Celebrity Nooz: Linda Harrison

Linda Harrison (Actress) - Planet of the Apes

Updated: 7/28/17

Name: Linda Harrison

Birth Name: Linda Melson Harrison

Born: 26 July 1945, Berlin, Maryland, USA

Nickname: Nova

Claim To Fame: Linda Harrison is an actress, best known for 'Planet of the Apes' and 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes'.

Family Life: She had been married to Richard D. Zanuck from October 26, 1969 to January 23, 1978. They had two children together.

Info: Linda Melson Harrison was born in Berlin, Maryland.

Harrison won the "Miss Delmarva" beauty contest.

Harrison scored some success as a model.

She entered the 1964 Miss Delmarva beauty pageant as Miss Berlin, and won.

Harrison followed her 1964 win by entering the Miss Maryland beauty pageant, a preliminary event to the Miss American pageant, itself the final preliminary event to the Miss International contest, and won the contest over nineteen other girls.

Then it was Miss American contest. But she was first-runner up and was "devastated", and so deeply disappointed over losing that she wept backstage.

In 1965, Harrison met Richard D. Zanuck at the premiere of 'The Agony and the Ecstasy' and they were immediately "smitten" and fell "madly in love".

During their first 60-days that she started dating Richard, Harrison signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox.

She always wanted to become an actress and perform.

Trivia: Second wife of Richard D. Zanuck.

Mother, with Richard D. Zanuck, of sons Harrison Zanuck and Dean Zanuck.

She was to be the sheriff's (Roy Scheider) wife in Jaws (1975), which her husband Richard D. Zanuck was producing. However, Universal chief Sid Sheinberg wanted his own wife, Lorraine Gary, to have the part. Since Sheinberg was Zanuck's boss, Gary got it.

As of August 2009, her primary residence--since the late 1970s--has been on the Eastern Shore of her home state of Maryland.

Along with Charlton Heston, she is one of only two actors to appear in both Planet of the Apes (1968) and Planet of the Apes (2001).

Where Are They Now: Harrison became an institution at Planet of the Apes cons.

Back in 2013, Harrison began filming Midnight Massacre, on which she served as executive producer and co-directed. The post-apocalyptic thriller, set in the near future, is loosely based on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and was finally released in 2016.

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