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R.I.P. Cheetah

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And so we discover the mixed blessing of being a well-known movie chimpanzee.

Chimp fame hinges on your ability to interact with the humans. No starring roles for you, Cheetah. You are always there for comic relief. Never will you get cast in parts with depth or substance. Delivering a performance that is a masterpiece of subtlety is impossible – your talent will forever be wasted on an audience of morons who all think they’re smarter than you. Your fans. Though to them, you look like every other chimp in the world, or as one commentator said yesterday, ” … like George Burns.”

Here’s the ultimate indignity, Movie Chimp – when you die, some people will question whether it was really you. Even Kim Jong Il was immediately accepted as a legitimate inductee into the legions of the dead without having to show his papers, and he was a lot more guarded and mysterious than Tarzan’s best buddy. What a comedown for Cheetah – to go from being the world’s most famous primate to being called an impostor. You, the one true holder of Hollywood’s poop flinging thrown. I know what you’re thinking, Movie Chimp. “This is fame? I was there on the screen, larger than life. How can you suggest I am not me?” You SAW me!

Ah, we looked at you, Cheetah, but did not see. To us, you were just another pretty, hairy face.

I’m calling here and now for an end to any investigations into the late chimp’s identity. So what if the “Cheetah” who died yesterday was, in fact, some other chimp? Is there any satisfaction in that knowledge? I say “no”, because if yesterday’s obituary was for a Tarzan sidekick-pretender, that means the “real” Cheetah in all likelihood died years ago unnoticed and unlamented. Feel better? Me neither.

So farewell, Cheetah, or someone very much like you. We loved that smile!

Aside from our simian friend, name your favorite movie animal.

68 thoughts on “R.I.P. Cheetah”

  1. francis, the talking mule with donald oconner was a favorite but i think cheetah was the true animal alpha in my life. when i heard he had died i remembered that i thought i had heard there was a controversary about if he wa sthe real deal. i had heard that maureen o sullivan had a problem with him and that he bit her. he was my hero. i was reminded that maureen was mia farrows mother and the picture of her and cheetah reminds me eerily of a picture of mia and woody allen.or is it just me. i cant paste it. try googleing images of woody and mia

    http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1C1AFAB_enUS453US453&biw=1138&bih=555&tbm=isch&tbnid=OzhCoAgWUbAhPM:&imgrefurl=http://davidmcgough.com/photos.php%3Fphoto%3D9%26origin%3D%252Fphotos.php%253Fstart%253D1701&docid=YxcPskItOekWYM&imgurl=http://davidmcgough.com/photos/Woody%252520Allen,%252520Mia%252520Farrow,%252520and%252520their%252520children%252520-%2525201988,%252520NYC.jpg&w=736&h=578&ei=SF38Ts6RA4PV8gOj5_2ZAQ&zoom=1

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    LAAAAASSSSIIIIEEEEE! Who can resist Lassie rescuing anyone after falling down the well. Then there is June Lockhart, tottering across the rocks in high heels carrying a tray of hot coffee and cookies for the men.

    So glad Christmas is over. My mother is here this week and we go for “Christmas” over New Years in Iowa. The political ads there this weekend will drive me NUTS.

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  4. I suppose Big Bird, Snuffleupagus, and Kermit don’t count since they aren’t “real” animals (nor would Scooby-Doo). More’s the pity. There may be a new voice for Kermit, so he still lives, but it’s not Jim Henson, so it is bittersweet to see him now.

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  5. Good morning to all. I supose Lassie is the the top canidate for animal movie star. Wikipedia gives a lot details about Lassie. Almost all of the dogs that played Lassie were descendents of the orginal dog that played Lassie who was known as Pal. There were 8 generations of Lassies.

    We saw three different movies recently that had major roles for dogs. Two of the films featured Jack Russell Terriers and the other one, Hugo, had several dogs with a Doberman having the biggest role. In one of the fims, The Artist, the dog does a Lassie style life saving rescue. In the other film with the a Jack Russell, Beginners, the dog has an important part in several places. It seems that there is ta trend toward movies going to the dogs.

