Natalie Trundy Passes On

Natalie Trundy, who appeared in all four sequels to Planet of the Apes (1968), died on December 5 2019 at the age of 79.

Natalie Trundy was born on August 5 1940 in Boston, Massachusetts. She became an actress as a child and appeared in small roles on television before having a significant role in the TV production Lincoln's Little Correspondent in 1953. That same year he appeared on Broadway in A Girl Can Tell in 1953. During the Fifties she guest starred on the shows The Alcoa Hour, The Philco Television Playhouse, Goodyear Television Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, Studio One, Climax!, New York Confidential, Pony Express, Thriller, and Bonanza. She appeared in the films Montecarlo (1956), The Careless Years (1957), and Walk Like a Dragon (1960).

In the Sixties, Miss Trundy guest starred on such TV shows as The Blue Angels, The Asphalt Jungle, The New Breed, The Dakotas, The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Wagon Train, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, 77 Sunset Strip, Perry Mason, Judd for the Defense, The Felony Squad, and The Silent Force. She appeared in the films Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). 

In 1968 Natalie Trundy married producer Arthur P. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs produced the phenomenally successful Planet of the Apes (1968). Miss Trundy expressed a desire to appear in the first sequel to the movie. As a result she appeared as one of the telepathic mutants, Albina, in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. She appeared in every sequel afterwards, playing Dr. Stephanie Branton in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), the chimpanzee Lisa in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and the chimpanzee Lisa in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). She fully chalked up her casting to nepotism and said that she mainly did the movies for fun. In the Seventies, she also appeared in the musical Huckleberry Finn (1974). She appeared on television in the TV movie The Great American Tragedy and guest starred on the TV show Qunicy, M.E. In 1973, following the death of Arthur P. Jacobs, she assumed control of his production company APJAC Productions.