Cheeta

This article is about a famous chimpanzee. For the species of big cat, see Cheetah.

Cheeta
Occupation	Animal actor

Cheeta aka Jiggs (probably born in 1932) is a male chimpanzee noted for appearing in numerous movies and television shows, most famously many Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s and 1940s, in which he portrayed a fictional chimp of the same name. Cheeta was bought from Henry Trefflich, a New York animal importer and dealer. He was born in the wild in Liberia some months prior to 9 April 1932, which is celebrated as his birthday because it is the date he arrived in the USA, in New York.

While inextricably associated in the public mind with Tarzan, Cheeta as a character was a product of the movies, never appearing in any of the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. There are, in fact, no chimpanzees at all in the novels, the closest analog to Cheeta therein being Tarzan's monkey companion N'kima, who appears in several of the later books.

Movie career

The role of Cheeta was originally played by a different chimpanzee, who appeared as such in the first two Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and Tarzan and His Mate (1934), and apparently also in a Tarzan serial starring Buster Crabbe, Tarzan the Fearless (1933), filmed simultaneously. In the serial there was also an uncredited human double for the Cheeta role, six year old American actor David Holt.

The first movie appearance of this chimpanzee was in the second Weissmuller film cited above, in which he appeared uncredited as a young chimpanzee riding on the back of the original Cheeta. He was then cast in the role of Cheeta himself in the other Weissmuller Tarzans that followed, such as Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939), and Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), as well as the Lex Barker Tarzan films that followed, such as Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949). He appeared in twelve Tarzan movies in all.

Cheeta also appeared in roles as other chimpanzees, including Ramona the Chimp in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) and Chee-Chee in Doctor Dolittle (1967) with Rex Harrison, the chimp's last role before retirement.

On 31 March 1995, Cheeta's career was honored with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. His star is at 110 South Palm Canyon Drive.

Since 2004 there have been several unsuccessful campaigns to secure a star for Cheeta on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and as of 2008 filmmaker Matt Devlen is continuing the effort. Attempting for the seventh time to get him a sidewalk star, the animal actor's handlers launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009. As of June 2008, Cheeta was not selected to be so honored.

Coinciding with his 74th birthday, Cheeta received the only award of his entire film career, awarded by the International Film Festival of Peniscola Comedy in 2006.

Retirement

In retirement Cheeta lives at a primate sanctuary called Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes (or CHEETA) in Palm Springs, California. He watches television and makes abstract paintings which are sold to benefit primate-related charities. He often watches his old films with his grandson, Jeeter. He also leafs through books and "plays" the piano.

Cheeta became the longest-lived chimpanzee known when he reached 64 in 1996. He is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest non-human primate. Chimpanzees typically live to be 40-45 in the wild.

The 4 October 2006, edition of the Palm Springs newspaper, The Desert Sun, reported that Cheeta received his first-ever visit from famed primatologist Jane Goodall the previous day.

His 76th birthday was celebrated on 9 April 2008, at his "Casa de Cheeta" in Palm Springs at an event hosted by Dan Westfall and Diane Weissmuller, (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.'s widow). The press and many Palm Springs celebrities attended.

A literary agent was hired on his behalf for his ghost-written autobiography, Me Cheeta, published in October 2008.

Another Cheeta from the early Tarzan movies lives at Suncoast Primates in Palm Harbor, Florida. This Cheeta was obtained from the Johnny Weismuller estate 3 decades ago.

See also

• List of apes