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Linda Melson Harrison (born 26 July 1945) is an American actress, producer, and director, internationally renowned for her role as Nova, Charlton Heston's mute mate in the classic 1968 science fiction film ''Planet of the Apes'' 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 the second wife of legendary 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''). ==Early life and family== Linda Melson Harrison was born July 26, 1945, in Berlin, Maryland. She was the third of five daughters of Isaac Burbage Harrison (1907–1989), a nurseryman, and his wife, Ida Virginia Melson (1914–2010), a beautician. She was the middle child, with two older sisters, Kay and Gloria, and two younger sisters, Jane and Joan.〔Daytona Beach Morning Journal. ''Linda Made It Big Her First Time'', July 25, 1970, p 29〕 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 (1593–1653), son of another Richard Harrison (1559–1617), 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 senator from Maryland), 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 National Nurseryman Vol. 30'', National Nurserymen Pub. Co. (1922), ISBN 9781286363812, pp 164, 339〕 The Harrison Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, which Harrison attended briefly, was named for her paternal great-uncle, Senator Orlando Harrison.〔(Harrison Lab, University of Maryland )〕 "I knew she'd be a star when she was only five," Ida Harrison told an interviewer in 1969.〔Heffernan, Harold. ''New Starlet Wants Most To Marry, Raise Family'' Monday 13 October 1969, ''The Pittsburgh Press'', p 46〕 Mrs Harrison, who described her middle daughter as "a little ham", enrolled her in ballet and acrobatics classes at age five.〔〔 By age six, Harrison was performing on stage, and liking it. She attended Berlin's Buckingham Elementary School, which her mother and all her sisters attended.〔 In 1956, when she was eleven, Harrison's acrobatic performance earned her first prize in the Delmarva Chicken Festival Talent Contest.〔〔 Six years later, at the same festival, Harrison won the "Miss Delmarva" beauty contest.〔〔〔''The Salisbury Times'', 14 June 1962, p 1〕 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 American beauty contest.〔 From time to time, she appeared as a narrator on local TV programs carried over Baltimore TV station WMAR.〔 Harrison essayed her first dramatic role while attending Stephen Decatur High School, that of "Connie Fuller" in the senior class production of the 1940 Kaufman/Hart play ''George Washington Slept Here''.〔 On Saturday, 19 May 1962, William Hockersmith crowned her Miss Berlin at the Miss Berlin Beauty Pageant, which was held at the high school.〔The Salisbury Times, 19 May 1962, p 11〕 A month later, Harrison represented her home town at the Delmarva Chicken Festival beauty contest.〔 After graduating from high school, Harrison enrolled for a summer term at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a secretarial school in Baltimore, but found it uninspiring.〔 When her oldest sister, Kay, graduated from college and headed for New York, Harrison went with her, with $250 and their mother's credit card.〔 Several years later, Harrison would lament her "admittedly deficient formal education" to an interviewer, saying that she "missed a great deal because I didn't finish school."〔Lewis, Richard Warren. ''In Bracken's World Live Beautiful People, Including...'' TV Guide Magazine, 14 February 1970, pp 28–30〕 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 Berlin.〔 Less than a year later, she returned home; following her plan to become an actress by winning beauty contests, 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, which would be held in Long Beach, California, in mid-June 1965. Harrison won the contest over nineteen other girls; that June, as Miss Maryland, she flew to California for the Miss American contest.〔 She thought the trip would last for two weeks; bidding farewell to her boyfriend, she schedule her return home in two weeks, after she was crowned Miss American. But she was first-runner up, not the winner. Harrison was "devastated", and so deeply disappointed over losing that she wept backstage.〔 Her striking good looks and hourglass figure, however, had gained the notice of Mike Medavoy, then an agent at the General Artist Corporation. "You ought to be in pictures," Medavoy told her.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.theforbidden-zone.com/info/harrison2.shtml )〕〔Tweedle, Sam. (April 2012) (''Nova Speaks: A Conversation with Linda Harrison'' )〕 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.〔〔 During her 60-day option period, Harrison studied with Fox acting coach, Pamela Danova.〔 In October 1965, prior to the expiry of her option, Fox assigned Harrison as the date of studio attorney Harry E. Sokolov for the premiere of ''The Agony and the Ecstasy''. She was selected as Sokolov's date because "Harry was from Baltimore." Sokolov was also chief executive assistant to Fox's Vice President in Charge of Production, Richard D. Zanuck.〔 Harrison was excited, because it was her first premiere, and because the film co-starred Charlton Heston, who had been her idol since she had seen ''Ben-Hur''.〔 At the post-premiere party, which she attended with her studio-assigned date, Harrison was thrilled to meet her longtime idol, Charlton Heston, with whom she would soon co-star in ''Planet of the Apes''. Harrison also met Sokolov's boss, Richard Zanuck, when she was seated with her date at the studio chief's table. Zanuck, Harrison said later, was immediately "smitten" and fell "madly in love" with her, and she with him.〔 "That was during the 60-day period that I started dating Richard, and then I was signed to a seven-year contract."〔''Woman of the Apes: Interview with Linda Harrison'', April 1995, ''Starlog''(USA), Issue 213, pp 57–60 ()〕 Harrison's acting career, as well as her life, became inextricably intertwined with their subsequent relationship.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Linda Harrison (actress)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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