Looking into our beloved animals who still play a crucial role in the entertainment industry.
To celebrate all the hardworking animal actors out there, the following are a list of eight iconic animal thesps, domestic and wild, contemporary and dearly departed. In fairness, we’ve limited it to one animal actor per species as we certainly wouldn’t want hammy canines to rule the list.
Pal
Uggie as "the Dog." Cosmo as "Arthur." Jill as "Verdell." Terry as "Toto." Higgins as "Benji." And perhaps most traumatically, Darla as "Precious." While these are all fine examples of outstanding cinematic turns by canines in Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning films, only one four-legged thesp has been honored with a five-pointed star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That, of course, would be Lassie.
Lassie, depicted as a female, was in fact the stage name/alter-ego of Pal, a North Hollywood-born male rough collie who not only starred in "Lassie Come Home" but a series of sequels and spin-offs before entering retirement (he died in 1958 at the age of 18 ... or 126, depending on who you ask.)
Mitzi
While a series of female bottlenose dolphins collectively portrayed Flipper, aka "Lassie of the Sea," during the three-season TV run of "Flipper," a photogenic – and exceptionally trained – lady-dolphin named Mitzi primarily played the titular role in MGM’s 1963 family film that birthed the popular spin-off series (along with a mawkish, Jennifer Alba-starring TV revival in the 1990s and a 1996 remake starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood that relied heavily on animatronics in lieu of real dolphins).
Mitzi, the original Flipper, passed away in 1972 of a heart attack at the age of 14 and is interred at the nonprofit Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, the same institution where she resided and was trained.
Bart the Bear
Bart the Bear, a 9.5-foot force of nature who over the course of his storied career appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins, Ethan Hawke, Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin and, err, Steven Segal, was born in 1977 into an established ursine acting clan – apparently his mother appeared in the late-1970s schlocky horror movies "Grizzly" and "Day of the Animals." Bart, however, had grander aspirations than low-budget genre films and went on to appear briefly in "Clan of the Cave Bear" (1986) with Darryl Hannah and the John Hughes-penned Dan Akroyd /John Candy comedy, "The Great Outdoors" (1988).
Bart passed away from cancer in 2000 the age of 23 in Park City, Utah, under the care of his long-time trainers and human companions, Doug and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
Crystal
Hollywood’s go-to capuchin, 20-year-old Crystal, has demonstrated remarkable range over her short but prolific career: She’s played a drug dealer (“The Hangover Part 2”), a medical doctor (“Animal Practice”), a drunk (“Dr. Doolittle”), an unhinged personal assistant (“Malcolm in the Middle”) and the primate embodiment of Adam Sandler (“Zookeeper.”) And in 2012, she was one of television’s highest paid actors, diaper-wearing or not, commanding a cool $12,000 per episode for her roll as Dr. Rizzo in the (mercifully) now-cancelled sitcom “Animal Practice.” Funny, we figured as a monkey that she’d receive compensation in bananas, hugs and kisses. When not rehearsing, doing back flips on the red carpet or evoking the ire of PETA (and no, she doesn’t really smoke), Crystal lives a quiet life in a Los Angeles home that she shares with handler/trainer Tom Gunderson, his family and a menagerie of other showbiz-savvy critters.
Bamboo Harvester
You’d think that the Palomino behind television’s chattiest equine would have a more dignified, debonair name than Bamboo Harvester. Maybe something like Jack, Charlie, Felix or Reginald P. Hoofmeister. But Bamboo Harvester? What does that even mean?
But we digress. As the titular quip-prone gelding belonging to hapless architect Wilbur Post (Alan Young), Bamboo Harvester starred in all six seasons of “Mister Ed” from 1961 to 1966, and during that period became the hay-munching toast of the town. Although “Mister Ed” is a rather silly sitcom relic (children of the 1980s and 1990s may have fond memories of it playing during Nick at Night), one “Mister Ed” legend has held strong to this day: How did the show’s creators get Bamboo Harvester — trained by Les Hilton of Francis the Talking Mule fame — to “talk”? Peanut butter? Nylon strings? Forcefully inserted carrots?
And would an old-fashioned talking horse sitcom fly today? Probably not (we’d watch it, of course, of course). However, Fox did attempt to revive the series back in 2004 with a never-aired television pilot starring David Alan Basche, Garrett Dillahunt and the late Sherman Hemsley as the voice of the inimitable Mister Ed.
