[8] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[2] In October 1965, prior to the expiration of her option, Fox assigned Harrison as the date of studio attorney Harry E. Sokolov for the premiere of The Agony and the Ecstasy.

[12][13] 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.

[14][12] Right after meeting Zanuck, Harrison signed Fox's standard seven-year contract in November and was placed in the studio's Talent Training School.

Although Harrison told interviewers that Zanuck had created the school so "he could keep an eye on me",[8] the school was actually a former Fox institution which Zanuck had revived to train aspiring, talented young actors and actresses under contract to Fox; besides Harrison, the student roster included Jacqueline Bisset, James Brolin, Tom Selleck and Edy Williams.

"[11][13] (Three years later, Harrison co-starred as Felony Squad star Dennis Cole's love interest in the NBC TV series Bracken's World.)

"[11][12][14] After the brief late afternoon shot, Harrison's overworked leg muscles failed on her way home, and Zanuck had to carry her upstairs to their Wilshire-Westwood apartment.

[16] 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.

", created by Batman producer William Dozier, which was supposed to engender interest in a Wonder Woman pilot and an eventual TV series.

segment failed to engender any interest in a Wonder Woman pilot, although Lynda Carter had great success in the role eight years later.

Harrison next appeared as Carl Reiner's blonde-wigged young inamorata "Miss Stardust" in A Guide for the Married Man (1967),[2][18] a bedroom comedy about marital infidelity directed by Gene Kelly and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse and Inger Stevens.

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.

Producer Arthur P. Jacobs had first thought of former Bond girl Ursula Andress for Nova, and extensive auditions were held for the role, with one of the women tested being Angelique Pettyjohn, who had played a warrior in the Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".

So I'd seen her act and I said to Dick, 'We will be glad to meet with Linda,' and [director] Frank[lin Schaffner] and I would chat with her and talk about the part but that she would be treated like an actress, not as an affiliation with anybody else.

Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River stood in for the Forbidden Zone, through which Taylor, Zira, Cornelius, and Harrison's Nova fled after escaping from Ape City.

Harrison, who had the company of her oldest sister Kay on location with her,[16] found working in the desert "beautiful", and marveled "how they move an entire production, like a little mini-town, and set up.

"[16]As the "rookie" on the set, Harrison credited the help she received from the veteran actors: "Everybody that was involved in it, they all realized I was a neophyte, I was like 21 years old so they kind of took me under their wing, since I hadn't done acting that much.

Although Harrison believed it was Heston who rejected the idea of Nova's pregnancy, those scenes were deleted, according to screenwriter Michael Wilson, "at the insistence of a high-echelon Fox executive who found it distasteful.

Harrison's Nova was the sole human witness to Taylor's outburst on the beach, after which she looks up and, in the film's iconic ending, sees the ruined Statue of Liberty, without comprehending why it has caused her mate's grief.

[25] Harrison impressed audiences with her hourglass figure, long dark hair, and large brown eyes, which, in the absence of spoken dialogue, did most of her acting, though some critics were unimpressed.

"[8]While filming Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Harrison was cast as one of a trio of starlets in the Fox-produced NBC TV series Bracken's World.

"[6] Fox publicists issued press releases glossing over Harrison's deficient education and claiming for her a passion for Shakespeare, Voltaire, and Aristotle which she never possessed.

In his suit Zanuck contended that he, Harrison, and former Fox executive David Brown had been wrongly terminated and subjected to humiliation and embarrassment.

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.

"[40] 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.

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.

Several years later, wanting to be closer to her sons, she returned to Los Angeles and obtained a real estate license, like her eldest sister, Kay.