Taylor
Misanthropic, narcissistic, arrogant, and virtually unlikable to both man and ape, Taylor is an astronaut who spaceship went much farther in time than it went in space. The only reason he left the surly bonds of earth back in the 20th century was to search of the one single truth he holds to be self-evident: the great big universe out there absolutely must contain something better than man. Taylor almost becomes a tragic figure due to this hubris which implicitly implicates himself as the best thing around until he discovers that thing out there better than himself. The tragic dimension arrives as it almost always does: by overestimating his own ability to underestimate the depths to which mankind can sink. Ironically, what keeps Taylor from actually becoming a tragic figure is his sudden lack of certainty that mankind was actually dumb enough to blow itself to smithereens.
Zira
Zira is chimpanzee who does not truck with the standard ape society line that all humans are by definition dumb brutes incapable of higher learning. Even so, she is repulsed by the stink of Taylor, but nevertheless puts her career on the line to help the oddly unusual human being she calls “Bright Eyes.” Although Zira does have a history of experimenting on human beings in the same way that humans experiment on apes, she is basically the most decent simian that Taylor meets. Even slightly more than so her husband Cornelius.
Cornelius
In the social strata of ape society, chimps are the liberal progressives and even—pun intended—the humanists. Cornelius shares Zira’s belief that humans are not entirely worthless…but not to the same degree. He has to be prodded somewhat to follow Zira out on the limb she has put the two of them, but in the end Cornelius comes through. He and Zira will be the only two characters to appear in the first three films of the series (four if you count video footage of them from film number three that is included as part of the plot of film number four).
Dr. Zaius
Dr. Zaius represents the intellectual/philosophical end of the ape spectrum, but he holds a dirty secret. His philosophy is not entirely forthright as he knows something that certainly the liberal chimps do not and that the warrior gorillas probably never should know: he alone on the planet of the apes seem privy to the great revelation that awaits when he sets off on a journey toward his destiny. His knowledge that man once ruled apes and, indeed, the entire planet, informs his philosophy which exists primarily in order to keep other apes or any man from learning this dark secret. Zaius is proponent of "simian survival" which mean extermination of any human who knows his secret. It is a philosophy constructed on the killing of knowledge rather than the apprehension of truth.
Nova
Nova is a beautiful native inhabitant of the planet of the apes whom is chosen to be Taylor’s mate. He doesn’t mind much since she is, after all, beautiful. She will eventually be the only other human to known the truth about how the planet of man blew itself up and evolution allowed apes to become master of the planet’s fate.
Landon
Landon is another astronaut along for the ride with Taylor and bears the brunt of Taylor’s narcissistic arrogance in the opening scenes when they are first introduced. Still, even having to look forward to life on a seemingly lifeless planet with such a majestic jerk would be preferable to the fate that eventually awaits Landon: after being captured he is lobotomized at some indeterminate time although it seems plain enough that Zaius orders procedure as quickly as possible after realizing that Taylor was not native to his own time.