Jiggs
While a super-talented parade of apes —we’re looking at you, J. Fred Muggs — have graced television and theater screens over the years, none deserves trailblazer status as much as Jiggs, the hardworking professional ham who originated the role of Tarzan’s faithful chimp sidekick, Cheeta. Owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry, Jiggs only appeared as Cheeta in two Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, “Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932) and “Tarzan and His Mate” (1934) along with the Buster Crabbe-starring serial “Tarzan the Fearless” (1935).
Jiggs lived a tragically short life for a chimp, passing away from pneumonia at the age of 9 in 1938. He was buried in the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, also the final home of Rudolph Valentino’s Great Dane, Charlie Chaplin’s cat, Petey the pit bull from “Our Gang” and Hopalong Cassidy’s horse, Topper.
Orangey
Orangey – also known as Rhubarb or Jimmy – is the only cat to win two PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards, the American Humane Association’s now-defunct honor bestowed upon Hollywood’s hardest-working critters. Other esteemed recipients of a PATSY include Pal, Bonzo the chimp, Bruno the Bear (“Gentle Ben”), Arnold the pig from “Green Acres” and multiple award winner, Molly (aka Francis the Talking Mule).
Orangey’s first PATSY win came in 1951 with her role as the titular kitty in “Rhubarb.” Ten years later Orangey was presented with her second PATSY award for portraying Holly Golighty’s unnamed pet feline in Blake Edward’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (pictured left.) Other Orangey appearances include “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957) as Butch, “The Comedy of Terrors” as Cleopatra (1964) and the sitcom “Our Miss Brooks” (1952-1958) as Minerva.
Tai
Tai made her film debut in “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” (1994) and has been working steadily, to some controversy, ever since. Playing Rosie, an abused circus elephant in the 2011 film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel “Water for Elephants,” Tai garnered as much praise as a nearly 10,000-pound method actor can get. However, in addition to predicable noise from PETA, Tai was at the center of real-life abuse allegations (the deplorable mistreatment depicted in “Water for Elephants” was the result of CGI and special effects) when Animal Defenders International (ADI) released a short video that purportedly showed Tai being electrocuted with stun guns and beaten with bull hooks by her handlers some years before the filming of “Water for Elephants.”
To celebrate all the hardworking animal actors out there, the following are a list of eight iconic animal thesps, domestic and wild, contemporary and dearly departed. In fairness, we’ve limited it to one animal actor per species as we certainly wouldn’t want hammy canines to rule the list.
Pal
Uggie as "the Dog." Cosmo as "Arthur." Jill as "Verdell." Terry as "Toto." Higgins as "Benji." And perhaps most traumatically, Darla as "Precious." While these are all fine examples of outstanding cinematic turns by canines in Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning films, only one four-legged thesp has been honored with a five-pointed star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That, of course, would be Lassie.
Lassie, depicted as a female, was in fact the stage name/alter-ego of Pal, a North Hollywood-born male rough collie who not only starred in "Lassie Come Home" but a series of sequels and spin-offs before entering retirement (he died in 1958 at the age of 18 ... or 126, depending on who you ask.)
Mitzi
While a series of female bottlenose dolphins collectively portrayed Flipper, aka "Lassie of the Sea," during the three-season TV run of "Flipper," a photogenic – and exceptionally trained – lady-dolphin named Mitzi primarily played the titular role in MGM’s 1963 family film that birthed the popular spin-off series (along with a mawkish, Jennifer Alba-starring TV revival in the 1990s and a 1996 remake starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood that relied heavily on animatronics in lieu of real dolphins).
Mitzi, the original Flipper, passed away in 1972 of a heart attack at the age of 14 and is interred at the nonprofit Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, the same institution where she resided and was trained.
Bart the Bear
Bart the Bear, a 9.5-foot force of nature who over the course of his storied career appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins, Ethan Hawke, Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin and, err, Steven Segal, was born in 1977 into an established ursine acting clan – apparently his mother appeared in the late-1970s schlocky horror movies "Grizzly" and "Day of the Animals." Bart, however, had grander aspirations than low-budget genre films and went on to appear briefly in "Clan of the Cave Bear" (1986) with Darryl Hannah and the John Hughes-penned Dan Akroyd /John Candy comedy, "The Great Outdoors" (1988).
