Linda Harrison

At 79 years old, Linda Harrison physical status not available right now. We will update Linda Harrison's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Linda Melson Harrison (born July 26, 1945) is an American television and film actress, writer, and producer who is best known for her role as Nova, Charlton Heston's mute mate in the science fiction film classic Planet of the Apes (1968) and the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes; she appeared in Tim Burton's 2001 adaptation of the original.

She appeared in Bracken's World, a regular cast member of the 1969-70 NBC television series Bracken's World.

She was Richard D. Zanuck's second wife (Jaws, Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, Charlie, and the Chocolate Factory); her youngest son is comedian Dean Zanuck (Road to Perdition, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Early life and family

Linda Melson Harrison was born in Berlin, Maryland. She was the third of five children of Isaac Burbage Harrison, a nurseryman, and his wife, Ida Virginia Melson, a beautician. She was the middle child, with two older sisters, Kay and Gloria, and two younger sisters, Jane and Joan. The Harrisons, like Linda's maternal Melson ancestors, had long roots in the Delmarva area. The Melson family immigrated to Maryland from Melsonby St James in North Yorkshire in the mid-17th century, according to Ancestry.com. When one Richard Harrison, the son of another Richard Harrison, emigrated in the early 17th century from West Kirby to Maryland in what is now Connecticut, the Anglo-Welsh Harrisons had been resident for generations. Joseph G. Harrison, Harrison's paternal grandfather, and Joseph's older brother, Orlando Harrison, 1910-1928) both arrived in Berlin (1910 and 1916-1928), and the Maryland State Senator for Worcester County, 1916-1928), established J.G. Harrison & Sons Nurseries, Inc., were the country's largest fruit tree nursery business, employing over 500 employees. Senator Orlando Harrison, the former Harrison Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, was named for her paternal uncle, who attended briefly.

"I knew she'd be a star when she was only five," Ida Harrison said in an interview in 1969. At age 5, Mrs Harrison, who referred to her middle daughter as "a little ham," enrolls her in ballet and acrobatics classes. Harrison was on stage by age six and adoring it. She attended Buckingham Elementary School in Berlin, which her mother and all her siblings attended. Harrison's acrobatic appearance in the Delmarva Chicken Festival Talent Contest in 1956, when she was 11 years old, won her first prize. Harrison won the "Miss Delmarva" beauty competition six years ago at the same festival. Harrison had developed to be a versatile acrobatic dancer by the time she enrolled at Stephen Decatur High School in Berlin. Harrison had always aspired to be an actress and a comedian.

It was Harrison's dream to become an actress by entering and winning beauty competitions, then travelled to California to be seen and noticed. Harrison served summers at Phillips Crab House in Ocean City, Maryland, where she was dating the restaurant's son when she arrived in California for the Miss America beauty competition. She appeared on local TV shows carried on Baltimore television station WMAR from time to time. In the senior class production of the 1940 Kaufman/Hart play George Washington Slept Here, Harrison talked about her first dramatic appearance while attending Stephen Decatur High School, as "Connie Fuller" in the 1940 Kaufman/Hart play George Washington Slept Here. William Hockersmith crowned her Miss Berlin at the Miss Berlin Beauty Pageant, a scholarship held at the high school, on Saturday, May 19, 1962. Harrison also appeared in the Delmarva Chicken Festival beauty competition a month later.

Harrison, a high school graduate, enrolled in a summer term at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a mysterious private school in Baltimore, but found it uninspiring. Harrison and her older sister, Kay, left college and headed for New York with $250 and their mother's credit card. Harrison would lament her "admittedly poor formal education" to an interviewer, saying she "missed a lot because I didn't finish school."

Kay and Linda in New York shared an apartment with their mother Ida's credit card. Harrison had some success as a model, but she disliked New York and was homesick for Maryland. She returned home less than a year after deciding she wanted to be an actress by winning beauty competitions, she entered the 1964 Miss Delmarva beauty pageant as Miss Berlin. Harrison matched her 1964 victory by entering the Miss Maryland beauty pageant, a precursor to the Miss America pageant, and the final preliminary event of the Miss International competition, which will be held in Long Beach, California, in mid-June 1965. Harrison captured the competition over nineteen other girls, and as Miss Maryland, she travelled to California for the Miss America contest. She expected the trip to last two weeks, but after being named Miss America, she decided she would return home in two weeks. However, she was the first-runner up, not the champion. Harrison was "devastated" and so sorry for her loss that she wept backstage.

