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Keiko (orca)
Keiko played Willy in the 1993 film. The crew built a backdrop around his pool in Mexico City to make it look like an aquarium in the Pacific Northwest. The film drew attention to Keiko’s own living conditions, and the sequels used robotic doubles.
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Bart the Bear
Bart played an adult bear alongside the young bear Youk in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Bear. The trainers’ film records and photographs identify the two animals on the Italian location. Seeing them share the frame puts the size difference at the center of their story.
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Crystal the Monkey
Crystal played Dexter, the capuchin who causes trouble for Ben Stiller’s night guard in Night at the Museum. The production notes identify Mike Alexander and Tom Gunderson as her trainers. They brought Crystal to meet Stiller before scenes in which she had to work close to his face.
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Bamboo Harvester
Bamboo Harvester played the horse on Mister Ed. Allan Lane supplied the speaking voice, while Alan Young played Ed’s owner. The Television Academy notes that the horse was credited as Mister Ed playing himself, even though his real name was Bamboo Harvester.
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Manis the Orangutan
Manis played Clyde, the orangutan companion to Clint Eastwood’s Philo Beddoe in Every Which Way but Loose. The American Film Institute’s cast record names him for the 1978 film. An Academy photograph shows Manis with his arm around Eastwood on set.
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Winter (dolphin)
Winter played herself in Dolphin Tale, a dramatization of her rescue and the effort to fit her with a prosthetic tail. Clearwater Marine Aquarium was her home and one of the film’s settings. The animal and the site where she received care both appear in the film.
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Trigger (horse)
Before the palomino became Roy Rogers’s partner, Olivia de Havilland rode him in The Adventures of Robin Hood. He later had a role of his own in My Pal Trigger. Rogers also acquired a different horse called Trigger Jr., so the production and date matter when identifying the performer.
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Popcorn Deelites
Popcorn Deelites was one of the horses cast as the title racehorse in Seabiscuit. Old Friends, his retirement home, credits him with scenes that included the match race against War Admiral. His own racing career gave him experience with the kind of running that the film had to show.
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Fagan the Lion
MGM turned the story of Floyd Humeston and his pet lion into Stanley Donen’s Fearless Fagan. The studio cast Fagan himself in the picture. LIFE photographed him with producer Sidney Franklin Jr. and around the MGM lot, preserving a record of the real lion at the studio.
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Clarence the Lion
The lion Clarence played the title part in Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion. The feature led to Daktari, and the original publicity photograph pairs Clarence with Judy the chimpanzee. The photograph dates to the series, while the American Film Institute’s cast record establishes his earlier film role.
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Orangey
Frank Inn trained the orange tabby Orangey Murray to play the cat who inherits a baseball team in Rhubarb. The original screen credit uses the character’s name, and the studio’s publicity mentions feline stand-ins. Orangey is also associated with Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a role performed by more than one cat.
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