David Watson Dead: Cornelius in 'Planet of the Apes' Film Was 74 — hollywoodreporter.com

David Watson, who stepped in for Roddy McDowall to portray the chimpanzee archeologist Cornelius in the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, has died. He was 74. The British actor died on Oct. 5 following a heart attack in New York, where he had been attending the opening night of the Broadway play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the U.K. newspaper The Stage reported. McDowall played Cornelius in the original Planet of the Apes (1969) as well as in Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). He also was Cornelius' son Caesar in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and another chimp, Galen, in a 1974 Planet of the Apes series for CBS.

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