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Cheeta (born April 9,1932) is a chimpanzee noted for appearing in numerous movies and television shows, most famously many Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s and 1940s, in which the fictional chimp he portrayed had the same name. Cheeta also appeared in Doctor Dolittle (1967) with Rex Harrison, Cheeta's last role before retirement.
While inextricably associated in the public mind with Tarzan, Cheeta as a character never appeared in any of the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, only the Tarzan movies. In the novels chimpanzees never appear, though in the later books Tarzan has a monkey companion named N'kima.
Cheeta became the longest lived known chimpanzee upon passing the age of 64. Cheeta is still alive at the age of 73, living at a private residence in Palm Springs, California.
In retirement Cheeta watches television and makes paintings which are sold to benefit primate-related charities.
This particular animal's name should not be confused with species of big cat known as the cheetah.