'Heroic Canadian' Ken Taylor, ex-ambassador to Iran during Iranian hostage crisis, dead at 81 (2024)

Former Canadian diplomat Ken Taylor, who sheltered six U.S. citizens during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, has died, says a family friend.

Taylor and John Sheardown, the former first secretary of the Canadian embassy in Tehran, helped the six Americans escape Iran by providing them with airline tickets and convincing the Canadian government to issue six fake passports.

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Taylor died Thursday afternoon at about 2:45 p.m. in New York Presbyterian hospital after a battle with cancer.

Friend Ralph Lean says Taylor’s wife, Pat, was by his side. Taylor is also survived by his son, Douglas, and his wife Dana and two grandchildren.

“We lost a true hero. Those of us who know him lost a friend but Canadians lost a true hero who just lived life to the fullest and I got lucky enough to be allowed to tag along with Taylor,” Lean told The Canadian Press.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Taylor “represented the very best that Canada’s foreign service has to offer,” in a written statement.

“It is with sadness that I learned of the passing of Ken Taylor,” Harper said.

“As Canada’s Ambassador to Iran during the Iranian Revolution, Taylor valiantly risked his own life by shielding a group of American diplomats from capture.”

But Taylor disagreed with the Harper government’s decision to close Canada’s embassy in Tehran in 2012 and sever diplomatic relations with Iran.

Taylor said Canada closed its eyes and ears to a country that needed monitoring: “As a diplomat,” he said, “I think you never give up.”
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said Taylor was “a heroic Canadian diplomat, educator and businessmen.”

Radical supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini attacked and seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. Khomeini’s supporters kept 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The attack was in retaliation and protest of the deposed shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi being allowed to enter the U.S. and receive medical treatment for cancer.

Khomeini and his supporters only offered to release the American hostages in exchange for Pahlavi’s extradition, creating a tense standoff between the two nations that only became worse a failed helicopter rescue attempt from the Americans that left eight U.S. soldiers dead.

The six Americans Taylor sheltered managed to escape the embassy as it was first being occupied.

Born in 1934 in Calgary, Taylor was heralded as a hero for helping save the Americans — a clandestine operation that had the full support of Joe Clark’s short-lived Progressive Conservative government.

In a posting on Twitter, Clark calls Taylor a Canadian hero and a valued friend.

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The plan labelled ‘Canadian Caper’ and the Iranian hostage crisis were both portrayed in the 2012 film Argo, where Taylor was played by Canadian actor Victor Garber. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Taylor criticized the film for making the CIA seem much more responsible for the operation’s success than the Canadians were.

“In general it makes it seem like the Canadians were just along for the ride. The Canadians were brave. Period,” Taylor told The Associated Press.

Taylor was awarded the U.S. congressional gold medal for the role he played in ensuring the safe return of the American hostages. He was also made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1980.

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