Linda Harrison (Nova)

Linda Melson Harrison, born July 26, 1945, in Berlin, Maryland, is best known to Apes aficionados as Nova, Taylor's savage mate in Planet Of The Apes (1968) and Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970). Her first taste of fame came in 1964 when she won the Miss Delmarva beauty contest, a victory she followed up the following year by winning Miss Maryland and achieving runner-up as Miss America. She first met Richard Zanuck and Charlton Heston at The Agony And The Ecstasy post-premiere reception, where Zanuck is said to have fallen "madly in love" with her.

Following brief appearances in Men Against Evil and Batman in 1966 she appeared as Zira in the Planet Of The Apes studio pitch alongside Heston, Edward G. Robinson and James Brolin. Less than a month before filming was due to begin, she was cast, aged just 21, as Nova in Planet Of The Apes, a role she reprised in Beneath.

Since hanging up her fur bikini Linda has appeared in Airport '75, Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return  and Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes (2001), among others. Her next role, alongside her Beneath co-star Don Pedro Colley, is as Quinia Brutus in Travis Bowen's swords'n'sandals epic Midnight Massacre (due December 2015).

Linda in 1998

with Don Pedro Colley in 2013

with Charlton Heston

 

with James Franciscus

with James Franciscus