Линда Харрисон: Американдық актриса және оның тарихы

American actress
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Linda Melson Harrison (born July 26, 1945) is an American television and film actress. She played Nova in the science fiction film classic Planet of the Apes (1968) and the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes; she also had a cameo in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the original. She was a regular cast member of the 1969–70 NBC television series Bracken's World. She was the second wife of film producer Richard D. Zanuck (Jaws, Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory); her youngest son is producer Dean Zanuck (Road to Perdition, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Linda Melson Harrison was born in Berlin, Maryland. She was the third of five daughters 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 a long history in the Delmarva region. According to Ancestry. com, the Melson family were mid 17th century immigrants to Maryland from Melsonby St James in North Yorkshire. The Anglo Welsh Harrisons had been resident for generations in West Kirby, Cheshire, when one Richard Harrison, son of another Richard Harrison, emigrated in the early 17th century from West Kirby to the New Haven Colony in what is now Connecticut, thence to Maryland. Richard's direct descendant, Harrison's paternal grandfather, Joseph G. Harrison, and Joseph's older brother, Orlando Harrison (Mayor of Berlin 1900–1910 and 1916–1918 and Maryland State Senator for Worcester County, 1916 1928), established J. G. Harrison & Sons Nurseries, which were, at one time, the largest fruit tree nursery business in America, employing some five hundred workers. The former Harrison Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, which Harrison attended briefly, was named for her paternal great uncle, Senator Orlando Harrison. "I knew she'd be a star when she was only five," Ida Harrison told an interviewer in 1969. Mrs Harrison, who described her middle daughter as "a little ham", enrolled her in ballet and acrobatics classes at age five. By the time she entered Berlin's Stephen Decatur High School, Harrison had become a skilled acrobatic dancer. Harrison also dreamed of becoming an actress and a star. It was Harrison's plan to become an actress by entering and winning beauty contests, then travel to California to be seen and noticed. When she was in her teens, Harrison worked summers as a waitress at Phillips Crab House in Ocean City, Maryland; she was dating the son of the restaurant's owners when she flew to California for the Miss America beauty contest. A month later, Harrison represented her home town at the Delmarva Chicken Festival beauty contest. In New York, Kay and Linda shared an apartment and their mother Ida's credit card. Harrison scored some success as a model, but she disliked New York and was homesick for Maryland. In August 1965, Medavoy obtained a "personality test" for her at 20th Century Fox. No acting was involved; Harrison answered questions directed to her from off camera, while speaking into the camera on various subjects. The test earned her Fox's standard 60 day option agreement, scheduled to expire in November 1965. At the post premiere party, which she attended with her studio assigned date, Harrison was thrilled to meet her longtime idol, Heston, with whom she would soon co star in Planet of the Apes. At the premiere, Harrison met Sokolov's boss, Fox's Vice President in Charge of Production Richard D. Zanuck. Zanuck, Harrison said later, was immediately "smitten" and fell "madly in love" with her, and she with him, and they began to date. blockquote|All during this period, Dick was telling me about this fabulous book called Planet of the Apes and that it was going to make a great movie. He said, "I want you to play the ape, Dr. Zira." Zanuck had financed the test in order to show Fox's money men that, despite all doubts to the contrary, the Planet of the Apes project was feasible. The test, written by Rod Serling and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starred Harrison's idol, Charlton Heston, and Edward G. Robinson as Heston's nemesis, Dr. Zaius. Harrison appeared as Zira, the role ultimately played by Kim Hunter, while Harrison's Talent School classmate fellow contract actor, James Brolin, took on Roddy McDowall's role of Cornelius. blockquote|I think they always had me in mind for Nova. But they needed someone to do the screen test, and you keep trying to employ your actors. So. I did the screen test. The part that was hard for me was actually doing the mask, where they put all that plaster on your face and you have to lie there still for a long time. Fortunately, I was an acrobat growing up, and a very very good one — I won a lot of contests — so I knew how to control my body and be 'quiet'. You had to do that, you had to be very still and lay there and be a 'good patient'. A young actor will do anything to get their mug on the screen! a bedroom comedy about marital infidelity directed by Gene Kelly and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse and Inger Stevens. Harrison described her vignette with Carl Reiner as "fun" because it took her "all over the world. I was in limousines and on a donkey and on a camel." In addition to speaking one line of dialogue, she wore several costumes for her five minute globe trotting adventure, including an elaborate sequinned bikini, a diaphanous negligee, and a fiery red sarong.

