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Published: December 29 2011

Buzz Fleischman fortlauderdaleconnex.com Columnist Page Cheetah, a beloved character actor in the Tarzan movies of the early 30's recently passed away at the age of "about 80."

No one could find the original birth certificate, but everyone agreed that "about 80" was his approximate age. Some would claim that 80 was too old for a chimp's lifespan, but a diet of nuts, grains and two or three Bloody Marys at lunchtime apparently sustained him. It also ultimately led to his death from kidney failure.

His last Facebook posting was a rambling screed about how the Friars Club never gave him a roast or even sent bananas when he was sick.

The chimp loved finger painting, football, and "was soothed by nondenominational Christian music," however Klezmer was by far his favorite.

An attendant at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., said, "It was so cute. Whenever that type of music was played he would playfully toss his little walker across the room, throw his chimp hands in the air and pretend he was at a Jewish wedding."

Never married, and with no children to survive him, Cheetah seemed to be the last of his breed of upright walking chimps. "The closest he came to a real relationship was a wild summer with Jane Goodall in London's Soho District in the 1970's while supposedly researching chimp behavioral patterns with her," the attendant said. "We 'loaned' him to Goodall in the hopes of bettering our overall knowledge but he came back with a smoking habit and a longing for the discotheque life."

Ever the clown in London, Cheetah would sometimes don a sport jacket, shirt and tie and pretend to be a greeter at the disco for visitors, often screeching loudly when a banana was not offered as a tip.

He lived at the primate sanctuary ever since he arrived from Johnny Weissmuller's estate in Ocala.

Those at the estate remembered him fondly -- and his late-night regaling of the workers with tales of how Johnny, after 'tipping a few' at lunch with the other actors, would sometimes slip off the vine during filming and curse loudly with that jungle yell thing he did. Cheetah would emulate Weissmuller and throw the room into gales of laughter with his uncanny impersonation.

Although graduating at the top of his class at the Bel-Air animal film school, Cahheet became bitter when never given the top billing he felt he deserved. He always thought his nuanced performances drew the best from his co-star, who merely grunted along, nodded and said only a dozen or so words in the films.

In his diary, which was found among his meager belongings, Cheetah wrote about watching "The Wizard of Oz" with some friends and said, "Those munchkins got the same crappy end of the stick that I did."