Planet of the Apes Characters: The Apes, by Name and Actor

The original run uses a small group of ape families across five films, with chimpanzee scientists, an orangutan leader and gorilla soldiers. Planet of the apes 1968, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, introduces Zira (Kim Hunter), Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), while armed gorillas hunt Taylor's group in the opening act.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), directed by Ted Post, adds General Ursus, played by James Gregory, who rallies the apes to invade the Forbidden Zone against the objections of Dr. Zaius. Cornelius is played here by David Watson, because McDowall was not in the film.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), directed by Don Taylor, brings Cornelius, Zira and a third chimpanzee, Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo), to 1973 Los Angeles. A zoo gorilla kills Milo.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), directed by J. Lee Thompson, turns to Caesar, the talking son of Cornelius and Zira, played by McDowall. In battle for the planet of the apes (1973), also by Thompson, Caesar leads a mixed community, and the gorilla general Aldo (Claude Akins) plots against him. Aldo breaks the apes' most sacred law by killing another ape and dies for it.

Cornelius and Zira are the chimpanzee scientists who treat Taylor in Ape City and who later carry the story into the 1970s. Kim Hunter plays Zira in the first three films, billed as Dr. Zira in Escape, and Roddy McDowall plays Cornelius in the first film and in Escape, with David Watson taking the role in Beneath.

In the first film the pair suspect that Taylor is intelligent, and they help him and Nova flee toward the Forbidden Zone. In Escape they and Dr. Milo repair Taylor's ship and are thrown by a time warp into 1973, where the government treats them as guests until the President's science advisor, Dr. Hasslein, grows afraid of their unborn child.

The story ends badly for them. Hasslein shoots Zira and a baby at a shipyard, Cornelius kills Hasslein and is then shot by a sniper, and Zira dies beside him. The baby was not hers, though, because she had swapped her son for another ape's, and the real Milo survives with the circus owner Armando and begins to speak. Their son Caesar becomes the subject of the next film. Read more on the cornelius planet of the apes and zira planet of the apes pages.

Dr. Zaius is the orangutan leader of Ape City in Planet of the Apes (1968), played by Maurice Evans, who returns for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He regards Taylor as a threat to ape society and its beliefs, and that conflict drives the first film.

Near the end, Taylor holds Zaius at gunpoint in the Forbidden Zone. Zaius shows him a cave containing evidence of an older human civilization, admits that he has long known the truth, and destroys the evidence. He still lets Taylor and Nova go on, warning Taylor not to look for answers, and Taylor then finds the half buried Statue of Liberty. In Beneath, Zaius argues against General Ursus and the invasion of the Forbidden Zone, and loses the argument. The character is covered in full at dr zaius.

The 2001 film has its own apes, and they share no story with the other two runs. Planet of the apes 2001, directed by Tim Burton, is a spin-off, so its apes should be kept apart from the others.

The brutal chimpanzee General Thade is played by Tim Roth, and the sympathetic chimpanzee Ari, who buys human captives and takes an interest in Leo Davidson, is played by Helena Bonham Carter. Mark Wahlberg plays Leo. Thade leads the gorilla army in pursuit when Leo escapes, and the chase ends at a forbidden temple called Calima.

The chimpanzee Pericles arrives in a pod, the apes treat him as a revered figure and the fighting stops. Leo leaves in Pericles' pod and lands in Washington, D.C., where the Lincoln Memorial now honors Thade. The film's fifteen top billed credits do not name an actor for Pericles.

Caesar appears in both the original and the modern runs, played by Roddy McDowall in Conquest and Battle and by Andy Serkis in Rise, Dawn and War. The original Caesar is the talking son of Cornelius and Zira, hidden by Armando until he is sold into servitude and leads an uprising in 1991. He then rules a mixed community of apes and humans in Battle.

The modern Caesar is born to the test chimp Bright Eyes and raised by Will Rodman. He learns sign language, speaks aloud for the first time when he defends himself against Dodge, and leads the apes across the Golden Gate Bridge and into the redwoods. In dawn of the planet of the apes (2014), directed by Matt Reeves, he lets Koba fall to his death. In war for the planet of the apes (2017), also directed by Reeves, he refuses to kill the Colonel, and he dies of a crossbow wound at the refuge. Generations later, Raka teaches Noa Caesar's original ideas. See caesar planet of the apes for the full profile.

