Norman Burton (December 5, 1923 New York City, New York, USA – November 29, 2003 California, USA), occasionally credited as Normann Burton, was an American stage film and television actor.
His career in film and television was long and relatively successful, but he never achieved major recognition. He played the Hunt Leader, a gorilla, in the science fiction film Planet of the Apes, notable as being the first ape to be seen by both Taylor and the audience, and also appeared as a (human) army officer in the second sequel Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). In film, he is perhaps best known for his unconventional (and frequently disparaged) performance as Felix Leiter in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He played Will Giddings, an ill fated engineer, in the action film The Towering Inferno (1974), and his later films included The Gumball Rally (1976), Crimes of Passion (1984) and Deep Space (1988). He played Dennis Christopher's mean and ill fated boss in the slasher Fade To Black (1980).
