Cheeta (sometimes billed as Cheetah, Cheta and Chita) is a chimpanzee character who appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan movies of the 1930s–1960s as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan. Cheeta has usually been characterized as male, but sometimes as female, and has been portrayed by chimpanzees of both sexes.While the character of Cheeta is inextricably associated in the public mind with Tarzan, no chimpanzees appear in the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs that inspired the films. The closest analog to Cheeta in the Burroughs novels is Tarzan's monkey companion Nkima, who appears in several of the later books in the series.
Retired at the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Foundation in Palm Springs, California. He also does abstract paintings, which the Foundation sells to raise funds. [2003]
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Celebrated his "74th" birthday at his Palm Springs home, The Cheeta Primate Foundation which was set up by owner Dan Westfall 14 years ago, with a sugar-free cake and cans of diet Coke because he is diabetic. [April 2006]
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Now retired, he lives at the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary in Palm Springs. [April 2006]
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Often reported as being the world's oldest chimpanzee, but further research has indicated that this is not true.
$14 Million
