Early life

Taylor was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth, a waitress, and Charles Elmer Taylor, Sr., a musician. He was placed in foster care and was molested as a child. He also worked as a Congressional page.

Career

As a young man, Taylor served in the Korean War while in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. However, in his one-man show It Ain't All Confetti, he recounts beginning his show business career while in the US Navy. Appearing as a comedian, Taylor made his first Las Vegas appearance in supporting the Eleanor Powell show.

Television/film career

Taylor appeared on The Jackie Gleason Show in several guest appearances in the 1963-64 season as "the crying comedian."

He appeared in two episodes of The Monkees television series in 1968, as well as having a cameo in 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee in 1969. He continued to work as a voice performer in the 1970s NBC cartoon series Here Comes the Grump (as the title character) and in the second The Addams Family cartoon series (as Uncle Fester).

Throughout the 1970s, Taylor was a frequent celebrity guest panelist on TV game shows such as Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, and The Gong Show, and substituted for Charles Nelson Reilly on The Match Game. He became a regular on Sid and Marty Krofft's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, playing Sheldon, a sea-genie who lived in a conch shell. In addition, Taylor was also a regular on The Brady Bunch Hour, playing a role of neighbor / performer Jack Merrill. He also hosted a short-lived send-up of beauty pageants called The $1.98 Beauty Show created by Gong Show producer/host Chuck Barris, in 1978. Taylor appeared as a celebrity on the 1990 version of Match Game. In 1979, he was the voice of C.J. from the Hanna-Barbera TV movie Scooby Goes Hollywood. Other appearances include the television show The Kids in the Hall. He was referred to as Uncle Rip by one of the show's characters, Buddy Cole. He also appeared as himself in the movie Wayne's World 2, one of the special guests invited to "WayneStock" after being visited in a dream by Jim Morrisson.

In 1997, Taylor appeared in a segment on the show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. He played the role of Elmo Middleton in the segment "The Man in the Model T". Also in 1997, he appeared as himself on the sitcom Brotherly Love in the episode "Easy Come Easy Go". He also portrayed Chief Undersecretary Wartle in the graphical adventure game Zork: Grand Inquisitor in 1997. In 2003, Taylor also appeared as himself on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. In 2005, he appeared as himself on an episode of ABC TV's George Lopez. Taylor guest-starred as chef "Rappin' Rip" in four episodes of an earlier ABC sitcom featuring Lopez, Life with Bonnie. He guest starred in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episode "Loosely Ballroom" as Leo. He is also in some episodes of The Emperor's New School, as the voice of the Royal Record Keeper. He was also recently in the Jetix animated series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!. He made a special guest appearance at the end of the 1,000th episode of G4's video game review show X-Play. He made a guest appearance on a 2012 episode of The Aquabats! Super Show!, where he played a genie reminiscent of his character on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. He appeared on the May 31, 2015 episode of Last Week Tonight, after John Oliver suggested that Thailand frequently employing the imagery of Adolf Hitler would be better off replaced with Taylor.

Taylor is an accomplice of the Jackass crew. In 1995, he performed the intro for the Bloodhound Gang's Use Your Fingers album, and in 2002, he appeared in the final scene of Jackass: The Movie, wielding a pistol that, when fired, released a sign that read "The End." (Taylor's section of the film was originally considerably longer, and ended with him complaining about the heat, and fanning himself with his toupee. This footage was included on the DVD of the film.) He did the same thing at the ending of Jackass Number Two and Jackass 3D. In the credits of the 2005 remake of The Dukes of Hazzard, Taylor shows up in the blooper reel.

Taylor has made occasional appearances in movies, usually in broad comedies like The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) and the R-rated Deep Throat parody Chatterbox (1977). In Cheech and Chong's Things Are Tough All Over (1982), he picks them up in the middle of nowhere driving a convertible full of props. Rip then proceeds to drive them to Las Vegas and telling jokes the whole way and moving Chong to tears from laughter (and, later, tears because he won`t stop). In Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) a funeral service turns into a celebrity roast when guest Rip Taylor shows up to "honor" the deceased. In 1993, Taylor also appeared in Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) as Captain Kiddle, and in Wayne's World 2 (1993). In 1993's Indecent Proposal as Demi Moore's boss, he appears without his toupee. He was also in the 1990 summer movie DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp as the voice of the Genie.

Live theater

Taylor appeared for three years in the burlesque-themed Broadway musical comedy Sugar Babies. He is featured on its soundtrack album. He has been a frequent co-star with Debbie Reynolds in her live shows in Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe. Taylor performed frequently in Atlantic City as well.

Outside the entertainment industry

In 2006, Taylor appeared as the grand marshal of Washington D.C.'s Capital Pride parade.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]