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Hollywood star breaks silence

25.01.08 Joel Rickett

Fourth Estate has signed up Holly­wood legend Cheeta the Chimp for a no-holds-barred memoir, Me Cheeta, this autumn. Cheeta was snatched from the Liberian jungle in 1932, and appeared alongside Johnny Weissmuller in "Tarzan the Ape Man".

In 1934's "Tarzan and His Mate" he famously stole the clothes from a naked Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan), who was swimming with Weissmuller. He went on to star alongside Bela Lugosi in the '50s, and finally quit the big screen after 1967's "Doctor Do­little" with Rex Harrison.

Cheeta, a.k.a. Jiggs, now lives in a Palm Springs retirement home, where he paints and plays the piano. Last year he cele­brated his 75th birthday, making him by far the oldest chimp ever recorded.

Fourth Estate publishing director Nicholas Pearson bought world rights directly from Cheeta. Ecco is publishing the book in the US.

"Here we've got the real monkey—­a great actor who is one of the few still alive from what was the golden age of Holly­wood. He saw it all. He had to act to save his life, literally. Others who fell by the wayside often ended up in the lab with the dogs, mice and rabbits."

The "funny, moving and searingly honest" book will cover Cheeta's struggle with drink and addiction to cigars, his breakthrough with radical new form of abstract painting "apeism", his relationship with his nightclub-performing grandson Jeeta, and his battle with diabetes. 

Joel Rickett Rights deal Fourth Estate Cheeta

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