Tarzan’s chimp Cheetah dies at 80

HE was the dark, muscular toast of Hollywood who could make Irish screen beauty Maureen O’Sullivan quiver, but he didn’t give a monkey’s for all that celebrity nonsense.

Cheetah, star of the Tarzan movies of the 1930s, turns out to have been a simple soul who liked nothing better than to pass the time with a spot of finger-painting or a football game on the telly.

Details of the hairy headliner’s twilight years emerged as his death at the remarkable age of 80 was announced by his carers at his Florida retirement home yesterday.