Taylor was born in Provo, Utah to Janet "Nettie" Maria Woolley and John W. Taylor, the son of John Taylor, the late president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the LDS or Mormon Church). Samuel's father was a former member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, having left in 1905 in protest over the church's recent abandonment of polygamy. Despite his father's ecclesiastical history and excommunication in 1911, Samuel was raised in the LDS Church. He later wrote a biography of his father called Family Kingdom, and one of his grandfather titled The Kingdom or Nothing.

In the late 1920s Taylor attended Brigham Young University (BYU) studying journalism. He became editor of the student newspaper Y News, in which he also wrote a weekly column called "Taylored Topics." After writing covering a story about bootleggers on campus, Taylor was questioned by school administration to divulge his sources, but he refused. After a temporary suspension, he returned to his previous position with the paper, and returned to upsetting administration with his writing. After six suspensions, he later recalled that he could "take a hint" and dropped out of BYU. By then he had already published five articles in nationally distributed magazines. He decided to "escape" Utah and followed a Gay Dimick, a fellow BYU student, back to her native California. They married there in 1934 and established their longtime home in Redwood City.

In World War II, he served as an officer in the Army Air Force public relations office in the European theater of war.

Film scripts and adaptations

In 1942, the first film based on one of Taylor's stories, The Man Who Returned to Life, was released. This was later followed in 1951 by The Man with My Face based on his novel of the same name.

His first foray into screenwriting began with Bait in 1954.

In contrast to the serious nature of these films, Taylor was also the author of the short stories on which the Disney movies The Absent-Minded Professor, Flubber, and Son of Flubber were based.

He is sometimes incorrectly credited as the writer of Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo, though that screenplay was actually written by Samuel A. Taylor.

General novels

Those novels not dealing specifically with Mormonism:

• The Grinning Gismo, A. a. Wyn Inc, 1951.
• The Man with My Face, 1948
• Take My Advice, Mr. President, Taylor Trust, 1996, ISBN 1-56684-344-8.
• Uranium Fever, With Raymond Taylor, Macmillan Company, 1970

Latter-day Saint works

Biography and history

• Family Kingdom, ISBN 0-914740-14-8.
• The John Taylor Papers (2 vols), Taylor Trust, 1984.
• The Kingdom or Nothing (republished as The Last Pioneer, Signature Books, 1999, ISBN 1-56085-115-5)
• I Have Six Wives (based on the life of Rulon C. Allred)
• Nightfall at Nauvoo, ISBN 0-380-00247-7.
• Taylor-made Tales, Aspen Books, Murray, UT, 1994, ISBN 156236216X (autobiography)
• Rocky Mountain Empire

Humorous fiction

• Heaven Knows Why!, Thousand Oaks, CA: Millennial Productions, 1979. Mormon comedy set in Utah. It was originally published serially in Collier's magazine in 1948 as "The Mysterious Way", and is considered by some to be the funniest piece of fiction written on Mormon culture.