Joyce Taylor(1937-2024)

Described as a petite, blue eyed brunette, Joyce Taylor was born as Joyce Crowder in Taylorville, Illinois. Her father was a vocalist with his own radio show in St. Louis and music was strong in the family. Joyce loved to sing and play the piano from an early age. At 15, she performed her own composition, 'You've Got Something', at a school talent contest. Spotted there by an agent for Mercury Records, she was promptly signed to a three-year contract (under the name Joyce Bradley), her song subsequently released as her debut commercial single. Joyce relocated to Chicago where she sang at the famous Chez Paree nightclub and at other venues, performing numbers like 'St. Louis Blues'. Her next stop was Billy Gray's Band Box comedy club in Los Angeles. In 1954, now aged 17, she sang on Walter Winchell's weekly television show on ABC. Around this time, she again changed her stage moniker, this time from Bradley to Taylor, a decision said to have been spearheaded by the residents of her home town.

Somehow, Joyce caught the ever-roving eye of Howard Hughes, who offered her a seven-year contract with RKO. She likely rebuffed the billionaire, since her only motion picture appearance during this tenure was a small part in the murder mystery Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). In 1957, her contract was dropped prematurely and Joyce resumed work as a free-lancer in television, making appearances in classic shows like 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Sea Hunt (1958), The Untouchables (1959) and Tales of Wells Fargo (1957). She also featured as the wife of the main lead (William Lundigan) in several episodes of the sci-fi adventure series Men Into Space (1959). In 1959, Joyce married Beverly Hills stockbroker Edward S. Bellinson. This union produced a son several years later but ended in divorce.

Joyce made a return to motion pictures when George Pal was scouting for a brunette to play the part of Princess Antillia in his production Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961) (based on the play Atlanta by Gerald Hargreaves). The film was set in the days of the Roman Empire, allowing Pal to use footage from MGM's epic Quo Vadis (1951). The storyline called for the hero (Sal Ponti, as 'Anthony Hall') to protect the princess from death rays, mad scientists and the inevitable volcanic eruption at the climax.

In September 1960, Joyce won over fourteen other aspirants auditioning for the lead in writer-director Andrew L. Stone's crime drama Ring of Fire (1961). In this, she played a tough-talking juvenile delinquent in league with two hardened felons (Frank Gorshin and James Burr Johnson) who is ultimately reformed and joins the white hats out of love for the local deputy sheriff (David Janssen).

Joyce's last film role of note was in 'Rappaccini's Daughter', a segment of the anthology drama Twice-Told Tales (1963), based on a Gothic horror story by Nathaniel Hawthorne and set in 16th century Padua. On this occasion she portrayed Beatrice, the ill-fated daughter of a mad botanist (Vincent Price), who imprisons her in a garden filled with poisonous plants to keep out unwanted suitors. This works a treat, as Beatrice is also treated with a toxic plant extract which makes her touch lethal to others. Needless to say, the story doesn't end well.

Joyce did a few more TV guest spots before her retirement from acting in 1971. The following year, she got married a second time to one Richard Perry Hinnant. She continued to write music for other artists, having also set up her own publishing company, Joyce Taylor Music. She died as Joyce Taylor Hinnant in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2024.