Rod Taylor, the ruggedly handsome Australian-born actor who fended off attacks from above in Alfred Hitchcock’s revered horror film “The Birds” and helped an 8,000th-century people escape a monster race in the film version of the science-fiction classic “The Time Machine,” died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. His death was announced by his daughter, Felicia Taylor, a former correspondent and anchor for CNN and CNBC. Mr. Taylor was only the second Australian actor, after Errol Flynn (who was born in Tasmania), to achieve major Hollywood stardom, though many moviegoers did not know his origins....