---
name: "Linda Harrison"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/linda-harrison"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "26 July 1945"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 58
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-19T16:45:37.461652+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Linda Harrison

Actor. Born 26 July 1945 in Berlin, Maryland, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 26 July 1945, Berlin, Maryland, USA
- **Active:** 1968–2001
- **Also known as:** Augusta Summerland, Linda Melson Harrison, لیندا هریسون
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 3 acting, 1 other
- **Frequently works with:** [Arthur P. Jacobs](https://film.one/person/arthur-p-jacobs.md), [Charlton Heston](https://film.one/person/charlton-heston.md), [Kim Hunter](https://film.one/person/kim-hunter.md), [Maurice Evans](https://film.one/person/maurice-evans.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 58, as actor, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 84 (1), 1970s 64 (2), 2000s 40 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 58 to 54 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Adventure 3, Science Fiction 3, Action 2, Drama 1, Mystery 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $414m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Harrison, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q272445, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365709/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13260

## Fi1m on Linda Harrison

> Linda Harrison played Nova twice and never said a word. That is the career: a face doing the work the script would not, in one film that barely needed her and one that could not do without her.

Nova has no lines. In *Planet of the Apes* (1968) she stands near Charlton Heston, looks worried, and is not asked to do anything else; in a film we rate highly, that is the whole of the part Schaffner and the script hand Linda Harrison. Her own account of how she built it is better than anything they gave her to play. She said she thought about animal instincts, that Nova "would react more the way an animal would react, more from fear", and that is what is on screen: a flinch first, a thought second, and nothing performed for the audience's benefit.

The route to that cage is a studio story. Fox signed her in November 1965 after a beauty pageant and a personality test, put her through the revived talent school with the fencing and dance and speech classes, and paid a coach to take the Eastern Maryland out of her voice. Then they billed her as "introducing Linda Harrison" in a role with no dialogue. Before it there were small parts in *Batman* (1966) and *A Guide for the Married Man* (1967); after it a regular berth on *Bracken's World* (1969–70), *Airport 1975* (1974), *Cocoon* (1985) and its sequel, and a cameo as a woman in a cart in the 2001 remake. Supporting work, steadily, across decades. None of it is where the reputation lives.

The reputation lives in the sequel, which is the odder film and the worse one. *Beneath the Planet of the Apes* (1970) gives Nova more to do and still no words, and James Franciscus's Brent spends much of it asking where he is. Harrison does more with a look than Ted Post's script manages for anyone else. We were moved, more than the film around her deserved, watching a man ask his questions of a woman who can only look back at him; she gives each one the same steady attention, and it is the attention, not the answer, that tells us how far from home he is. Heston, who did three films with her, is all teeth and tendon in these pictures. Harrison is the stillness he shouts across.

The fair complaint is that this is one performance, given twice, and that the studio which taught her to speak never found out whether she could. We cannot tell you from the two films we have reviewed. What we can tell you is which to watch for her. The 1968 film is the better film and hardly notices she is there. The 1970 film is not much of a film and would be nothing without her.

## Biography

Linda Harrison is an American actress. Born in Berlin, Maryland, she won local and state beauty pageants before being spotted by talent scout Mike Medavoy and signed to a contract at 20th Century Fox.

She is best known for playing Nova opposite Charlton Heston in *Planet of the Apes* (1968) and *Beneath the Planet of the Apes* (1970). Other credits include the television series *Bracken's World* (1969–1970) and films such as *Airport 1975* (1974, as Augusta Summerland) and *Cocoon* (1985). She had a cameo in the 2001 remake of *Planet of the Apes*.

Harrison was married to film producer Richard D. Zanuck from 1969 until their divorce in 1978.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Performed in (3) — the average rests on these

- *Planet of the Apes* (2001), Fi1m 40, as Woman in Cart — [page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes-2001.md)
- *Beneath the Planet of the Apes* (1970), Fi1m 50, as Nova — [page](https://film.one/film/beneath-the-planet-of-the-apes.md)
- *Planet of the Apes* (1968), Fi1m 84, as Nova — [page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Escape from the Planet of the Apes* (1971), Fi1m 77, as Nova (archive footage) (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes.md)

## Complete filmography (18)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Midnight Massacre* (2025), as Quinia Brutus · Co-Director
- *The Kill Room* (2023), as Charlene Proube
- *Monster Madness: The Counter Culture To Blockbusters* (2015), as (archive footage)
- *Planet of the Apes* (2001), as Woman in Cart — Fi1m 40, [page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes-2001.md)
- *Wild Bill* (1995), as Madam
- *Cocoon: The Return* (1988), as Susan
- *Cocoon* (1985), as Susan
- *Airport 1975* (1974), as Winnie
- *Escape from the Planet of the Apes* (1971), as Nova (archive footage) (uncredited) — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes.md)
- *Beneath the Planet of the Apes* (1970), as Nova — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/film/beneath-the-planet-of-the-apes.md)
- *Bracken's World* (1969), series, as Paulette Douglas
- *Planet of the Apes* (1968), as Nova — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes.md)
- *A Guide for the Married Man* (1967), as Miss Stardust
- *Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?* (1967), as Wonder Woman's Reflection
- *Way... Way Out* (1966), as Peggy
- *The Fat Spy* (1966), as Treasure Hunter
- *Planet of the Apes Test Reel* (1966), as Dr. Zira
- *Batman* (1966), series, as Cheerleader II

## Gallery

- ![Linda Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-2e947e4807d1.jpg) Linda Harrison — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Linda_Harrison_-_early_studio_publicity_headshot_ca_1966.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison in the classic 1968 film Planet of the Apes](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-c7da8c27c2d2.jpg) Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison in the classic 1968 film Planet of the Apes — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Heston_and_harrison_planet_of_the_apes.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![From Midnite Marquee July 29, 2000 Baltimore M.D. (2019)](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-fa540350d7df.jpg) From Midnite Marquee July 29, 2000 Baltimore M.D. (2019) — John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel  Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Linda_Harrison_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Towson M.D. 2002 (2019)](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-325507810862.jpg) Towson M.D. 2002 (2019) — John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel  Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Linda_Harrison_2002.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Linda Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-3accfb9500f6.jpg) Linda Harrison — Image via TMDB
- ![Linda Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-171a3bde894d.jpg) Linda Harrison — Image via TMDB
- ![Publicity photo of Linda Harrison and Dennis Cole in NBC's Bracken's World, October 1969](https://film.one/media/person/1097632/gallery-476202cc9a6f.jpg) Publicity photo of Linda Harrison and Dennis Cole in NBC's Bracken's World, October 1969 — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Linda_Harrison_Dennis_Cole_Brackens_World_1969.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/linda-harrison