PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- At last, I was about to meet a star from Hollywood's golden era, one of the greats from the black-and-white films of the 1930s.

Keep your distance, I was told. Five feet back. This is common with celebrities.

"He likes his space," said aide Dan Westfall. "He's very territorial."

So old is this performer that he holds a Guinness world record, but this legend gets no respect.

He has yet to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- rejected last month for the fifth consecutive year, for a grand total of seven times in 20 years.

He goes by just one name: Cheeta.

Tarzan and Jane may be dead, but their chimpanzee companion lives.

The ape is the last of four Cheetas who starred in the old Tarzan movies. Because of his extraordinary longevity, this Cheeta is now considered The Cheeta. He's believed to be 76 years old, earning a Guinness certificate as the world's oldest living non-human primate. Chimps in captivity can live up to 60 years; in the wild, up to 40.

Today Cheeta is semiretired and living in Palm Springs, as many of the old entertainers do.

Moving more slowly now but still strong, the 150-pound chimp lives in a private, non-profit sanctuary at the home of Westfall, 63, a retired performer himself who sang, danced and played for laughs at the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies.

Tarzan's old sidekick keeps busy, recently completing a music video and appearing in a low-budget black-and-white movie.

"The granddaddy of all Hollywood animals" will even have a book published next February, "Me, Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood" by Cheeta the Chimp, ghostwritten by an author in England. The 320-page book, to be published by the Ecco imprint of HarpersCollins Publishers, is a fictionalized memoir on such moments as when Cheeta starred with Johnny Weissmuller in 1934's "Tarzan and His Mate" and infamously stole the clothes of a naked Maureen O'Sullivan in a swimming scene.

Though Cheeta worked steadily in films and TV until 1967, when he appeared in the movie "Doctor Dolittle," he's still second banana to the 2,365 stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

"They turned us down two weeks ago and gave it to Tinkerbell," a dejected Westfall said last week, despite 11,000 fans signing an online petition at www.gocheeta.com.

Cheeta spends his days watching cartoons, animal shows and, yes, old Tarzan movies, often on a TV set in his cage.

He's also an artist, painting in his own trademarked genre called "Ape-Stract."

Hundreds of Cheeta's painted swirls and long strokes have been sent to admirers in more than 30 countries in exchange for a $135 donation used to protect endangered and threatened apes.

He has diabetes now, and when Westfall gets out the needle to inject insulin twice a day, Cheeta obliges by raising his arm.

"He's my life, he's my best buddy, he's my everything," said Westfall.