Bart the Bear
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Bart the Bear (January 19, 1977 – May 10, 2000), was a male Alaskan Kodiak Bear who appeared in several Hollywood films throughout his career. Bart's mother was also an actor. She starred in the films Grizzly and Day of the Animals.
Bart the Bear is perhaps one of Hollywood's most remarkable animal stars. The Alaskan brown bear was raised and trained by animal trainers Doug and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Inc., Park City, Utah. Bart started to train in acting in 1980 and grew to 9 feet tall, weighing 1480 pounds as an adult.
Bart has starred in the following movies: Meet the Deedles (1998), The Edge (1997), Walking Thunder (1997), Legends of the Fall (1994), On Deadly Ground (1994), The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991), White Fang (1991), The Young Riders - Decoy (1990) TV Episode, Lost in the Barrens (1990) TV Episode, The Bear (1988), The Great Outdoors (1988), Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills (1986) TV, The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) with Kenny Rogers, and Windwalker (1980). In 1998, Bart made an appearance at the 70th Annual Academy Awards as part of a salute to animal actors.
Bart's co-stars also included John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Steven Seagal, Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, all of whom were very impressed with how well a bear could be trained to act, and enjoyed the experience with working with animals. Bart died in 2000 of natural causes (cancer) at the age of 23, around the age when bears usually die.
Bart died during the filming of the documentary Growing Up Grizzly (2001) (TV) which was presented by Brad Pitt—who plays Tristan Ludlow in Legends of the Fall (1994).
Little Bart the Bear, who had a cameo at the end of Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), was named after Bart.
[edit] Legacy
Bart was the "spokes-bear" for the Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University but his greatest role was as ambassador for the Vital Ground Foundation. Vital Ground has procured threatened wildlife habitat along the Rocky Mountain front and on Kodiak Island.