Despite her striking good looks and hourglass figure, Mike Medavoy, then an agent for the GM Corporation, had missed her. Medavoy told her, "You should be in pictures." Medavoy's 20th Century Fox mother obtained a "personality test" in August 1965. No acting was involved; Harrison answered questions directed to her from off-camera when speaking to a camera on various topics. The test completed her Fox's common 60-day option contract, which is due to end in November 1965. Harrison spent time as a student at Fox acting coach Pamela Danova during her 60-day option period.

Fox named Harrison as the date of studio attorney Harry E. Sokolov's debut in October 1965, prior to her option's expiration. "Harry was from Baltimore," she was selected as Sokolov's date. Harrison was ecstatic for her first appearance and because Charlton Heston, who had been her idol since she had seen Ben-Hur, was her favorite since she had seen him. Harrison, a longtime fan of her studio-assigned date, was thrilled to visit Heston, who would shortly co-star in Planet of the Apes at the post-premiere party, where she will soon co-star in Planet of the Apes. Harrison met Sokolov's boss, Fox's Vice President in Charge of Production Richard D. Zanuck, at the premiere. Harrison, Zanuck, said later, was "madly in love" with her, and she and him, and they began to date. Harrison's acting career and life were inextricably linked with their subsequent marriage.

Source

Career

Harrison joined Fox's predictable seven-year deal in November and was placed in the company's Talent Training School right after that encounter. Though Harrison told interviewers that Zanuck had founded the academy so "he could keep an eye on me," the school was actually a former Fox academy that Zanuck had revived to educate aspiring, talented young actors and actresses under Fox contract; besides Harrison, Jacqueline Brolin, Tom Selleck, and Edy Williams were among the student roster members. Harrison attended drama classes, speech lessons, fencing, dance, and body movement lessons, as well as lectures delivered by veteran actors, actors, editors, journalists, and educators under coach Pamela Danova and Curt Conway. Harrison worked with a speech coach to get rid of her Eastern Maryland accent in addition to her strenuous round of classes.

Harrison's first job under her new Fox contract was as a "Biker Chick" in Men Against Evil, a television pilot that was later known as the TV show Felony Squad.

"I had three words, "Go, man, go!"

I was 19 years old and dressed in this sexy motorcycle jacket.

Those were my first words!

This was still the days of stardom and premieres. Every minute of your life was so exciting because you were doing something so unique and special." (Harrison co-starred in the NBC television series Bracken's World as Felony Squad actor Dennis Cole's love interest in the NBC TV series Bracken's World.) Harrison's next assignment was in the Batman television series, where she appeared briefly as one of three high school cheerleaders in the episodes "The Joker Goes to School" and "He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul," which premiered in early March 1966. Harrison and her coworkers joined her early in the morning and on the day to prepare her for her few seconds on film. "You're going to use up all your energy," Linda, a former high school cheerleader, said, "I won't have one" when the shot came. "Linda Harrison gave me a rough time," her coach told me. Harrison's overworked leg muscles failed on her way home, and Zanuck was forced to carry her upstairs to their Wilshire-Westwood apartment after the brief late afternoon blast.

Harrison was shot in ape makeup for a proposed film version of Pierre Boulle's satirical book, Monkey Planet, on March 8, 1966, just after her brief appearance on Batman. Despite all doubts to the contrary, Zanuck had funded the experiment in order to inform Fox's money men that the Planet of the Apes project was feasible. Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson as Heston's nemesis, Dr. Zaius, in the test, written by Rod Serling and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Harrison appeared as Zira, the role later played by Kim Hunter, while Harrison's Talent School classmate James Brolin took on Roddy McDowall's role as Cornelius.

Despite the fact that the pe make-up test was deemed successful, the studio has cancelled the project again. Meanwhile, Harrison made her big screen debut in The Fat Spy in May 1966 as one of many "treasure Hunters." If it hadn't been mentioned in a 2004 documentary as one of the 50 Worst Movies Ever Made, the low-budget comedy may have been forgotten. Harrison's next big screen outing was in the Jerry Lewis comedy Way...Way Out; she was half of a husband-wife astronaut team on the verge of divorce; She appeared in the film early in the film, arguing vehemently in her still-uneradicated Down Eastern accent, with her husband and on-screen Talent School classmate James Brolin, with whom she had taken part in the Planet of the Apes makeup test. Harrison stormed out, and the film continued without her.

Harrison appeared in a four-minute test segment titled "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?" following Way...Way Out. "Boston creator William Dozier's "Initiation of a Wonder Woman pilot and a potential television series" was supposed to ignite enthusiasm. Harrison portrayed Wonder Woman in a glamorous mirror image that existed only in the imagination of the homely Diana Prince character played by Ellie Wood Walker (Robert Walker Jr.'s wife).

