Robert Gunner (1931 - 2001 )

Robert Gunner (July 27, 1931 - December 18, 2001) was an American actor who played the role of Lieutenant John Landon in the film, Planet of the Apes (1968). A six-foot-one, 200-pounder from North Plainfield, New Jersey, was military service in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War which landed Bob Gunner in show business - on a weekly Navy hour televised from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Later, he studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York and became a professional model - the 'Marlboro Man' in TV commercials and magazine ads and the 'Quiet Man' in Ford video commercials. He had been seen previously in the smaller role of a detective in Caprice (1967).