Ah, the sad life of the animal actor - you're on telly every week, people love your show, and yet you can still walk, bounce, fly or crawl down the street and no one will recognise you, nevermind ask for an autograph. You could be sitting in your zoo cage for months and no one will say "Didn't I see him in Lance Link : Secret Chimp?". Shit, you could piss on a lamppost and sniff your stunt double's arse outside Buckingham Palace and not a single paparazzi would bother to grab their camera.

People simply can not tell animals apart, and thus can not recognise famous animals from your everyday common beast. And until the day that they can, you will never see a thespian dolphin win an Oscar, even if they had quadrupled their weight and endured severe hardships in order to play a backward whale.

To prove my point, here are ten famous animals alongside ten not-famous animals.
Can you click on which are stars of telly, stage or screen - and avoid which you have never seen before? I bloody well bet you can't.

Which one is Bruno (Gentle Ben)?
In the later TV Movie, Ben was played by Bonkers rather than Bruno.

Which one is Mitzi (Flipper)?
Mitzi was a lady dolphin. For the tail walk scenes, she had a stunt dolphin called Mr Gipper to stand in for her.

Which one is Pal or a descendant (Lassie)?
Before Pal's death, he was bred with a number of bitches, resulting in hundreds of offspring, Nine direct line descendants of Pal have performed as Lassie.

Which one is Manis (Clyde from Every Which Way But Loose)?
For the sequel to Every Which Way But Loose, Manis had to be replaced as he had gotten too big. He did not ever grow big enough to play Kong.

Which one is Goldie (off Blue Peter)?
Goldie's first daughter was called Lady Diana. One of her second litter was called Fergie.

Which one is Bamboo Harvester (Mr Ed)?
In 1968, two years after the cancellation of Mr. Ed, Bamboo began to suffer from a variety of age related ailments, including arthritis. and was euthanised shortly afterwards without fanfare.

Which one is Keiko (Free Willy)?
All-male groups of killer whales often interact with erect penises. Whether this interaction is part of play or a display of dominance is not known.

Which one is Higgins or a descendant (Benji)?
As with Lassie, Higgins' progeny have replaced him in later work. This one is the star of Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince. He played Benji.

Which one is a Skippy?
Three actors played Skippy. None of them were credited with a name. This one was my favourite.

Which one is Bungle?
Despite critical acclaim for his role in Rainbow, Bungle is yet to achieve another such success.

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