Or that when he died on Christmas Eve of kidney failure, he had reached the ripe old age of 80, which is pretty good for a chimp and was also a longer lifespan than his co-star, the swimming champ turned actor Johnny Weissmuller, who passed away in 1984.
Some media accounts have had the gall to question whether this is the same Cheetah that starred in the famed series. (His name, after all, was spelled differently on earlier occasions.) But the Tampa-based sanctuary is sure about their celebrity chimp and the condolences have been pouring in, a testament, you might say, to the enduring power of the silver screen — and maybe to animal actors in particular.
