Going Ape at the Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood, Academy Award winning director, has made some interesting films over his long career. Two of the more interesting were "Every Which Way But Loose" (1978) and "Any Which Way You Can" (1980) in which the actor teamed up with an orangutan.

In the films, Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a trucker who is a talented fighter. Manis played the orangutan in the first film, but was replaced by C.J. in the second film. The film also stars frequent Eastwood co-stars Geoffrey Lewis and Sondra Locke.

"Every Which Way But Loose" was a huge box-office success, becoming the first film to open with over a $10 million weekend. It would gross over $100 million, and factoring for inflation, was actually the biggest hit of Clint Eastwood's career.

Eastwood got his start in acting in the 1950s, became popular on the television western "Rawhide" in the last 1950s, but became internationally famous in the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone in the mid-1960s. He is probably most famous as police inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan was an actor before he got into politics, making around 50 films between 1938 and 1964. One of them was "Bedtime for Bonzo" (1951), in which Reagan plays a college professor attempting to prove theories about sociology by raising a chimpanzee.

Democrats often used the film to make fun of Reagan during his presidency. "Bedtime for Ronzo" was a popular button in 1984. Johnny Carson often referenced the film, because it was directed by his producer, Freddie DeCordova.

Answer: Cheeta

Cheeta the chimpanzee was played by at least a dozen different chimps between 1932 and 1968. Interestingly, Edgar Rice Burroughs did not have chimpanzees in his novels. The character of Cheeta was created for the films.

The first chimpanzee to play Cheeta was named Jiggs. He appeared with Olympic athlete Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan in 1932 and 1934. Jiggs died in 1938. Tarzan proved to be an extremely popular character, and dozens of Tarzan films and shorts were released over the next 35 years.

Answer: Empire State Building

"King Kong" ends with the giant gorilla climbing to the top of the Empire State Building, which was tallest building in the world between 1931 and 1970. The Empire State has a roof height of 1250 feet, and a total height with spire of 1454 feet.

"King Kong" (1933) is widely regarded as one of the most important releases in the history of film. It was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1991. The film follows a filmmaker who travels to a south Pacific island, where he discovers an enormous gorilla. He captures the gorilla and takes it back to the United States. Kong escapes because he has fallen in love with Ann Darrow (Fay Wray). The gorilla is shot by airplanes and falls off the building.

The Woolworth Building was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. It was surpassed by the Chrysler building, which gotten beaten out by the Empire State a year later.

Answer: The Life of Pi

"The Life of Pi" (2012) tells the story of a young man who survives a shipwreck and is trapped in a boat with several animals including an orangutan and a tiger. Lee won his second Academy Award as Best Director for the fantasy film.

"Brokeback Mountain" (2005) is set in the western United States, where there are no orangutans outside of zoos. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) is one of the greatest martial films of all time, but contains no orangutans. "Lust, Caution" (2007) is an espionage thriller set during World War II Shanghai, again no orangutans.

Ang Lee is one of the world's most revered directors, with multiple awards including Golden Bears, Golden Lions, two Academy Awards, Golden Globes and China's Order of the Brilliant Star.

Answer: television

"The Barefoot Executive" (1971) was one of several light-weight comedies that Kurt Russell made for Disney in the 1970s. Russell plays a young man working at a television network who discovers that his girlfriend's chimpanzee has the uncanny ability to predict what television programs will succeed and which will fail.

The chimpanzee is named Raffles. Russell passes off the chimp's evaluations as his own, and rises quickly in the company. Once network executives discover that a chimp is behind their programming, they attempt to return him to the jungle. Raffles outsmarts the executives and leaves them in the jungle instead. The film has a happy ending (naturally, it is a Disney film).

Answer: Chicago

"Rampage" (2018), which stars Dwayne Johnson and is based on a video game, takes place largely in Chicago. Johnson plays a former special forces soldier who has become a primatologist. A gene manipulation experiment turns his pet gorilla into a giant. They travel to Chicago where the gorilla fights a genetically enhanced alligator and wolf.

While the film received mixed reviews, it was generally viewed more positively than most live action films based on video games. The film did gross $101 million in the US market, and another $300 million world-wide.

Answer: Amy

Amy the gorilla was nominated both for "Worst New Star" and "Worst Supporting Actress" by the Golden Raspberry Awards. Madonna, a frequent Razzie nominee, received Worst Supporting Actress for "Four Rooms" (1995) and Elizabeth Berkley won Worst New Star for her turn in "Showgirls" (1995).

The film was nominated for Worst Picture, Frank Marshall was nominated as Worst Director, John Patrick Shanley was nominated for Worst Screenplay and Tim Curry was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor. Oh, and legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith was nominated for the song "(Feel)the Spirit of Africa". Most of them lost out to the even more awful "Showgirls".

Koko is probably the most famous real-life talking gorilla. Researchers taught her American Sign Language and she eventually understood around 1000 signs. Washoe was a chimpanzee in the 1960s who learned sign language. Kanzi is a bonobo monkey who communicates using lexigrams (symbolic language).

Answer: Mel Tillis and Tony Danza

Mel Tillis and Tony Danza drove with the orangutan, who appeared at times to be driving their car. This was a running gag throughout the film. The orangutan was played by Manis, who played Clyde in "Every Which Way But Loose" (1978).

The film is a sequel to the 1981 comedy "Cannonball Run". Both films star Reynolds and DeLuise as daredevils who enjoy high speed racing. With Dean Martin, Sammy Davis and Frank Sinatra in the cast, "Cannonball Run II" can be considered the last "Rat Pack" film; it was the last film for both Martin and Sinatra. Anton and Bach play two hot babes that are often stopped by the police, but then let go because they are hot.

Answer: Danny DeVito

Danny DeVito plays an oddball character named Laszlo, who helps Danza with three orangutans that he inherited from his circus owner father. Much like "Brewsters Millions", Danza is set to inherit millions of dollars, but only on the condition that he takes good care of the apes.

Marilu Henner did appear with Danza in "Cannonball Run II" (1984), playing a woman posing as as a nun.

Danny DeVito played obnoxious dispatcher Louie DePalma, Judd Hirch was Alex Rieger, Marilu Henner played would be artist Elaine Nardo and Christopher Lloyd played the ultimate space cadet, Rev. Jim Ignatowski. "Taxi" ran for five seasons between 1978 and 1983.