Most people stumble across the name Faydean Taylor Tharp while looking up Western actor Dub Taylor or his son Buck Taylor from Gunsmoke. Then they realize almost nothing has been written about her. That gap is actually what makes her story worth telling.
Faydean Florence Taylor Tharp was born in 1931 in the Greater Los Angeles area—right as Hollywood was hitting its stride and Western films were becoming a defining part of American entertainment. She was the daughter of character actor Dub Taylor and his wife Florence Gertrude Heffernan. She grew up inside one of Hollywood’s working families, yet she spent her entire life away from the camera. That contrast is rare, and it’s what makes her quietly interesting.
Early Life and Family Background
Faydean grew up in a household shaped by the Western film industry. Her father, Dub Taylor—born Walter Clarence Taylor Jr.—was a busy character actor with credits spanning films and TV shows across several decades. He was rarely at a desk. He was on sets, traveling for productions, and building a recognizable face in the genre. Her mother, Florence Gertrude Heffernan, kept the family grounded through all of it.
In 1938, her brother was born—the same Buck Taylor who would later become a familiar face on Gunsmoke as Newly O’Brian, and go on to build a second career as a Western painter and artist. Together, Faydean and Buck were the Taylor siblings: kids raised at the center of American Western entertainment during one of its most popular eras.
What’s easy to overlook is what that upbringing actually felt like. Growing up in a household where a parent worked on film and TV sets in mid-20th century Los Angeles meant daily life probably mixed the ordinary with the unusual—school runs alongside conversations about film shoots, normal routines set against the background hum of a working entertainment family.
Her Relationship to Dub Taylor and Buck Taylor
Most of what’s publicly documented about Faydean appears inside other people’s stories. Biographical pages covering Dub Taylor’s career mention her as one of his children. Articles about Buck Taylor note that he has a sister named Faydean. That’s the pattern—she shows up at the edges of two well-known Western careers, not at the center of her own.
That’s actually a useful way to understand her place in the public record. The Taylor family is the larger story; Faydean is one real, specific part of it. Her father’s film career and her brother’s TV work give researchers and fans a trail to follow, and that trail occasionally leads to her name. Without those connections, she’d likely have no public footprint at all.
What this also shows is how fame works at the family level. Two people in the same household—Buck and Dub—built public careers. One person—Faydean—didn’t. Same family, same era, very different paths. That’s not unusual, but it’s worth acknowledging honestly rather than glossing over.
Personal Life and Marriage
One of the clearest records about Faydean’s own adult life is her marriage. In 1960, she married Gordon Elmo Tharp in Maricopa, Arizona. That’s the moment she became Faydean Florence Taylor Tharp—the full name that people now search for. It’s also the point where her story moves from California to Arizona, two states that carry their own deep ties to Western American life and film history.
After the marriage, she carried the Tharp surname forward. When sources refer to the “Taylor-Tharp family” or the “Taylor-Tharp line,” they’re drawing on this union. It’s a reminder that while she was born into a Hollywood household, she built her own separate family unit—one that stayed mostly private and out of press coverage.
Children and Descendants
Records note a son named Walter “Tac” Tharp—sometimes spelled “Tack”—as Faydean’s child. Mentions of Walter Tac Tharp appear alongside other Taylor-Tharp family references, placing him as the next generation in a family line that carries both surnames.
Beyond that, details about her descendants are limited. Responsible sources keep those details brief, and that restraint is appropriate. Not everyone born into or connected to a famous family has chosen public life, and that choice deserves respect. The Taylor-Tharp family line continues beyond Faydean, but the specifics belong to living people who haven’t sought public attention.
Life Away From the Spotlight
Faydean didn’t work in film or television. No cast lists, no crew credits, no filmography. That’s a clear signal, because public entertainment careers leave records in databases and credits—and hers simply aren’t there. Some sites hint at unspecified “contributions” to the entertainment world, but there’s no solid evidence to support those claims.
That doesn’t make her irrelevant to the Taylor family story. Family members often support careers from behind the scenes—managing day-to-day life, keeping memories and stories alive, holding things together while someone else is in front of the camera. That work doesn’t get credits, but it’s real. In Faydean’s case, the honest conclusion is that her role was within her family circle, not as a public figure in her own right.
In a wider sense, she represents something a lot of people recognize: being close to fame without being famous. It’s more common than celebrity culture suggests, and it’s a legitimate way to live. Her story doesn’t need embellishment.
Timeline of Key Life Events
- 1931 — Born in the Greater Los Angeles area. Her father, Dub Taylor, is at the start of what will become a long career in Western films and television.
- 1938 — Her brother Buck Taylor is born, completing the core Taylor sibling group.
- 1950s–1960s — Western films and TV shows hit their cultural peak. The Taylor family is living through that era from the inside.
- 1960 — Faydean marries Gordon Elmo Tharp in Maricopa, Arizona. The Taylor-Tharp family connection begins.
- 1960s–1980s — Buck Taylor becomes known as Newly O’Brian on Gunsmoke. Dub Taylor continues acting. Faydean stays out of public life.
- 2002 — Faydean passes away at approximately 71 years old. Her Find A Grave memorial keeps a quiet record of her life.
What We Know About Her Career
Some celebrity biography sites treat Faydean as though she had an entertainment career. She didn’t—at least not one that left any documented record. No reliable film or TV database lists her in a cast or crew role. That absence is itself informative. Public entertainment careers leave clear paper trails, and hers simply doesn’t exist.
That said, belonging to an entertainment family and working as an entertainment professional are two different things. Faydean belonged to the Taylor family. That’s a real and meaningful connection. But it doesn’t make her a public entertainer in her own right, and it’s more accurate—and more respectful—to say so clearly.
Net Worth and Financial Questions
People search for “Faydean Taylor Tharp net worth” because celebrity biography sites treat net worth as a default section. In her case, there’s no credible public data—no reported income, no documented assets, no financial records that made it into the press. Sites that post specific dollar figures are guessing, and usually without citing any sources.
The honest answer is that the information simply isn’t there. She lived a private life, didn’t have a public career, and her finances were never newsworthy. She was part of a family that earned its living from Western film and TV work—that’s the closest accurate context available. Anything more specific would be fabricated.
Age, Passing, and Legacy
Memorial records list Faydean Florence Taylor Tharp with a birth year of 1931 and a death year of 2002—a life of about 71 years. Her Find A Grave memorial, along with notes in Dub Taylor’s and Buck Taylor’s biographies, holds the public record of who she was, who she married, and where she fit in the Taylor-Tharp family line.
Her legacy isn’t built on film credits or awards. It’s built on being part of a family that helped shape Western entertainment, while choosing to keep her own life private. For people tracing the Taylor family tree—or anyone curious about the quieter figures behind classic Hollywood names—her story fills in a real, human detail that the standard celebrity biography tends to skip over.
She was born into one of the most recognizable genres in American film history. She watched her father and brother build careers that fans still talk about today. And she chose not to do the same. That’s a story worth telling accurately—without inflation, without guesswork, and without pretending the gaps aren’t there.
