Jimmy was born in
Portuguese East Africa (now
Mozambique) around 1952. He was captured from the wild by John Calvert to appear in the "white hunter" film
Dark Venture (1956). Calvert was a travelling magician, film actor, and director. He received fame for playing the debonair detective Michael Waring (aka '
The Falcon'). He was also a notorious self-promoter and claimed that Jimmy was the same chimpanzee who played
Cheeta in
Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. However, this was a fabrication, as the last of these Tarzan films was released in 1948, several years before Jimmy was born. Calvert shot
Dark Venture on location in East Africa in 1953, but the film was not released until 1956. While Calvert flew on to Sydney to continue his tour, Jimmy was abandoned on Elcho Island, before being rescued by Sir
Edward Hallstrom of the Taronga Park Zoo. Salvage expert
Carl Atkinson managed to repair the
Sea Fox and sail it back to Darwin, where he claimed the yacht as his own and sold it. Jimmy occupied an enclosure in the Taronga Park Zoo from 1959 to 1962. After failing to breed with female chimpanzees, he was relocated to the Perth Zoo. Jimmy was a popular attraction at both zoos, with many visitors believing the fable that he was the same animal who starred in the Tarzan films. They were also entertained by the sight of a smoking monkey. Jimmy died in May 1968 at the young age of 16 years. A post mortem revealed heart attack, probably caused by smoking, to be the cause of his death. His body was offered to the
Western Australian Museum, where his skull and death mask are currently kept. ==See also==