Alan Cumming fights for a long-lost co-star in Hollywood – he’s spent years searching for a missing chimpanzee named Tonka.
The ‘Good Wife’ star has joined the advisory board of the Florida Sanctuary Save the Chimps, whose goal is to educate the film and TV industry about the fate of animals used in production. “I feel a personal connection to many of the residents here,” Cumming said in a new announcement from the organization’s public service.
“In the 90s I starred in a movie with Tonka, a young chimpanzee. At the time, I didn’t know much about the way showbiz chimpanzees are treated,” he added.
Cumming searched for Tonka for years, and last year even offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who found the beloved primate. He was finally found in June, chained in a basement in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, and sent to Save the Chimps.
Cumming — who co-starred with Tonka in “Buddy” in 1997, the same year the animal was in “George of the Jungle” — said when the chimpanzee was rescued, “I feel so emotional about this amazing news. When I met Tonka. . . I became a true friend and I was honored that he considered me a fellow chimpanzee.”
Tonka is said to have retired in the 90s and his owner told people he passed away last year. But Cumming says Tonka and other rescued chimpanzees are now “enjoying a life of dignity. [The] the most important gift these chimpanzees have is each other,” he said.
“They’re turning 50 or 60, it’s a long and meaningful second act… there are hundreds of chimpanzees still waiting to live in a shelter,” he concluded.