Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998), known as Roddy McDowall, was an English-American actor, film director, photographer, and voice artist. His roles included Cornelius, Caesar, and Galen in the Planet of the Apes film and television series.
His family moved to the United States in 1940 due to the outbreak of World War II. McDowall became a naturalized United States citizen on 9 December 1949, and lived in the United States for the rest of his life.
He made his first well-known film appearance at the age of 12, playing Huw Morgan in How Green Was My Valley (1941). The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and made him a household name. Other films of this period include Lassie Come Home (1943), My Friend Flicka (1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).
McDowall continued his career successfully into adulthood. Having won both an Emmy (1961, for NBC Sunday Showcase) and a Tony Award (1961 in The Fighting Cock) he appeared in such television series as the original The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Twelve O'Clock High, The Invaders, The Carol Burnett Show, Columbo, Night Gallery, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Mork and Mindy, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Hart to Hart, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Hotel, Murder She Wrote and Quantum Leap.
He is probably best remembered for his performances in heavy makeup as various chimpanzee characters in four of the Planet of the Apes films (1968–1973) and in the 1974 TV series that followed.
McDowall had a passion for film preservation and amassed a personal library of over 1000 books on Hollywood and Broadway history.
On 3 October 1998, aged 70, McDowall died of lung cancer at his home in Studio City.
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