![]() He agreed to come to Chicago for the play, and he wound up staying for the next five years. In that musical, was a part for Meshach to play. That next year of 1972, the Hair tour ended and I finished a production of Godspell and a musical I’d written was about to be produced in Chicago. Photo courtesy of the Goodman Theatre Archives Meshach Taylor in the Goodman Theatre’s production of Huck Finn (c. We told Meshach we hoped to see him again before too long. My father died early in 1971 and Arlene and I decided it was time to move on, so we left the show and moved back to Chicago. Arlene and I joined that company and to our delight, Meshach was a member of it. The national tour was started with a variety of performers from various Hair companies. As fate would have it, within a year, both of our productions closed. We said our goodbyes and hoped to meet again. Of everyone in the cast, it was he that we gravitated to after the performance, and I remembered him introducing us to his new baby girl Tam. Playing the role of Hud in that production was the man we would go on to spend a lifetime with as Meshach Taylor. During that year in 1970, a production of Hair was due to open in Indianapolis, IN, and since their opening occurred on our show’s day off, they bussed our entire cast to Indianapolis for their opening. Arlene and I had just gotten together as a couple a few months earlier after being cast in our first professional acting job in the play Hair in Chicago, IL. That’s how long Meshach Taylor was a part of the lives of both my wife Arlene and myself. Gia Mantegna, Joe Mantegna, Mia Mantegna, Arlene Mantegna, Meshach Taylor. ![]() The service ended with a releasing of the doves ceremony. ![]() Auden’s “Stop All the Clocks,” read by Keith Szarabajka. Taylor’s 2 1/2 hour service officiated by Reverend Queen Esther Thomas in the Old North Church, featured scripture readings from the Old Testament-Daniel 3:28 and the New Testament-John 14:1-3 Navajo Prayers for Peace two video tributes solo performances of “Mary, Did You Know?” sung by Helen Baylor, Charlie Wilson’s “Without You”, sung by Leslie Smith and an impromptu rendition of “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”, sung by Louis Price. Poetry readings included Maya Angelou’s “Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield,” read by Charlayne Woodard, and W.H. Meshach Taylor Family Fund/ In care of J.M. The Meshach Taylor Family Fund has been established to help defray ongoing medical and personal expenses the family has incurred during Meshach’s prolonged illness and passing. The beloved actor, devoted husband and father, was surrounded by his wife Bianca Ferguson Taylor, his 100-year-old mother Hertha Ward Taylor, his daughters, Tamar Lashae Taylor, Yasmine Taylor, Esme Alana Taylor, and his son Tariq Taylor, when he passed away peacefully in hospice care at home in Altadena, CA. Meshach Taylor with his wife Bianca Ferguson Taylor at his 67th birthday party in Toluca Lake, CA, on April 12, 2014. ![]()
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