Mac Taylor

Character Name: Mac Taylor
Character Face: Gary Sinise
Status: Single?
Job: CSI
Condo or Apartment: Apartment
Bio:

Mac's father served as a major in the United States Marine Corps. Gail O'Grady guest-starred in one episode as Mac's mother Millie. We learn in "Yahrzeit" that Mac's father, Private First Class McKenna Boyd Taylor, served in liberating the concentration camp Buchenwald. A survivor recounted how the elder Taylor restored his dignity and even offered the man his candy bar. He used to be a shopkeeper in Miami. Originally from Chicago, he moved to New York after his honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps, where he had achieved the rank of Major (indicated by the gold oak leaves on his collar points in Episode 6.02 "Blacklist"). However, in episode 2.24, "Charge of this Post", Mac was shown having the rank of Sergeant. He now considers New York home and once told a colleague that they were working for the finest city in the finest country in the world. Throughout the series, Mac has shown that he will protect three things at any cost: The honor of his country (through his military service), the safety of his city (through his work at CSI), and the integrity of his lab (through his decision to fire Aiden Burn in Season 2, knocking Hawkes off a case that he deliberately withheld information from and suspending Adam Ross after disobeying a direct order).
Mac believes in following the evidence, not trusting to intuition. He looks at a crime scene (and often the world) with Veneziano’s theory of quantum physics in mind: Everything is connected. In Mac's mind, if he and his team can just figure out the connections, then they can solve the crime.

His badge number is "8433". In the final episode of season 8 Mac was revealed to have Welsh heritage, and has the middle name Llewellyn.

Early life

Mac's father died of small-cell lung cancer and spent the last eight months of his life in bed on a feeding tube. As a result, Mac has come to believe strongly in a person’s right to a dignified death. However, when his father begged him to pull the plug, Mac couldn’t do it (episode 309, "And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael").

Mac was married to Claire Conrad. They had no children, though Claire had a child (Reed Garrett) from a previous relationship, who she had since put up for adoption. Mac once described Claire as 5'6, athletic, with light brown hair and big blue eyes (episode 308, "Consequences"). Claire was killed in the 9/11 attacks and her death troubles him to this day, causing chronic insomnia. After her death, Mac got rid of everything that reminded him of her, except pictures and a beach ball she had blown up, saying, "Her breath is still in there" (episode 101, "Blink"). Her remains were never recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center (episode 315, "Some Buried Bones").

Military service

Mac once said that he had wanted to serve his country more than anything else in the world. Even as a child, he dressed up in fatigues and pretended to be a soldier rather than a superhero. He served as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (known today as "The Beirut Battalion") in Beirut, and was injured in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, from which he still bears a scar over his heart. A young Marine died in his arms from shrapnel wounds in the attack (episodes 224, "Charge of this Post;" 301, "People With Money"). The memory of it hit him hard, especially in the episode "Charge of this Post", after barely managing to save the life of his friend and colleague Don Flack after a bombing. The 1/8 also served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. According to episode 224, "Charge of this Post," Mac was discharged in March 1992, so he probably also served in these operations in some capacity, but so far there hasn't been a mention of them.
Thanks to his Marine training, he is skilled in unarmed defense (episode 223, "Heroes") and seems to have an intimate knowledge of a wide range of weaponry, from bows (episode 214, "Stuck on You") through East Asian weaponry (episode 204, "Corporate Warriors") to the more everyday guns and knives. To Mac, the type of weapon used is as revealing as anything else at the scene of the crime.

Mac holds members of the armed forces in high esteem and to an even higher standard. He considers a uniform a "badge of honor", and his disgust with the killer in "Officer Blue" (episode 109) is all the deeper because of the murderer's military background; that a former member of the armed services would use his military training to take lives rather than protect lives obviously wounds him. As Detective Don Flack once said, "Once a Marine, always a Marine" (episode 223, "Heroes"). In the same episode, a murder victim turns out to be a Marine recently returned from Iraq, who was trying to deliver his dead comrade's watch to the man's fiancee; Mac takes it upon himself to complete the young corporal's mission, and succeeds.
Relationships and personality

While Mac typically displays a somber and serious demeanor, he does have a lighter side; he teases Sheldon Hawkes in episode 202, "Grand Murder at Central Station," by telling the young CSI, who is taking a quick lunch break, that "eating is frowned upon," and Lindsay Monroe discovers that he plays bass guitar in a jazz club when he is off-duty (episode 214, "Stuck On You"). Mac also is shown playing bass in the episode 404 "Times Up", after receiving a goodbye letter from Peyton.

Welcome Mac