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    1. There used to be a kids show on PBS called “Wishbone” that featured a Jack Russel – they managed some really good condensations of classic tales in 30 minutes or less. Don Quixote in 30 minutes, told at a level understandable to elementary age kids, was a standout. They did a couple of Shakespeare plays too, as I recall.

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      1. loved that show!!!!! They also did Pride and Prejudice, with Wishbone as Mr. D’Arcy.

        The costuming was always so great and I am told there was a custom “dress” form for Wishbone.

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  6. Maybe Mr. Ed?

    But it doesn’t really matter: Hearing Kim Jong Il and Cheetah mentioned in the same breath was enough to send me into Cheetah-like laughter this morning. I raise my cup of coffee to you, Dale!

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    1. After my comments yesterday I am especially pleased that Dale is giving us the chance to note the passing of one of our favorite primates. I do have a question about one of Mr Connelly’s phrases. He refers to Cheetah as “true holder of Hollywood’s poop flinging thrown.” Typo or word play????

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      4. Oooh. Good catch, Beth-Ann. Actually I was thinking “throne”, but when I saw that my fingers had mistakenly typed “thrown” I decided to leave it because it seemed weirdly appropriate. After all, you can’t sit on Hollywood’s poop flinging throne unless you have thrown. And thrown and thrown. In fact, you need to indulge in a poop throwing fling. You poop flinging thing.

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  7. Morning–

    I remember getting in trouble in 9th grade English class because I scoffed at the animals talking in ‘Animal Farm’. I lived on a farm you know, I know animals. They don’t talk. And the teacher told me to ‘keep my opinions to myself!’ It took me awhile to get over my self righteous attitude and separate movies from real life…
    ‘Babe’ the pig is a favorite… and there’s a duck in that movie that’s quite funny and quirky.

    I can’t think of others… need you all to remind me and I’ll chime in later saying ‘Yeah, that!’

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    1. Our pets can talk. Actually, they can’t, but when they look at us we sometimes give them imaginary voices saying what we believe they might be thinking..

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  8. A favorite animal film role of mine is in the Miranda July film, The Future, that was shown at the Wallker. The cat steals the show doing humorous and sad commentary in a very funny overdubbed voice.

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  9. There was a Disney movie called That Darn Cat when I was a kid. I was a huge fan of the film, although, in fairness, I had only seen about four or five movies in my life at that time.

    Around the same era there was a TV series about a Dolphin, Flipper. Also a series called Daktari that featured Clarence the cross-eyed lion.

    More recently – I liked the dog in Because of Winn-Dixie.

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  10. Love for Lassie, but none for Rin Tin Tin, or for Benji, dog hero of my childhood? Sadface. I also like Hedwig and Crookshanks (and the cat McGonagall transforms into–silver tabby!) from the Harry Potter films, the cat from “Alien” and the pug that played Frank in “Men in Black.” I’ve seen two very good Japanese films about the healing relationship between human and cat, “GuGu the Cat” and “Nekonade”. In “GuGu” the protagonist’s first cat dies early on, but it’s so central to the plot I forgive them (plus, they do something very interesting with her later in the film). If you can bear subtitles at all, I do recommend them both; they’re sweet, but they’re animal movies for grownups, not children.

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    1. I thought about mentioning Ripley’s cat, except that I get a little sad thinking about the fate of that poor cat. After seeing “Alien,” a good friend of mine instituted the “Ripley’s Cat Rule” in which she will not see movies (or read books) where there is an animal that is central to the action who meets his/her maker before the end of said movie/book. She will occasionally make exceptions, but only rarely.

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      1. Those bother me too. People die left and right in Alien; not nearly as troubling. There must be an emotional impact equation – it takes thirty dead people to equal one unfortunate little furry thing, or something like that.

        Tell your friend not to read The Tortilla Curtain.

