Animals in Films

Names

... of either the character or the actor (!)

Orang–utan in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980)		Clyde
Name of the dog in K–9 (1989, James Belushi and Mel Harris)		Jerry Lee
Name of the ship's cat in Alien (1979)		Jones (Jonesy)
Dog (i.e. not a bitch!) that played Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943) and six subsequent films; Lassie has been played ever since by his descendants – all dogs (dogs retain a thicker coat in summer, which is felt to look better)		Pal
Eponymous (canine) star of the 1966 film The Spy with a Cold Nose		Pickles
I Am Legend (2007): German shepherd dog that is Will Smith's companion		Samantha
Canine star (a Jack Russell terrier) of The Artist, 2011 (previously appeared in Mr. Fixit 2006, Water for Elephants 2011)		Uggie
Played by Keiko		Willy (in Free Willy)

Types

Tarzan’s chimpanzee		Cheetah
Bringing up Baby (1938 – Hepburn, Tracey): Baby was a		Leopard
Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World: breed		Old English Sheepdog
A Private Function (1985) was about the kidnapping of a		Pig
In Willard (1971), Socrates and Ben are (type of creature that the title character is obsessed with; these are his favourites)		Rats
The star of Racing Stripes (2005) was a		Zebra

Other

The following were inspired by – OK, copied from – a round on Pointless. They're all about dogs. Sadly, I didn't think to record how many points each answer was worth.

1955: Disney animation about the romance between a cocker spaniel and a stray mutt		Lady and the Tramp
1974: a stray dog in a small Texan town helps to free two kidnapped children		Benji
1974: Art Carney's Best Actor Oscar – as an old man crossing the USA with his cat		Harry & Tonto
1941: Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi horror, inspired by a Poe short story		The Black Cat
1988: Disney animation – a lost young cat falls in with a gang of canine petty criminals		Oliver & Company
1989: Tom Hanks is a policeman who teams up with a slobbery dogue de Bordeaux		Turner & Hooch
1989: James Belushi is a maverick detective who teams up with a dog called Jerry Lee		K–9
1989: animation – a murdered dog forsakes his place in the afterlife and returns to Earth		All Dogs Go To Heaven
1991: Based on a Jack London novel, about a friendship between a Yukon gold hunter and a wolf–dog		White Fang
1992: a family adopts a St. Bernard puppy and names him after a famous composer		Beethoven
2008: based on John Grogan's memoir – about a couple with a badly–behaved dog		Marley & Me

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24