He also had numerous television roles, appearing in Family Matters, The Simpsons, Twin Peaks, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ally McBeal, Matlock and L.A. Law.

Upon graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Taylor was unable to read sheet music and could "barely" play the piano, but found work as a singer.

[7] He voiced Audrey II, the "street-smart, funky, conniving" talking killer plant which is an "anthropomorphic cross between a Venus flytrap and an avocado", in the original off-Broadway production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's "black-comedy musical" Little Shop of Horrors from 1982.

[1][7][8][9] Audrey II was played by four increasingly large puppets, operated by Martin P. Robinson, while Taylor sat in a box at the back of the stage to voice the role, standing to perform his musical numbers.

[7] The part was his break and was described by Jesse McKinley of The New York Times as "a role Mr. Taylor's booming voice was made for...[he] soon put his stamp on Audrey's signature line: 'Feed me, feed me!

[13] Frank Rich wrote that the musketeers were "professionally played" by Taylor and his co-stars Brent Spiner and Chuck Wagner but felt the three had "little dialogue and often seem like interchangeable stand-ins for the Three Stooges.

"[12] A similar view was held by William B. Collins of the Philadelphia Inquirer who said they "speak as in one voice and behave like comedians who have been stranded without good material.

[16] Because of their positive reception, the show was expanded to two hours and 50 songs, with three people being added to the original cast of four, and was regularly performed at the Denver Center.

[6] In 1995, the revue ran for a month at the Cleveland Play House, in conjunction with the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum,[6] before touring at other regional theaters.

A large word-of-mouth networking campaign to advertise the performance was set up by the producers and the show moved to the Ambassador Theatre, where the box office takes began to break even.

[3][19] For the rest of the year, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues again toured at regional theaters, running in Atlanta, San Diego, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and returning to New York in August 2000 at the B.B.

Trageser also praised the writing, calling it "a superb job not only of selecting the songs, but in choosing arrangements that blow away all the cobwebs history has laid on many of them.

[3] Taylor planned an IMAX film version of the production;[21] and nine years after his death, it was revived by the New Harlem Arts Theater at the Aaron Davis Hall on the City College of New York campus.

[26] He appeared as a Klingon chef in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,[6] and played wrestling instructor Coach Wingate in Twin Peaks.

[25] Other television roles included guest spots on NYPD Blue, ER, Profiler, Family Matters, Home Improvement and Ally McBeal.

[1][3][5][9][10][27] Taylor also had a recurring part in the 2000 series City of Angels,[1] and played a blues singer in a two-part episode of Matlock, a role that was written for him.

[1][5][9] After a 1991 appearance on the series L.A. Law, on which he played a singer sacked by a baseball team for "embellish[ing]" his performances of the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner", Taylor received several invitations to sing it before sports events, although never expected anything to happen when he had taken the part.

[1][9] He also sang with Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Etta James, Slash and Sheila E.[1] Taylor met DeBorah Sharpe in 1977 during the production of The Wiz where she was the understudy for Dorothy.

[1][6] In his spare time, Taylor often helped teach vulnerable young people through a variety of projects, including at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey.