Leigh Taylor-Young (born January 25, 1945 in Washington, D.C., as simply Leigh Taylor) is an American actress. Her sister is actress Dey Young and her brother is director Lance Young.
Taylor-Young was the daughter of a U.S. diplomat, Carl Taylor, who was stationed in Washington. She was raised in Michigan when her divorced mother, Pauline, remarried an advertising executive, Ronald Young. A 1962 graduate of Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan, she attended Northwestern University in Illinois for a period of time, but instead of graduating she went into acting full time.
She is probably best known for her role as "furniture" girl, Shirl in the cult science fiction film Soylent Green (1973), opposite Charlton Heston, and for her television roles on Peyton Place, Dallas, and Picket Fences for which she received an Emmy Award for Best Actress, and the soap opera Passions. She starred in several films, including her debut on I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, as well as the original version of The Big Bounce (1969).
Taylor-Young's first professional acting job was in the Broadway play Three Bags Full (1966), which lasted five weeks. She then went to LA and was hired by Peyton Place producer Paul Monash. She was a regular in Peyton Place for 8 months and then was in the movie I Love You Alice B. Toklas (1968), starring Peter Sellers. Her next movies were The Adventurers (1968), The Big Bounce, The Buttercup Chain (1969), The Horsemen(1970), The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) and Soylent Green (1973), after which she went on hiatus to achieve Nirvana in the Far East.
Taylor-Young has made guest appearances on McCloud, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Spenser for Hire, Hart to Hart, Hotel, Outlaws, Evening Shade, The Young Riders, Empty Nest, Murder She Wrote, Malibu Shores, 7th Heaven, The Pretender, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where she played Yanas Tigan, the shrewd mother of Ezri Dax (Nicole De Boer) in the episode Prodigal Daughter.
She appeared on Aaron Spelling's daytime drama Sunset Beach during 1997. She played the role of Katherine Barrett Crane on the NBC soap opera Passions from 2004-2006, alongside fellow soap opera veterans such as John Reilly, Andrea Evans, and Sharon Wyatt.
Taylor-Young was married to actor Ryan O'Neal during (1967-74), who was the father of her only child, Patrick, who was born on September 14, 1967, and works as a sportscaster for Fox Sports Net. She was also married to Guy McElwayne in 1978, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1984. She is 5'9" tall and has reddish hair.
She is an ordained Minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness.[citation needed]
