'DAMIEN' JONATHAN SCOTT-TAYLOR
THEN: This week in theatres, we are seeing the return of the creepy kid horror flick. And in SINISTER 2, you have not one, but two terrifying twins. Of course there have been quite a few young actors who have scared audiences throughout the years. Some of them are quite memorable, and some not so much, but who can forget about the Anti-christ? He was a politician’s son who was always able to get his way thanks to his powers of darkness. He had his animal pals help kill those against him, and he would make his followers do some f*cked up things to show their admiration. You know very well I’m talking about Damien.
While it is hard to top the classic supernatural thriller THE OMEN, I have a soft spot for it’s under appreciated sequel DAMIEN: OMEN II. It may not be a perfect film, but there is something truly memorable in this horror sequel. While Damien was only a tiny squirt in THE OMEN, he grew up and went to military academy in the 1978 follow-up. Much like the original film, OMEN II offered up a top-notch cast including the great William Holden and Lee Grant. It also featured a young Lance Henriksen as Sergeant Neff – the actor played one of Damien’s watchers. It also featured a surprisingly strong Jonathan Scott-Taylor as Damien.
Yet it wasn’t the first film for the young actor. The Brazilian born talent found himself playing a number of roles in a little film called BUGSY MALONE. This 1976, G rated family flick, featured a couple of recognizable names early in their career. The Alan Parker gangster flick starring an all child cast featured Jodie Foster and Scott Baio. Charles was definitely in Charge as Bugsy and young Jodie was Tallulah. Scott-Taylor was featured as a Newsreporter/Johnston the Butler and an English Boy On Telephone. It’s been awhile since I sat down with this kid friendly action crime comedy, but as I write this, I’m thinking about a re-visit.
Throughout the late Seventies, Scott-Taylor appeared in a small handful of television series – presumably on the BBC. He had a gig or two in such shows as The Cedar Tree in 1977, 1990 in 1977 and BBC Play of the Month in 1977. Then in 1978 he portrayed a young Harry Faversham – the older version was played by Beau Bridges – in a TV movie called The Four Feathers. While he had a number of small roles, it wasn’t until his take on the title character in a certain horror film that he gained a bit of fame and notoriety from genre fans. And that role had him up close and personal with the dark lord.
DAMIEN: OMEN II is a pretty decent sequel. While it wasn’t quite as successful as the terrific THE OMEN, it is well worth checking out if you are looking for old school supernatural scares. When I went back to OMEN II, one of the things that works especially well is Jonathan’s performance. In the film, he is not quite sure of the evil that is at his fingertips. This is a pretty damn good performance considering he was around sixteen when the film was released. Similar to a lot of second parters, this film featured too little character development, and perhaps too many deaths of people we don’t care about. Still, Jonathan gives a solid show as a young man who is coming of age thanks to his devilish connection.
Unfortunately for Jonathan, he didn’t have the opportunity to play such an iconic role again. The young actor did take on Shakespeare on the stage. He also appeared in the TV movie Julius Caesar as Lucius in 1979. Following that he made an appearance in the genre series Tales of the Unexpected in 1980 as well as the police drama Strangers in 1981. His most prominent role [aside from ‘Damien’] came in 1982 with the series Triangle where he played Ted Anderson for 48 episodes. Yet after just a couple more performances, he seemingly disappeared from television and film completely. So what happened to Jonathan?
NOW: Doing a little research on the one-time actor, there is very little information on his whereabouts. It seems that once he left the limelight, he left for good. There is no record of him taking the usual route of child actors growing up and doing horror conventions, or appearing in low budget horror flicks. In 2001 there was an article from the LA Times where producer Harvey Bernhard offers that, “He went into the trucking business in Australia.” He added that he communicates with his mother and father every Christmas. Yet finding out exactly what he is up to is damn near impossible.
Of course there are a few stories out there. I found something about the one-time actor becoming a lawyer in the UK, and of course there is the trucking business. One thread on Yahoo actually questioned whether or not he actually murdered a priest – although that seems to be a clear cut case of somebody trying to create their own urban legend regarding Jonathan because every other story points to a much younger killer with an entirely different name. The strange thing is, Scott-Taylor was a talented young man. He was terrific in DAMIEN, and it seemed he had some serious acting chops when it came to Shakespeare as well. It appears that Jonathan Scott-Taylor has moved on from acting a long time ago, and if you believe the lawyer bit, he clearly wants to be left alone. And perhaps we as fans should give him that.