diff --git a/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala b/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
index b466b8a9d8..4f6744b74b 100644
--- a/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
+++ b/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import scala.annotation.varargs
 import scala.reflect.ClassTag
 
 object TestActor {
-  type Ignore = Option[PartialFunction[AnyRef, Boolean]]
+  type Ignore = Option[PartialFunction[Any, Boolean]]
 
   abstract class AutoPilot {
     def run(sender: ActorRef, msg: Any): AutoPilot
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ trait TestKitBase {
    * Ignore all messages in the test actor for which the given partial
    * function returns true.
    */
-  def ignoreMsg(f: PartialFunction[AnyRef, Boolean]) { testActor ! TestActor.SetIgnore(Some(f)) }
+  def ignoreMsg(f: PartialFunction[Any, Boolean]) { testActor ! TestActor.SetIgnore(Some(f)) }
 
   /**
    * Stop ignoring messages in the test actor.
diff --git a/akka-testkit/src/test/scala/akka/testkit/TestProbeSpec.scala b/akka-testkit/src/test/scala/akka/testkit/TestProbeSpec.scala
index a413aa86a9..72e5b3a8c0 100644
--- a/akka-testkit/src/test/scala/akka/testkit/TestProbeSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-testkit/src/test/scala/akka/testkit/TestProbeSpec.scala
@@ -78,6 +78,13 @@ class TestProbeSpec extends AkkaSpec with DefaultTimeout {
       expectMsgAllClassOf(5 seconds, classOf[Int]) must be(Seq(42))
     }
 
+    "be able to ignore primitive types" in {
+      ignoreMsg { case 42 ⇒ true }
+      testActor ! 42
+      testActor ! "pigdog"
+      expectMsg("pigdog")
+    }
+
   }
 
 }