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      2. When you are watching a film that features violence, you can pretty much guess that someone close to the protagonist is going to die or almost die in order to build up the bona fides for the villain. Early in a Steven Segal movie is you meet a character who is a friend of his, someone maybe a little sweet and simple, you can kiss that character goodbye because it will be necessary to sacrifice him in order to make the villains villainous. Similarly, in many movies (or TV shows) where you meet a likable pet early in the show, brace yourself for the moment that pet meets a violent end. Something has to be done to give the protagonist self-righteous rage.

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      3. Um, I remember Ripley and the cat going into stasis at the end of “Alien”, and I don’t remember the cat in “Aliens” at all. What did I miss?

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      1. Huh – clearly I mis-remembered (it’s been awhile since I’ve watched the Alien movies). Maybe my friend was just too concerned about the health of the cat and its near misses with the creature.

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      2. I’d forgotten, too.

        That reminds me, though, of Data’s cat Spot in Star Trek TNG. The cat made a few appearances. It was initially thought to be a male cat, but later had kittens. (As brilliant as Data was supposed to be, he was not always right about everything.)

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  11. in my early 20s i could do a pretty good Cheetah laugh. it was my only talent. my cousin and i thought it hilarious to call guys we didn’t like and do a Cheetah laugh and hang up.
    did anyone like the red-eyed, scary dogs in Cujo?
    nowadays, it’s Artois the Goat. — charming, if un-real-life, film. (he almost never milks his goats! and Artois is a wether, so it’s hard to figure how he takes a part other than cute)
    morning All – i’m cooking and entertaining (or trying to – i probably won’t do a Cheetah laugh) the rest of the day.

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  12. I like Fawkes, Dumbledore’s pet phoenix in the Harry Potter movies. In one of the first movies, Fawkes assists Harry in killing the basilisk and saving Ginny Weasley. Fawkes must periodically incinerate and rejuvenate himself from his own ashes, which is both symbolic and utterly charming.

    Someone else would have named him by the time I get this posted….

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  13. I loved many of the animals mentioned here. When I was a kid, the screens were dominated by “cowboys.” Do you guys remember the horses? I used to. Test your memories on this list of cowboy heroes: Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, and the cartoon figure of Red Ryder.

    Answer: Gene Autry had Champion; Hopalong had Topper; the Lone Ranger (you ALL got this one) had Silver; the Cisco Kid rode Diablo; Roy Rogers had Trigger (who is now a stuffed horse somewhere). Red Ryder’s horse had a nice name–Thunder–but that strip would have trouble today offering a white cowboy whose little Indian sidekick is named Little Beaver.

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  14. I don’t see them mentioned yet, so I will raise my glass to Milo the cat and Otis the pug from the film in which all the voices are Dudley Moore. Utterly charming movie.

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  15. Morning all — sorry I’ve been missing the past week or so — the computer spent the holidays with the Geek Squad this year. I’ll try to catch up in the next day or so.

    Wishbone & Mr. Ed have already been mentioned, but I need to add Prancer (from movie of same name). And my all time, over the top favorite – Big Red (also from move of same name).

    Although his is not an animal from a movie yet, I also like to nominate Enzo from “The Art of Racing in the Rain” (thanks, Steve, for recommending this to me). I’m sure when they make the movie, then Enzo will be one of my all time favorites.

