The water pool where the astronauts enjoy a swim was built on the Fox Ranch by producer Arthur P. Jacobs for his adaptation of Doctor Dolittle.
There are no female gorillas or orangutans in the film.
There was an attempt by censors to have the final scene edited for profanity but Charlton Heston was able to argue that his character was actually asking God to damn those responsible for the destruction of the world to hell, rather than simply using the Lord's name in vain.
There were three other endings suggested for the film's climax, but the one favored by Charlton Heston ultimately won out.
This film contains Charlton Heston's first nude scene.
Turning down the part of Zira was one of Ingrid Bergman's greatest regrets. Much surprised at how well the finished film turned out, she later confided to her daughter Isabella Rossellini that in hindsight the film would have been an ideal opportunity for her to "disregard her regal bearing". She also regretted missing the opportunity of working with Charlton Heston.
Two 9-foot statues of the Lawgiver were made. The original used in the 1st, 2nd and 5th film ended up in Arthur P. Jacobs' backyard as the sole prop he kept from the movie. The other was given to Sammy Davis Jr. by Jacobs and was kept by him for many years. Arthur P. Jacobs kept the original Lawgiver statue in his backyard until his early and untimely death at age 51. His surviving spouse, Natalie Trundy Jacobs, kept the statue in her backyard even as she moved residences. Several movie stars and celebrities can be found in photo archives standing next to the Lawgiver statue including Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Kim Hunter, Andy Warhol, and a then expecting Natalie Wood. In December of 1998, Natalie Trundy Jacobs sold the original Lawgiver statue through an online auction hosted by The Time Machine, an web based memorabilia store retailing in photos and celebrity autographs. The winning bidder of the auction was an avid Planet of the Apes Collector, Ed Gogin of Orange County, California, who outbid 20th Century Fox (TCF). TCF wanted the Lawgiver statue for their archives and marketing purposes. In December of 2010, the avid Planet of the Apes Collector, Ed Gogin, was featured in "Hollywood Treasure", (episode #110 titled "Joe's Judgement Day") which is a
When adjusted for inflation, the movie holds the world record for the highest make-up budget (then £345,542), which represented about 17% of the total budget (£2 million).
When Cornelius and Zira are showing Taylor the map of the Forbidden Zone, you can see the coastlines on the map strongly resemble the current New York, New Jersey and Connecticut shorelines (once you take into consideration the 2000 years of a post-nuclear apocalyptic worlds dramatic land mass shift). Although the Hudson and East Rivers are gone, you can clearly identify on their map Long Island, Long Island Sound, Lower NY Bay, Staten Island & the Atlantic Ocean.