Bart passed away from cancer in 2000 the age of 23 in Park City, Utah, under the care of his long-time trainers and human companions, Doug and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
Crystal
Hollywood’s go-to capuchin, 20-year-old Crystal, has demonstrated remarkable range over her short but prolific career: She’s played a drug dealer (“The Hangover Part 2”), a medical doctor (“Animal Practice”), a drunk (“Dr. Doolittle”), an unhinged personal assistant (“Malcolm in the Middle”) and the primate embodiment of Adam Sandler (“Zookeeper.”) And in 2012, she was one of television’s highest paid actors, diaper-wearing or not, commanding a cool $12,000 per episode for her roll as Dr. Rizzo in the (mercifully) now-cancelled sitcom “Animal Practice.” Funny, we figured as a monkey that she’d receive compensation in bananas, hugs and kisses. When not rehearsing, doing back flips on the red carpet or evoking the ire of PETA (and no, she doesn’t really smoke), Crystal lives a quiet life in a Los Angeles home that she shares with handler/trainer Tom Gunderson, his family and a menagerie of other showbiz-savvy critters.
Bamboo Harvester
You’d think that the Palomino behind television’s chattiest equine would have a more dignified, debonair name than Bamboo Harvester. Maybe something like Jack, Charlie, Felix or Reginald P. Hoofmeister. But Bamboo Harvester? What does that even mean?
But we digress. As the titular quip-prone gelding belonging to hapless architect Wilbur Post (Alan Young), Bamboo Harvester starred in all six seasons of “Mister Ed” from 1961 to 1966, and during that period became the hay-munching toast of the town. Although “Mister Ed” is a rather silly sitcom relic (children of the 1980s and 1990s may have fond memories of it playing during Nick at Night), one “Mister Ed” legend has held strong to this day: How did the show’s creators get Bamboo Harvester — trained by Les Hilton of Francis the Talking Mule fame — to “talk”? Peanut butter? Nylon strings? Forcefully inserted carrots?
And would an old-fashioned talking horse sitcom fly today? Probably not (we’d watch it, of course, of course). However, Fox did attempt to revive the series back in 2004 with a never-aired television pilot starring David Alan Basche, Garrett Dillahunt and the late Sherman Hemsley as the voice of the inimitable Mister Ed.
Jiggs
While a super-talented parade of apes —we’re looking at you, J. Fred Muggs — have graced television and theater screens over the years, none deserves trailblazer status as much as Jiggs, the hardworking professional ham who originated the role of Tarzan’s faithful chimp sidekick, Cheeta. Owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry, Jiggs only appeared as Cheeta in two Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, “Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932) and “Tarzan and His Mate” (1934) along with the Buster Crabbe-starring serial “Tarzan the Fearless” (1935).
Jiggs lived a tragically short life for a chimp, passing away from pneumonia at the age of 9 in 1938. He was buried in the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, also the final home of Rudolph Valentino’s Great Dane, Charlie Chaplin’s cat, Petey the pit bull from “Our Gang” and Hopalong Cassidy’s horse, Topper.
Orangey
Orangey – also known as Rhubarb or Jimmy – is the only cat to win two PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards, the American Humane Association’s now-defunct honor bestowed upon Hollywood’s hardest-working critters. Other esteemed recipients of a PATSY include Pal, Bonzo the chimp, Bruno the Bear (“Gentle Ben”), Arnold the pig from “Green Acres” and multiple award winner, Molly (aka Francis the Talking Mule).
Orangey’s first PATSY win came in 1951 with her role as the titular kitty in “Rhubarb.” Ten years later Orangey was presented with her second PATSY award for portraying Holly Golighty’s unnamed pet feline in Blake Edward’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (pictured left.) Other Orangey appearances include “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957) as Butch, “The Comedy of Terrors” as Cleopatra (1964) and the sitcom “Our Miss Brooks” (1952-1958) as Minerva.
Tai
Tai made her film debut in “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” (1994) and has been working steadily, to some controversy, ever since. Playing Rosie, an abused circus elephant in the 2011 film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel “Water for Elephants,” Tai garnered as much praise as a nearly 10,000-pound method actor can get. However, in addition to predicable noise from PETA, Tai was at the center of real-life abuse allegations (the deplorable mistreatment depicted in “Water for Elephants” was the result of CGI and special effects) when Animal Defenders International (ADI) released a short video that purportedly showed Tai being electrocuted with stun guns and beaten with bull hooks by her handlers some years before the filming of “Water for Elephants.”
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