it until Trainer Richard Kroner, pounding the gorilla with an iron stake, distracted its slow attention. In 1941, he was paired with another gorilla, Toto (short for Mitoto or M'Toto), who was advertised as "Mrs. Gargantua". Nothing ever came of the relationship, however, and both lived in separate cages. In May 1942, his trainer since babyhood, Richard Kroener, died. As Kroeners' assistant Julius Gerlick had just been drafted, this left Gargantua to be trained by strangers. Death Gargantua died in November 1949 of double pneumonia. A necropsy performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital revealed that Gargantua had been suffering from several conditions at the time of his death, including skin disease and four impacted and rotten wisdom teeth. His skeleton was donated to the Peabody Museum in 1950, but it is now only displayed on special occasions. Physical characteristics Sources report Gargantua's weight variously as -. The 7-year-old Gargantua was described as when first displayed. His standing height was said to be 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in). Western lowland gorillas usually only reach in the wild. Legacy The 1997 film Buddy, starring Rene Russo, is very loosely based on the early life of Gargantua/Buddy and another of Gertrude Lintz's gorillas, Massa. See also List of individual apes References Further reading Gargantua: Circus Star of the Century by Gene Plowden (Random House, ) Animals Are My Hobby by Gertrude Davies Lintz (Museum Press Limited, 1945, ASIN B0007JAIJC) External links Gangantua Photos - History of Gargantua Gargantua the Great at The Nonist The News-Times: The Real King Kong Extract from Animals Are My Hobby at Apes & Monkeys Individual gorillas Circus apes 1929 animal births 1949 animal deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Maryland Individual primates in the United States