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  18. Clyde’s Day
    So my son and wife had a flight out at 7 this morning from the Humphrey Terminal, or as it seems to have become Terminal 2. So we went up yesterday, ate at Hell’s Kitchen at 9:30, Russian Tea House at 2, and Black Forest at 8. We got up at 4 and dropped them off at 5. Sad Sad Sad. Went back to motel and decided to just come home. My wife will need to sleep about 20 hours to make up for last week.
    THEN
    I napped off and one. At 1:30 went to get a Coke. A small bowl of spaghetti sauce fell out, splattered all over the floor, a rug, the carpet, my shoes/laces/socks, my pants, and the refrigerator. So I went to change clothes. Got rid of my socks and pants. Grabbed a pair of pajamas, put them on and looked out the window. A little old dottering woman who lives upstairs (AND DRIVES!!) was on the ground outside our windows. I have watched and waited for this moment. I went out. She was confused, is clearly fiercely independent, and was not going to admit she must have broken a hip or leg. I got her to stand but she could not support herself. I had to put her back on the ground. I went and got my wife’s walker on which you can sit, on a narrow seat, on which she could not sit well. Hugging her in place and awkwardly rolling her I took her to the elevator a long way away off and down the hall a long ways to her apartment. Put her in a kitchen chair as she insisted. Went back and brought up her groceries and purse. She insisted she had no one that she was all alone. Got very agitated when I said I was going to call an ambulance. So I left her there and went to building office and talked to manager, a wonderful and very competent young woman, who had a contact number, a niece her in town. She came and we went upstairs, and the woman was on the floor. Niece called the ambulance. Poor soul was very upset. Ambulance folks said she had clearly broken a hip. I am sure she will never live her again.
    Niece thanked me and then told me that I should not have left her upstairs alone, sizing me up and down, looking at the pajamas I forgot I was in.
    Went back downstairs and spent an hour cleaning up the sauce.

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      1. I think she was shook too. I have an old aunt to try to manage, too. Try to.
        I hope you all noticed the restaurant tour on which we took our daughter-in-law (son’s itinerary).

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    3. Oh, Clyde! I hope you are all right and that the lady you helped is all right too. Let’s hope the best for this feisty little lady. Hip surgery technology has greatly improved. Maybe she’ll be able to come back after awhile.

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    4. i want to hear about the pajamas… red with a butt flap? ricky ricardo satin where the shirt comes with piping on the lapels, flannel with drawstring? did you remember to button the fly?
      good for you to look after her. tough to deal with ornary old coots. sounds like the perfect place for you clyde. do good and be ornary at the same time . be neded and fit right in. the perfect combination. glad you and sandy got to see the california brood. ends too soon eh?

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      2. What do you mean, obviously pajamas? I see people out shopping all the time in what looks to me like pajamas bottoms! You probably looked trendy, Clyde.

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  20. donald daffy foghorn leghorn al kabong snagglepuss huckleberry hound little augie doggie daddy the lion king group simba, mufassa nala timon rafiki pumba scar and ed, under the sea with ariel ursala flounder sebastian, bambi remember that rotten hunter and the fire? jaws has gotten his share of air time around here it is a favorite with young richard dryfus (saw what about bill the other night what a wonderful movie)(no animals)felix mighty manfred, dancing bear bunny rabbit what the heck were kukla and ollie? mighty mouse was a favorite. never liked road runner or wiley coyote bugs was wonderful how did pooh piglet eeore and rabbit get left unmentioned
    white fang black beauty flicka i think animals are easier to express feelings through than people because with people you get hung up on details like looks or chosen words with animals it is the bottom line that comes through. you invent the charachter and the rest comes through naturally like an august wilson charachter in a play. that is waht we reach for in dialouge between people. i think it is more effortless from a critter. hey ellie may is in the news on huffington post. evidently they sued barbie a million years ago for making an elli may looking barbie and not cutting the beverly hillbillies in on the action. she is 75 and her hair is still exactly as in the show.

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    2. One of my friends posted that on Facebook a few days ago. I laughed but didn’t share, thought it a bit too strange….but very funny. I’m not so sure about the sense of humor of some of my friends!

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  22. My 2nd favorite Cheetah comversation was in the NY Times (Obviously not even close to as clever as on the Trail). The claim is that Cheetah had lived at the retirement park since the mid 1960’s when Johnny Weismuller settled his estate and the current owner’s grandparents went to pick up our favorite simian thespian.
    The Times readers pointed out that Johnny Weismuller died in 1984 so it would be odd that his estate would be settled 20 years before his death.

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