The "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?"

The segment didn't inspire much excitement in a Wonder Woman pilot, but Lynda Carter had a huge success in this role eight years ago. In A Guide to the Married Man (1967), a bedroom comedy about marital infidelity directed by Gene Kelly and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens, Harrison appeared as Carl Reiner's blonde-wigged young inamorata "Miss Stardust." Because it took her "all over the world," Harrison called her vignette with Carl Reiner "fun." I was in limousines, on a donkey, and on a camel." She wore many outfits for her five-minute globe-trotting adventure, including an intricate sequinned bikini, a diaphanous negligee, and a fiery red sarong.

Arthur P. Jacobs first imagined former Bond girl Ursula Andress for Nova, and extensive auditions were held for the role, with one of the women tested being Angelique Pettyjohn, who had appeared as a warrior in the Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion." Filming was supposed to begin in May 1967, but Charlton Heston's diary said in his diary, "The casting problem is really Nova: who will do it and how naked will she be." The tests were not positive." Zanuck eventually asked Jacobs and Mort Abrahams if they should try Harrison. Abrahams wrote, "Dick] did it really well."

Harrison said of her role as Nova: "I was worried about animal instincts, the way [Nova] will move, and the way she would react would be more the way an animal will react, rather than fear." It seemed that the director intended it. Harrison was hired to play the part for which she would later be identified after her failed exam.

Harrison, Mort Abrahams said, was

On May 21, 1967, the Apes' planet began filming on May 21, 1967, and was completed on August 10, 1967. On locations near Page, Arizona, the first scenes were shot on location. After escaping from Ape City, Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River stood in for the Forbidden Zone, through which Taylor, Zira, Cornelius, and Harrison's Nova fled. Harrison, who had the company of her elder sister Kay on location, was amazed "how they moved an entire factory, like a little mini-town, and set up."

"Linda H. has issues," Heston wrote in his diary on June 16, 1967, but Frank is preventing her from being physically present in her scenes, which is effective." Harrison said he took it upon himself to coach her because Heston knew it was her "first big picture." Harrison was naturally "camera-shy," so Heston "taught me to love the camera." Don't try to get it right. Let's face it; not to turn my head this way. And he'll say it would be better to do it right here. Don't go all the way back. "I held my hand for a lot of things." Harrison said their off-screen friendships reflected their on-screen romance.

Harrison credited the support she received from the veteran actors: "I was a neophyte, so they all knew I was a neophyte, and they took me under their wing because I wasn't doing it well."

On the Planet of the Apes set, Kim Hunter recalled working with Harrison.

Nova was pregnant at one point, and scenes were shot around the Page locations revealing Nova's pregnancy. Taylor was killed by a bullet from an ape sniper's bullet, but Nova, a pregnant Taylor's child, escaped and vanished into the Forbidden Zone in the penultimate drafts of Planet of the Apes. Despite Harrison's assertion that it was Heston who denied Nova's pregnancy, those scenes were deleted, according to screenwriter Michael Wilson, "at the request of a high-echelon Fox executive who found it distasteful."

Why?

If one thinks the mute Nova is merely "human" not human," it would imply that Taylor committed sodomy." Nova's pregnancy was also determined to detract from the film's ending, and it was also decided that it would not be deleted from the film's ending. In any case, all Harrison's scenes with Heston and Hunter in the sequence of Nova's pregnancy were cut. "There's certainly a lot of footage of it somewhere."

Following filming in the desert ended, production moved west of Los Angeles to Malibu Creek State Park on Las Virgenes Highway, where the 20th Century Fox's Malibu Ranch was located. Ape City was built on the ranch, with a field of corn growing, which Heston first encounters Harrison. Harrison recalled, "It was stinking hot." "We were shot in cages at Ape City." Production moved from the Malibu Ranch to the coast, where the penultimate scenes between Malibu and Oxnard were shot. On the far eastern end of Westward Beach, the final scenes were shot in a secluded cove between Zuma Beach and Point Dume. Nova de Capelle was the sole human witness to Taylor's outburst on the beach, after which she stands up and sees the ruined Statue of Liberty without understanding why it caused her mate's pain.

These were some of Harrison's favorite scenes shot on the coast. "She thought that was kind of neat." And then he came riding his horse and riding with him, and I smiled. We were going to wherever – it was out there. That would have been a great way to get off, but they've already started the next one that way."