Koba is the ape who turns on Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, played by Toby Kebbell, and he is first seen in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), directed by Rupert Wyatt, where Christopher Gordon plays him. War for the Planet of the Apes also credits Kebbell as Koba.

In Dawn, Koba is Caesar's lieutenant and distrusts every human. He was tortured in a human lab, and that history shapes how he reads the survivors' dam repair. He finds the human armory and urges Caesar to strike first, but Caesar refuses and beats him. Koba steals a rifle, shoots Caesar at a gathering, blames the humans and leads the apes to attack the city, then imprisons the apes who stay loyal to Caesar. After Caesar recovers and frees them, the two fight at the top of the human tower, and Caesar lets Koba fall. More detail is at koba planet of the apes.

Maurice is the orangutan friend who stays at Caesar's side through all three modern Caesar films, and Karin Konoval performs the role in each. Maurice first befriends Caesar at the ape shelter in Rise, where Caesar is learning to win the alpha role among the apes.

In War, Maurice rides out with Caesar, Rocket and Luca to track the Colonel, and gives a mute orphan girl the name Nova. At the end, Maurice promises Caesar that his son Cornelius will learn what his father did. Rocket is played by Terry Notary, who is credited in all three films, and Notary is credited as Rocket / Bright Eyes in Rise. Visit maurice planet of the apes for the character page.

Bad Ape is the one-film chimpanzee of the modern run, played by Steve Zahn in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) and absent from every other entry in the series. He has been living alone when Caesar's party finds him on the road, shortly after the Colonel's raid has sent the apes searching for a new home.

His usefulness to the plot is practical: he knows where the soldiers are holed up and takes the group to the compound. It proves to be a prison camp, where the Colonel puts captured apes to work as forced labor. When the escape comes, Nova and Bad Ape both help Caesar and the other prisoners get out through a tunnel.

If you are searching for this name because of the "bad ape" keyword, the answer is short: he is a single-film supporting role, and the other apes on this list have far more screen time.

Noa is the young chimpanzee who anchors Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), directed by Wes Ball, with Owen Teague in the role. He belongs to a clan that raises eagles, and his story starts when raiders under the gorilla Sylva (Eka Darville) burn the village and kill his father Koro (Neil Sandilands).

Along the road he is joined by Raka, an orangutan played by Peter Macon, who passes on what Caesar originally taught. The villain is Proximus Caesar, played by Kevin Durand, who rules a kingdom on the coast and has forced many clans into labor so that he can break into a closed human vault.

Noa shuts Sylva inside the bunker as it floods, then brings his clan and their eagles to fight Proximus, who is thrown off a cliff into the sea. In the final scene Lydia Peckham's Soona stands beside Noa at a telescope. For profiles, see noa planet of the apes and proximus caesar. What may come next is on the kingdom of the planet of the apes sequel page, and the film has its own page at kingdom of the planet of the apes.

In my opinion, Caesar is the ape that carries the saga, but Maurice may be the one that holds the modern films together. Maurice, like Rocket, appears alongside Caesar in Rise, Dawn and War, and Maurice gets the promise about Cornelius in the closing scene, which makes the last shot read as a handover rather than only a death.

The original run is easier to read through Zira and Cornelius. Roddy McDowall plays Cornelius, then the son Caesar, so the series asks him to play two generations of a family, and it could be argued that Escape works because the audience has already grown fond of the couple before Hasslein arrives. Koba is the best foil in the series, in my view, because Dawn gives him a reason, the lab, instead of making him a villain from the start. Dr. Zaius is the most useful single character for new viewers, since the 1968 ending pivots on what he already knew.

That being said, Bad Ape and Noa are the two I would watch for next if you like single film performances. If you are new, start with planet of the apes movies in order, then check the planet of the apes movies ranked list before choosing which run to try first.