The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Johnny Weissmuller The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Johnny Weissmuller
Showing posts with label Johnny Weissmuller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johnny Weissmuller. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2011

Cheetah Dead at 80, but was Chimp Really Tarzan's Sidekick?


Cheetah dead at 80, but was chimp really Tarzan's sidekick? Doubts have been raised about primate's age, and acting credentials

The chimpanzee named Cheetah, who some claim was featured in Tarzan films of the 1930s starring Johnny Weissmuller, is shown in a publicity photo released Wednesday. The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary Foundation in Florida, where Cheetah spent his retirement days, said the chimp died on Dec. 24. They estimate he was 80 years old.

Cheetah, the chimpanzee who became famous at the side of Tarzan in the classic 1930s movies, has died at the age of 80 leaving several disputes unresolved.

Doubts were raised about the chimpanzee's extraordinary age and the authenticity of its silver screen career. Chimpanzees kept in captivity seldom live beyond the age of 45.

And previous animal trainers have falsely claimed that their chimps starred in the films with Johnny Weissmuller.

Eve Golden, a film historian at the Everett Collection, a Hollywood archive, said Wednesday: "There doesn't seem to be any verification that this particular chimp was ever really in any movies or television shows at all. I think it's just an urban legend.

"Unless they have the chimpanzee's acting union card it seems impossible to prove."

The greying primate retired in comfort at the Suncoast Sanctuary. A spokesman for the sanctuary claimed that the much loved primate died from kidney failure on Christmas Eve.

Staff at the American home in Palm Harbour, Fla., said the chimpanzee had enjoyed an enormous impact on children and adults alike "throughout his years." The spokesman said it was "with great sadness that the community has lost a dear friend and family member on December 24."

She said: "Cheetah, the star of the Tarzan films, passed away after kidney failure during the week of December 19."

Debbie Cobb, the director of the sanctuary, said the chimp had loved to finger paint and watch football as he grew older. Some of his artwork, dubbed "ap-stract" paintings, was sold to fans.

"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 volunteer at the sanctuary that has looked after Cheetah since the 1960s, 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."

The Tarzan stories, based on the works of the author Edgar Rice Burroughs, chronicle the adventures of a man raised by apes in Africa. The films proved an instant hit from their outset in the 1930s right through to the 1960s.

Weissmuller, who died in 1984, aged 79, played the role of Tarzan, while Maureen O'Sullivan, who played Jane, died at the age of 87 in 1998. Alongside O'Sullivan, Cheetah quickly became an established co-star, often warning the vine-swinging Tarzan of lurking dangers and leaping to his rescue.

But there have long been doubts about the identity of the chimpanzee that played the role of Cheetah. According to film experts 10 chimps starred in the Tarzan movies.

In 2008, the American journalist Richard Rosen discovered that another chimpanzee, which was named Cheeta, was unlikely to have had any-thing to do with the films. The animal's owner, Tony Gentry, claimed that he smuggled the chimp out of Liberia aboard a PanAm flight in 1932.

He said he hid the newborn primate under his overcoat. His family has since agreed that there are doubts over the allegations. It was claimed Wednesday that Cheetah made his first appearance in Tarzan and His Mate in 1934, and later went on to appear in a dozen films about the jungle hero.

In 2005, after his retirement, he was awarded a Guinness world record for the oldest non-human primate. FOLLOW US!
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Cheetah, The Chimpanzee that Starred in Tarzan Movies Dead at Age 80


Condolences poured in to a Florida primate sanctuary Wednesday after it announced the death of Cheetah, a chimpanzee that the sanctuary said starred in the Tarzan movies during the 1930s.

The chimpanzee died Saturday after suffering kidney failure the week before, the sanctuary foundation said on the site. He was roughly 80 years old, Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director, told CNN affiliate WFLA.

Cobb recalled Cheetah as an outgoing chimp who loved finger painting and watching football and who was soothed by Christian music, the station said.

Several chimpanzees appeared in various Tarzan movies, many of which were popular in the 1930a and 1940s. The Florida primate sanctuary said its chimp appeared in the Tarzan moves from 1932 through 1934, according to WFLA.

According to the website Tarzanmovieguide.com, "Tarzan the Ape Man" was released in 1932 and "Tarzan and his Mate" in 1934. Both movies starred Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. Weissmuller was the first speaking Tarzan, according to the Internet Movie Database website. He died in 1984.

Weissmuller appeared in Tarzan movies through 1948, according to the online movie guide site, with other chimpanzees appearing in the role of Cheetah.

Cheetah came to the primate sanctuary from Weissmuller's Florida estate around 1960, Cobb told WFLA. He was the most famous of the sanctuary's 15 chimpanzees.

"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."

Cheetah was known for his ability to stand up and walk like a person, sanctuary volunteer Ron Priest told WFLA.

Another distinguishing characteristic: "When he didn't like somebody or something that was going on, he would pick up some poop and throw it at them," Priest said. "He could get you at 30 feet with bars in between."

Still, Cobb told the station, "He wasn't a chimp that caused a lot of problems."

Cheetah is not believed to have any children, Priest said.

His age was advanced for a chimpanzee, Cobb told WFLA. In the wild, the average chimp survives 25 to 35 years, she said, and they can live 35 to 45 years in zoos.

Another chimpanzee named Cheeta lives on a primate sanctuary in Southern California named C.H.E.E.T.A (Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes). The sanctuary's creator, Dan Westfall, said on its web site that he was saddened to hear of Cheetah's passing in Florida. He said he and others at the sanctuary "send our deepest sympathies to our colleagues at Suncoast."

Westfall writes on the site that he was told Cheeta was one of the original chimps in the Tarzan movies during the 1930s and 1940s. However, when he began working with a writer on Cheeta's biography, research revealed "that our Cheeta is unlikely to be as old as we'd thought, although he is clearly old," Westfall wrote. "It is also difficult to determine which movies, if any, our Cheeta may have been in."

People from several countries offered condolences for Cheetah on the Florida sanctuary's site in several different languages. A few credited him with helping them develop a love for animals.

"Cheetah will remain forever remembered in history," someone in Malta wrote.


Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan hold hands with Cheetah the chimpanzee in "Tarzan and His Mate."




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