Cheetah Dead: 'Tarzan' Chimpanzee Dies at Near 80 [UPDATE]

From 'Project Nim' to 'Rise in the Planet in the Apes,' 2011 was the season in the primate. Sadly, it seems like things will finish around the sad note. Cheetah, the chimpanzee most broadly noted for his be employed in the 'Tarzan' movies in the '30s, died on Sunday of kidney failure. He was almost 80 years of age. Cheetah came out in Tarzan films between 1932 and 1934 -- particularly 'Tarzan the Ape Man' and 'Tarzan and also the Mate' -- opposite actor Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. "He was very compassionate," Darlene Cobb, the outreach director at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary told The Polk Tribune. "He could determine if I used to be obtaining a great day or possibly a poor day. He was always searching to obtain me to laugh if he thought I used to be obtaining a poor day. He was very in tune to human feelings." Cheetah outlived normal captivity chimps by over 3 decades. It doesn't appear that Cheetah omitted any children. UPDATE: Or even Cheetah didn't die in the last weekend. Inside an interview with Dork Itzkoff in the NY Occasions, Dr. Steve Ross, the assistant director within the Lester E. Fisher Center for your Study and Conservation of Apes within the Lincoln subsequently subsequently Park Zoo in Chicago, mentioned it absolutely was "very improbable" that Cheetah live being nearly 80, which records were dodgy at best. The plot, as they say, thickens... [Polk Tribune via NYT/ArtsBeat] [Photo: AP] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook