William Desmond Taylor (26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Irish-born American director and actor. He directed 59 silent films between 1914 and 1922 and acted in 27 between 1913 and 1915. He was a popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s. Taylor's murder on 1 February 1922, along with other Hollywood scandals, such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial, led to a frenzy of sensationalistic and often fabricated newspaper reports. His murder remains an official cold case