Thanks anyway, Burgo. Actually, I found it. I was off on the circa. It was early to mid 80's, when I was an early teenager, but my mind seems to associate it with a younger age. It was a short-lived strip that appeared in the L.A. Times, maybe others. It wouldn't surprise me if it was only successful there because of the subject matter.
The comic strip in question is
Rudy. It was written by William Overgard, who had done the
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad comic strip for a long time before that.
Rudy was a talking chimpanzee, often dressed in a tuxedo, and was more than subtly based on George Burns. He lived in a low-rent apartment with a pet parrot named Bonita. He was a previously successful vaudeville performer that was trying to make a comeback in Hollywood. That was the premise. Kinda weird. Crazy how certain obscure memories will just come flooding out of nowhere.
Here's a link to a small article about it.
http://www.progressiveruin.com/2010/01/19/rudy-in-hollywood-holt-rinehart-and-winston-1984/