Info on rumored death of Clyde from ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980)

[Brian B]

Sometime last year I'd done a little research on the rumored death of the orangutan used in ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980). After finding various bits of info and books that seemed to all stem from an old National Enquirer article from 1985, I found a link that brought me to this site. I don't know if anyone else has ever heard anything different, or if anyone has ever produced evidence that contradicts the rumors out there, but I recently interviewed William Munns, a special effects makeup artist and author who worked with Boone Narr on this movie. Having gotten tired of every time even a mention of these two films, or the actors associated with them, somebody will often blurt out, "You know they killed that ape on that movie, didn't you?" Munns gave a great deal of info about working with the orang on the picture, as well as some real animal tragedies involving Gentle Jungle around that time. If anyone's interested, the interview is linked below. The Boone Narr/Clyde questions begin at the fourth question down. The interview encompasses his whole career, but the Clyde portion is enough for a whole piece by itself. Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject.

http://www.coolasscinema.com/2015/03/an-interview-with-makeup-effects-artist.html

[KC]

Very interesting, thanks for posting, Brian B!

[Brian B]

You're welcome, of course. I thought it fitting to share it here. I had done a month long theme at my site last year called Macho Month. Naturally Eastwood was a part of it. On the site FB page, I posted a few pics of one of the orangutans on the two films with the actors. Needless to say, a few posters commented about how the animals were beaten and abused, and some even complained I was glorifying animal violence by posting the photos. I ended up having to ban a few folks it got so ridiculously out of hand. It was then when I began looking around for information about the alleged incident, and I found  very little to go on save for a slew of negative pieces, some of which has managed to get out in book form.

[KC]

We've had a few threads on Clyde (or the various orangutans who played him) and his fate on this site in the past:

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/?topic=2573.0

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/?topic=6672.0

[Brian B]

Thanks. The first link is the one I found, but I'd not seen the second one.