Colonel George Taylor is the main protagonist of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and the deuteragonist of its 1970 sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He is played by the late Charlton Heston. He is an American astronaut, and the leader of a space expedition. Taylor's first name is never spoken in dialog; the sources for it are the closing credits of the film and the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes.