Famed chimp lived to 80? Not so fast
BY BRYAN ALEXANDER December 31, 2011 1:07AM
FILE - A file photo shows Johnny Weissmuller, right, as Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane, and Cheetah the chimpanzee, in a scene from the 1932 movie Tarzan the Ape Man. A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies of the 1930s died Cheetah died on Dec. 24 of kidney failure at age 80. (AP Photo/ho, File)
Updated: December 31, 2011 8:08PM
When news broke last week that Cheetah the chimpanzee — the co-star in Johnny Weissmuller’s classic Tarzan films — was dead at 80, Lincoln Park Zoo chimp expert Steve Ross was suspicious.
“To say 80 is really pushing it. In this record, there has never been a chimp that has lived that long,” says Ross. “I’d paint myself as skeptical in this case.”
According to his detailed files, the current record holder is in her early 70s.
Ross’ skepticism about the age of the chimp, who co-starred in the 1930s Tarzan movie with Weissmuller, who grew up in Chicago, is widespread in the chimp research world.
“This chimpanzee could not possibly have been in these Tarzan films,” says R.D. Rosen, author of a 2008 Washington Post article titled “Lie of the Jungle,” which debunked the authenticity of a different chimpanzee that had been dubbed the original Cheetah. “The idea that this Cheetah could have appeared in these films, had this long career, and now had this wonderful retirement is ridiculous.”
While there were many chimpanzees who filled the role of Cheetah, the main sticking point against Cobb’s primate is his age.
On Christmas Eve, Cheetah died of kidney failure at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., setting off a flurry of international headlines mourning the loss. Debbie Cobb, 51, the sanctuary’s outreach director, stands by her claim, adding that by the time Cheetah was passed to her grandparents Bob and Mae Noell in the 1960s (they ran a chimp farm), he was an adult with a movie pedigree.
“He was always such an outgoing guy, the first to greet you in the morning,” says Cobb, who grew up around Cheetah.
Rosen is writing his side of the tale in a just-finished book called Chump.
“The interesting thing is what it says about humans that adore stories about these animals,” says Rosen. “It makes us feel young if the Tarzan chimp is still living. Then we really cannot be that old. It’s a way of shaving some years off our lives.”
Gannett News Service
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