Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is an English-Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Locke in HBO series Game of Thrones, Mr. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and as Danny in the iconic Australian film He Died with a Felafel in His Hand.
Taylor's early roles included acting the lead in the critically acclaimed The Year My Voice Broke and Flirting and he gained significant international attention playing the tormented young pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film Shine. Taylor's résumé includes action movies (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), comedies (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), psychological thrillers (Vanilla Sky and Predestination) and historical dramas (Max, in which he played the young Adolf Hitler.)
Taylor once commented in an interview that he was sick of acting out the nostalgic reminiscences of other people. He has done this in a number of films including The Nostradamus Kid, which was based, apparently, on the memories of the Australian author Bob Ellis, a young David Helfgott in Shine, the protagonist in John Birmingham's memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, and Almost Famous, based on the memories of the film's writer and director, Cameron Crowe.
He appeared in the video of "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow", a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, along with the video for "M.O.R." by British alternative rock group Blur. Taylor also starred in Simon Rumley's mystery thriller Red White & Blue, which had its world premiere as part of the SXSW Film Festival in March 2010. In 2011, he released his first EP Live Free or Die!!! with his band Noah Taylor & the Sloppy Boys on Z-Man Records.
In 2013, Taylor appeared in both the third and fourth seasons of HBO's epic fantasy series Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin. In the adaptation, Taylor plays the character of Locke, an original character of the television series, who serves as a condensed version of several characters of the books, most notably the ruthless and sadistic mercenary leader Vargo Hoat.
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