That Time Jim Jeffries Knocked Out an Orangutan

From Wiki -

Joe Martin briefly escaped during a 1927 circus stand in California. To the shock of the assembled crowd, he initially charged a group of stake drivers, but then, "in his ape-like slouching amble", changed direction and seized trapeze artist Babette Letourneau by the arms. Letourneau reportedly screamed and fainted. Former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries was on the scene because he and another heavyweight boxer, Tom Sharkey, were doing an exhibition match as part of the show. As witnessed by an alleged 400 members of the circus troupe, Jeffries ran at Joe Martin bellowing "Let go there—" which led Joe Martin to drop LeTourneau. Jeffries then swung at Joe Martin with his right but missed and lost his balance, at which point Joe Martin jumped on his back, holding on with his hind feet. Jeffries then threw himself backwards to the ground, hard enough to knock the wind out of Joe Martin. Jeffries got back up, and Joe Martin did too, but, in the words of the sports-page writer, "this time Jeffries in his famous crouch was ready." Jeffries knocked down Joe Martin with a punch, and then clambered on top of him and beat him unconscious. The orangutan was returned to his circus wagon, and was largely uninjured "except for a cut and swollen eye...He is not so lively, however, and seems to be brooding."

 

This is from a larger wiki article about "Joe Martin" the orangutan. He actually appeared in over 100 movies. He actually attacked many people (directors and actors) over his career. I'd imagine he held back some because I don't think he killed anyone, but he definitely caused injuries.

 

What if I was?

I saw a post on Reddit about it and naturally fell into the rabbit hole. It wasn't like I just woke up today thinking that I'd look for famous orangutan actors. Look, things happen.

 

He was probably like 50-100 pounds. You are probably thinking of an Ape, or a Gorilla, both of which have Wikipedia articles dedicated to each animal.

Also, this particular orangutan had lived a life of luxury, wining and dining with the biggest actors of the day who are forced to do movies with orangutans.