I heard of Cheetah's death, too. He was over eighty at the time and bore a strong resemblance to the baby chimp I had seen in pictures online.

Unfortunately, the impostor Cheetah is very much alive and living with a relative of his original handler. He was exposed as a fake only in 2008 and appears in the special feature on the first TARZAN DVD set. His actual name is Jiggs IV and it appears he was never actually in any movie at all.