Posted on 12/27/2011 4:11:38 PM PST by Brandonmark
Cheetah the chimpanzee, who acted in classic Tarzan movies in the early 1930s, died of kidney failure Saturday at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, a sanctuary spokeswoman said.
Cheetah was roughly 80 years old, loved fingerpainting and football and was soothed by nondenominational Christian music, said Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director.
He was an outgoing chimp who was exposed to the public his whole life, Cobb said today.
"He wasn't a chimp that caused a lot of problems," she said.
Cheetah acted in the 1932-34 Tarzan movies, Cobb said. Movies filmed during that timeframe starred Johnny Weissmuller and include "Tarzan and His Mate" and "Tarzan the Ape Man," according to the Internet Movie Database.
Sometime around 1960, Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller's estate in Ocala, Cobb said.
In the wild, the average chimp survives 25 to 35 years and at zoos chimps typically live 35 to 45 years, she said.
Cheetah, the most famous of the sanctuary's 15 chimpanzees, liked to see people laugh.
"He was very compassionate," Cobb said. "He could tell if I was having a good day or a bad day. He was always trying to get me to laugh if he thought I was having a bad day. He was very in tune to human feelings."
Ron Priest, a sanctuary volunteer for seven years, said Cheetah stood out because of his ability to stand up – shoulders tall, back straight – and walk like a person.
Cheetah also stood out for another reason, Priest said: "When he didn't like somebody or something that was going on, he would pick up some poop and throw it at them. He could get you at 30 feet with bars in between."
It doesn't appear Cheetah had any children, Cobb said.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tbo.com ...
He was the original G.
A gorilla walks into a bar and says, "Barkeep, I'll have a martini."
Bartender makes the martini, the gorilla gives him a 20, the bartender figures, "This dumb ape doesn't know anything about money, and gives him two dollars worth of quarters in change.
They get to talking and the bartender says, "Y'know, we don't get many gorillas in here."
The gorilla says, "Well at $18 a martini, I'm not surprised.
great story thanks!
This one wasn’t the first—he would be over 90 as the First Tarzan film staring Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan—was made in 1918. I think this one was from the early 1950s.
To us as kids, Cheetah was the star of the Tarzan movies!
RIP over the Rainbow Bridge, old fella!
I’ll just skip to the chase:
So the chimp slowly climbs down the tree, raises the little silver pistol and shoots all three of the coon hounds dead.
“He really hates liars,” said the man.
Sounds like the type to maybe run a little gambling operation on the side. Correct me if I am wrong wasn't this the one that smoked a cigarette on Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin?
Well, on the bright side, if they ever do a re-make they could get Matt Damon to fill the part!
Well, on the bright side, if they ever do a re-make they could get Matt Damon to fill the part!
Well, on the bright side, if they ever do a re-make they could get Matt Damon to fill the part!
Isn't that common behavior amongst Chimps and Progressives?
I have heard the average life expectancy of a chimp in captivity and well cared for is between 50 and 60 years old. It isn’t that much of a stretch to think a chimp might live 20 years past the average life expectancy in the same way humans not infrequently live 30 years past the average life expectancy into their 100s.
I just went to a birthday party for the grandfather of a close friend who is 105 years old. The Boston Bruins brought the Stanley Cup to his Nursing Home to let him hold the cup...:)
Anyway, this chimp might have been just a very young juvenile when they shot the movies, the equivalent of a one or two year old human.
I will hold judgement until I get more info.
I didn’t mean from the silent era but from the late ‘30s into the ‘40s (Johnny Weismuller), but that would still make the Chimp far too old. The story obviously is not factual.
“Correct me if I am wrong wasn’t this the one that smoked a cigarette on Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin?”
I think it was perhaps one in the Jiggs family, but not the original Jiggs. It may have been the chimp on the Today show back in the Dave Garroway era. Chimps all look alike to me.
Dave Garroway! Yes that is the one of was thinking of. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Matt Damon, and Debbie Wasserman Schuiltz, all look alike to you... Oh I see you said Chimps not Chumps.
If Tarzan and Jane are Irish what is Cheetah?
the only one who can hold his liquor
tired of potatoes
the only one not singing sad hopeless songs about green fields
Black Irish?
my favorite Tarzan episodes were the ones when the savages would put the hapless European between two poles and tear them apart like opening a zipper
fabulous
I probably like the Africoid race better then..all things considered...before kleptocrats and black liberation marxism
/s
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