Linda Harrison's second outing in her most famous role was in the first sequel to Planet of the Apes. She admitted "it wasn't as good as the first", "Ted Post was a wonderful television director," Director Ted Post said, "It moved basically as an entertainment piece, nothing more." Post wanted the script rewritten. "I was very unhappy with the script, and I thought the script was far from what it should have been. Harrison, who was by then pregnant with her first son, later sued for wrongful termination, breach of contract, alleged defamation, and infliction of emotional distress. Harrison was named in the $22 million lawsuit her husband filed November 1, 1971, against Darryl, Fox, the studio Chairman and CEO Dennis C. Stanfill, and Fox Executive Committee chairman William T. Gossett. In his suit Zanuck contended that he, Harrison, and former Fox executive David Brown had been wrongly terminated and subjected to humiliation and embarrassment. The suit was settled out of court. The terms and amounts of Harrison's settlements were never disclosed.

In 1974, after a sabbatical of several years, Harrison attempted to return to her career. She desperately wanted the role of Roy Scheider's wife in Jaws, and urged her husband to give it to her. Zanuck asked director Steven Spielberg if he would consider Harrison, but Spielberg preferred actress Lorraine Gary, whom he had seen in a TV movie, The Marcus Nelson Murders, and cast her instead of Harrison "because she was right for the part." Harrison was upset over Spielberg's preference for Gary, feeling that her husband should have gotten her the part. "I really wanted Dick to go to bat for me this one time." As a consolation, Universal chief Sid Sheinberg, Lorraine Gary's husband, got Harrison a part in Airport 1975 as Gloria Swanson's personal assistant, Winnie. Though the movie starred Harrison's long time idol, Charlton Heston, Harrison had no scenes with him, and "would have much rather had Jaws on my resume." Years later, in an April 2012 interview, Harrison offered a reason she had lost the role because "They said Roy Scheider couldn't get a girl as beautiful as me." Airport 1975 was the first time Harrison appeared under the name "Augusta Summerland", which her guru had chosen for her. After Airport 1975, Harrison guest starred on several TV shows. As "Augusta Summerland", she appeared on Barnaby Jones in episode #67 "The Alpha Bravo War" (air date: October 24, 1975); on Switch in episode #24 "Death Squad" (air date: April 6, 1976); and again on Barnaby Jones in episode #114 "The Damocles Gun" (air date: October 20, 1977). In the 1980s, Harrison resumed studying acting and enrolled in an acting school. When the school held a showcase presentation of its students' work, Harrison invited her by then ex husband and his third wife, Lili Fini Zanuck. The Zanucks needed a middle aged actress to play Barrett Oliver's mother in their upcoming production of Cocoon; after viewing Harrison's scenes, they told her there might be a part for her. "So I had an interview with Ron Howard and he said 'You got the part.'" Most of the footage Harrison shot was omitted from the final, so "if you blink you miss me. They showed my shots all over the place, but it got cut out."

In 2008, the 40th anniversary of the release of Planet of the Apes, Harrison traveled to Catalonia, Spain, where on October 11, she was awarded the Maria Honorifica at the Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya in recognition of her career.

Year Film Director Role 1966 The Fat Spy Joseph Cates Treasure Hunter 1966 Way Way Out Gordon Douglas Peggy 1967 A Guide for the Married Man Gene Kelly Miss Stardust 1968 Planet of the Apes Franklin J. Schaffner Nova 1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes Ted Post Nova 1974 Airport 1975 Jack Smight Winnie (credited as "Augusta Summerland") 1985 Cocoon Ron Howard Susan 1988 Cocoon: The Return Daniel Petrie Susan 1995 Wild Bill Walter Hill Madam 2001 Planet of the Apes Tim Burton Woman in Cart 2022 Midnight Massacre Travis Bowen (lead director) Quinia Brutus

Year Show Episode Role 1966 Men Against Evil Pilot Biker Chick 1966 Batman The Joker Goes to School Cheerleader II 1966 Batman He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul Cheerleader II 1967 Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? Short Wonder Woman – Reflection (uncredited) 1969 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Wednesday, November 19, 1969 Herself 1969–1970 Bracken's World 41 episodes Paulette Douglas 1975 Barnaby Jones "The Alpha Bravo War" Dori Calder (credited as "Augusta Summerland") 1976 Switch Death Squad Jill Martin (credited as "Augusta Summerland") 1977 Barnaby Jones The Damocles Gun Jan Redbow (credited as "Augusta Summerland") 1998 Behind the Planet of the Apes TV documentary Herself 2014 Inside Edition Episode #25.221 Herself