Dr. Zaius Fondly Remembers Working With ‘Chuck’ Heston onPlanet of the Apes

Much of the original Planet of the Apes was a grueling desert film shoot , with actors wearing prosthetic make - up that was cutting - boundary for 1968 but was still incredibly ill-chosen . Their neat champion , remembers the one and only Dr. Zaius , was star Charlton Heston — who apparently insisted everyone call him “ Chuck . ”

This TCM interview , conducted to promote Planet of the Apes’limited return to the big screen , does n’t really contain any new behind - the - shot detail , but it ’s still fun to try ’em coming from an avuncular ( but still damn muddied ) ape . When the movie was being film , Heston was the president of the Screen Actors Guild , and he was a determined pleader for his fellow thespians — operate out of his path to do things like arranging whirlybird conveyance for the supernumerary to make their days less grueling .

The actor who played Dr. Zaius , Maurice Williams , passed away in 1989 at age 87 , so that ’s comic Dana Gould performing his stellar recreation of Ape City ’s Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.