Harrison said she was aware of the film's sociopolitical undertones in later years:

In February 1968, the Apes' planet appeared on its own. On its debut, the film was a hit, as well as a commercial and economic triumph. Harrison was billed under the name "introducing Linda Harrison" in the opening credits, but she had appeared in three previous films. Zanuck wanted to draw attention to Harrison because he felt that the job would catapult her to fame. Harrison wowed audiences with her hourglass figure, long dark hair, and large brown eyes, which, in the absence of spoken dialogue, did the bulk of her acting, although some observers were unimpressed. Harrison was dismissed by Renata Adler of the New York Times as "Heston's Neanderthal flower girl." When she wants to say something, she wiggles her hips. The success of Planet of the Apes resulted in four sequels, an animated cartoon series, a live-action television series, Tim Burton's remake, and a remake that spawned three films. In the first sequel, Beneath the Apes, Heston and Harrison appeared. Harrison made a brief cameo in the 2001 reboot, which also included Heston.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a 30th anniversary screening of Planet of the Apes on August 27, 1998. Harrison, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell, and John Chambers attended, as well as Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell and John Chambers. The film was also on the 2001 National Film Registry inductees.

Linda Harrison was second outing in her most well-known role in the first sequel to Planet of the Apes. She confessed that "it wasn't as good as the first," noting that the original "had a top producer and cinematographer." Franklin J. Schaffner was unable to beat him. We made it for less in the second film.

At the time of the production of Planet of the Apes, no sequels had been considered; it was only during that film's success that a sequel was discussed. Neither Charlton Heston nor Kim Hunter wanted to film another Apes film; Roddy McDowall pleaded another responsibility; and Harrison herself was ambivalent. Richard Zanuck, her mentor, was engaged and "no longer worried about being an actress." I don't even want to do another picture. However, I was feeling obligated because this is a sequel to the one I did last year. "The Daily Mail was a wonderful television director," Harrison said, "it was wonderful to work with, an actor's dream." With him, I could get away with murder.

Despite the fact that Nova's role was expanded, the sequel was a slow rush to produce a sequel in order to cash in on the original. Harrison's speech eked out one word before she was shot to death, but no new was added. "It basically worked as an entertainment piece, nothing more," director Ted Post said. The script had to be rewritten by the Post, according to the author. "I was extremely unhappy with the script, and I thought the script was far from what it should have been." The tale was tangled, and it didn't measure up." Charlton Heston was called by James Franciscus during his first reading of the script for Beneath the Apes. "Have you read this piece of crap?" Chuck said.

Harrison's position was so difficult to do anything with, according to the newspaper.

James Franciscus, Harrison's co-star, recalled her fondly: she recalled her fondly:

On the second Apes film, Harrison recalled "having a lot of fun."

Harrison was cast as one of a trio of actresslets in the Fox-produced NBC television series Bracken's World while filming Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It was, she said, "a series Dick [Zanuck]] had wanted to do for a long time." So I got the role, and I had to finish Beneath and jump straight into the pilot." She played Paulette Douglas, a young woman and young actor who wanted to strike a balance between studio and intimate relationship with a studio stuntman in Harrison's Felony Squad co-star Dennis Cole. Jeanne Cooper, an Emmy Award-winning actress, appeared as Douglas' pushy mother in the series. Harrison began filming the day after completing her filming on Beneath the Planet of Apes.

"And I had to start remembering lines!

Silence may have been regal," she told an interviewer in October 1969, "but no one knows how thrilled I am to be off the gold standard."

"One of the most refreshing young faces to light up television screens this new season," Harrison was described as "one of the most refreshing young faces to light up TV screens this season." In a press release from Fox, Harrison deficient education and apprehension for Shakespeare, Voltaire, and Aristotle, which she never had. Bracken's World was cancelled midway through its second season. Harrison said later that instead of encouraging the regular cast to develop as an ensemble, the studio needed recognizable celebrities every week, as was the case with shows like Star Trek. "They had it if they approached it as a continuing story rather than focusing on the normal characters," she said. "NBC, on the other hand, wanted a one-hour contained show, so they will include a big guest star in each episode." You run out of stories after a while.

