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Hollywood's Greatest Monkey Suits

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Arthur P. Jacobs — The legendary publicist, whose clients included Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Gregory Peck, produced the Ape series. Jacobs also brought another talking animal movie to the big screen — Doctor Dolittle (the Rex Harrison version).

Gordon Jump — He played a slave auctioneer in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. You probably remember him as Mr. Carlson WKRP in Cincinnati and the Maytag repairman.

John Landis — The man who directed Animal House played an animal — a young chimp in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. He was a complete unknown at the time.

Mervyn LeRoy — A true Hollywood great, he directed such classics as Little Caesar and Mr. Roberts. He is also one of the slave apes who take over Century City, Calif., in the apocalyptic final scene in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

Roddy McDowall — Everyone remembers him as Cornelius. But in later and lesser Ape installments, he played the monkey-messiah Caesar, who rescues ape slaves from oppressive humans. When the film franchise was nearly spent, he led an ape-human army against a band of mutants. Who can forget his battle cry: "Now fight like apes!" Later, he emerged on the Planet of the Apes TV show as Galen.

Sal Mineo — The 1950s Hollywood heartthrob who played opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause was a super-intelligent chimpanzee astronaut in 1972's Escape From the Planet of the Apes. He hated putting on the simian makeup, and his character was killed off quickly. It turned out to be one of Mineo's last performances. He was killed a few years after the movie's release.

Ricardo Montalban — Years before William Shatner would be screaming his character's name in a Star Trek movie ("Khaaaaaaaaan!"), Montalban played the humble circus trainer who sided against his species and helped the apes take over. Traitor. He should be banished to a desert island with the ghost of Herve Villechaize.

James Naughton — Yup. Ally McBeal's dad was an astronaut who crash-landed near Ape City in the short-lived TV incarnation of The Planet of the Apes.

Burt Reynolds — He turned down the roll of the Charlton Heston clone, Brent, in the first Ape sequel. It went to James Franciscus.

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