Hairy Tarzan star heads for great jungle in the sky

He graced the screen with an aura of raw animal magnetism and paved the way for generations of movie stars of the calibre of Lassie, Bambi, and Francis the Talking Mule.

But sadly, the star of a series of classic Tarzan films of the 1930’s has died at the grand old age of 80.

No, not Tarzan himself; but rather his hairy chum, Cheetah, the Chimpanzee.

Attesting to his extreme longevity, Cheetah outlived his illustrious co-stars Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) and Maureen O’Sullivan (Jane), who died in 1984 and 1998 respectively.

Although it ‘appeared’ that he co-starred with Weissmuller in a series of Tarzan films made between 1932 and 1948 including such classics as Tarzan the Ape Man, Tarzan Escapes, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, and Tarzan the Fearless, it has long been rumoured in Hollywood that Cheetah did not, in fact, appear in all the films and was in fact replaced – a claim which he himself vehemently denied and explained as petty professional jealousy.

Dying of kidney failure after a long and happy life, Cheetah apparently put his long life down to having a variety of interests including finger-painting, Christian music and (American) football.