Harrison was trapped in the twentieth Century Fox proxy shareholder war, which began in December 1970, shortly after Bracken's World was canceled. Richard Zanuck, Harrison's husband, was one of the majority shareholders of the company, as well as his father, studio manager Darryl Zanuck, and his mother, actress Virginia Fox, then the late wife of Darryl. After the studio had lost in consecutive years, it was a proxy contest pitting Harrison's husband and mother-in-law against her father-in-law. Darryl, the then-studio chief, dismissed his son during the conflict. Harrison's employment was abruptly ended in January 1971. The reason given was that her presence would be "embarrassing" to the studio. Harrison, who was then pregnant with her first son, was later sued for unlawful termination, breach of employment, infringement of defamation, and emotional distress. Harrison was listed in the $22 million lawsuit brought by her husband against Darryl Fox, a studio chairman and CEO Dennis C. Stanfill, and Fox Executive Committee Chairman William T. Gossett. Zanuck argued that he, Harrison Brown, and former Fox executive David Brown had been wrongfully dismissed and exposed to ridicule and shame. The lawsuit was not settled out of court. Harrison's agreements were never disclosed, in terms and amounts.

Harrison attempted to return to work in 1974 after a lengthy sabbatical. She aspired for the role of Roy Scheider's wife in Jaws and begged her husband to hand over the job to her. When Zachark asked him if he should go back to Harrison, he said no, but Spielberg preferred actress Lorraine Gary, who had appeared in a television film called The Marcus Nelson Murders, to play her rather than Harrison "because she was right for the role." Harrison was furious over Spielberg's choice for Gary, believing that her husband should have given her the role. "I really wanted Dick to bat for me this one time." As a consolation, Universal chief Sid Sheinberg, Lorraine Gary's husband, gave Harrison a seat in Airport 1975 as Gloria Swanson's personal assistant. "While Harrison's long-time idol, Charlton Heston, Harrison, appeared on the film, "I'd much rather have Jaws on my resume," Harrison's long-serving idol, Charlton Heston, Harrison, had no scenes with him, and "I'd much rather have Jaws on my resume." Harrison argued in a May 2012 interview that she had left the role because "they said Roy Scheider couldn't get a girl as beautiful as me."

Despite her resentment over losing her lucrative Jaws job, Harrison was captivated by Gloria Swanson's talent, and spent hours with her on sets between takes. "She had a special affinity for me." She was more specific about Joe Kennedy's sex than she had expected. There wasn't anything she would not say. He was supposed to marry her but he couldn't leave Rose and the children; he was a wonderful husband and she'd go into detail about it." Harrison was the first time she had appeared under the name "Augusta Summerland," which her guru had chosen for her.

Harrison appeared on many television shows since arriving at a long distance from airports in 1975. "Augusta Summerland" was an episode #67 of "The Alpha-Bravo War" (air date: October 24, 1975); and again on Barnaby Jones in episode #67 "The Damocles Gun" (air date: October 20, 1977). Harrison resumed acting and enrolled in an acting school in the 1980s. Harrison invited Lili Fini Zanuck, a by-then ex-husband and his third wife, to a showcase presentation of its students' work. In their forthcoming production of Cocoon, the Zanucks needed a middle-aged actress to play Barrett Oliver's mother; after watching Harrison's scenes, they told her there might be a role for her. "You got the part," Ron Howard said during an interview.' Harrison reprised her role as Susan in the 1988 sequel Cocoon: The Return, which failed to achieve its predecessor's commercial and critical success.

Harrison moved back to Berlin in 1990, where she opened "Harrison's Peach Tree" half a mile from the house where she was born and raised. Several years later, wanting to be closer to her children, she returned to Los Angeles and obtained a real estate license like her eldest sister, Kay. In 1995, she landed a small part as the "Madam" in the Wild Bill. She appeared in Behind the Planet of the Apes, a Kevin Burns television documentary about the creation of the first five Planets of the Apes in 1998. Harrison attended her first science fiction convention in New Jersey in October 1998. Jonathan Harris, Marta Kristen, Mark Goddard, and Angela Cartwright of the original Lost in Space TV series; Lou Ferrigno of The Incredible Hulk TV series; and Sara Karloff were among the attendees. Harrison found it "rewarding" when you consider you haven't done anything for a number of years, and then, suddenly, people are asking for your autograph. It was so gratifying." Harrison became an institution at the Planet of the Apes cons. "I like it." It's very good. Your service is greatly appreciated. In Tim Burton's "Woman in Cart" version of Planet of the Apes, she appeared in 2001. "They're much more brutal in the new film," she said. "And the best. They hurl the humans 50 to 60 feet," the human race says. The majority of Harrison's video was cut from the final, so "if you blink you miss me." They had my shots all over the place, but it was cut out."

Harrison began filming Midnight Massacre in 2013, on which she appeared as executive producer and co-star. The post-apocalyptic drama, which takes place in the near future, is loosely based on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Source