In May 1981, the ninth season of M*A*S*H, he was seen as a corpsman in the final episode, "The Life You Save".[8]
In 1996, Taylor hosted his own series on HGTV, The Urban Gardener with Meshach Taylor, and in 1998, he hosted Meshach Taylor's Hidden Caribbean on The Travel Channel. He was a regular panelist on the 2000 revival of the television game showTo Tell the Truth. He co-hosted Living Live! with Florence Henderson on Retirement Living TV in 2008 until the program was revamped as The Florence Henderson Show.[9]
Taylor had been friends with actor Joe Mantegna since they appeared together in 1969 in the musical Hair.[citation needed] Taylor guest-starred in 2012 on Criminal Minds'eighth season in the episode "The Fallen", opposite Mantegna as Harrison Scott, Rossi's former Marine sergeant with whom he served in Vietnam.[10] In January 2014, he reprised this role in "The Road Home" which aired January 22, 2014, just five months before his death.[11] Mantegna led a Criminal Mindstenth season episode "Anonymous", to honor Taylor on January 21, 2015.
Taylor married actress Bianca Ferguson in 1983. He had four children, three with Bianca and one from a previous marriage. His children are daughters Tamar, Esme and Yasmine and son Tariq; he had four grandchildren.[2]
Taylor died of colorectal cancer on June 28, 2014, at his home in Altadena, California.[12][13][14] He was survived by his wife, his four children, his mother Hertha Ward Taylor,[15] two siblings, and four grandchildren.[12] A memorial service to celebrate his life was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) on July 6, 2014.[16]
'Fresh Air' Remembers Actor Meshach Taylor NPR 'Fresh Air' host Terry Gross pays tribute to actor Meshach Taylor (April 11, 1947 – June 28, 2014) with rebroadcast of 1990 interview.
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