Veteran photographer, cinematographer and director Herbert Taylor, an early film pioneer with Crawley Films, the National Film Board and CJOH-TV, has died at a age 81.

Taylor’s early films about Canadian culture and industry included the 1966 NFB film Forest Regions of Canada and This Is My Invention, a portrait of Canadian inventors for Crawley Films.

Taylor also helped produce the 1957 Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra short film A Chairy Tale, a portrait of a young man struggling to sit on a chair that won’t cooperate, which earned the NFB an Oscar nomination for best animated short.

While at Granada TV, Taylor photographed rising British actors like Sean Connery, Patrick McGoohan and Alan Bates.

Besides working at Crawley Films in Toronto as a producer, Taylor also helped run the production company Spaulding Taylor Hall in Toronto as vice-president.

Taylor, who died on Thursday and was buried in Newcastle, ON on Sunday, left behind a family that includes his wife of 53 years, Florence, and sons Michael Taylor, an executive with Peace Arch Entertainment in Toronto, and Lawrence Taylor.