Ron Ely, who portrayed Tarzan on TV for two seasons from 1966 to 1968, has died at 86, his family says.
The towering, muscular actor with the mane of brunet hair died at a residence in Los Alamos, California, on September 29, his family reported, The Hollywood Reporter said on Wednesday.
Ely was a mainstay on TV and pop culture through the 1980s, moving from the star of a film treatment of the 1930s pulp magazine hero Doc Savage to the host of the Miss America Pageant.
The musclebound actor shot to national fame for his 1966 role as Tarzan, King of the Jungle, in a role that left him physically battered, he later revealed.
Ely landed the role after former NFL linebacker Mike Henry was injured by a chimpanzee as filming for the 1966 TV series began. Ely has said that he feared being typecast if he took the role, but noted that his agent convinced him to take it anyway. However, after spending 60 episodes doing his own stunts during filming in Brazil, Central America, and Mexico, Ely said he was relieved that it was canceled after two seasons.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know that I could have even done anymore,” Ely said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I was mentally and physically worn out. At the very least I would have needed a few months to recover. My body was a wreck. I had so many muscle pulls and tears and busted shoulders, wrists and bones. Every part of me had been hurt.”
His next major project was the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, a film that he feels was torpedoed by the studio.
Ely also became the emcee of The Miss America Pageant in 1980 and 1981 when he stepped in for longtime host Bert Parks. At the same time, he hosted a game show entitled, Face the Music.
Starting his acting career in the 1958 film South Pacific, Ely was quickly signed to a contract with 20th Century Fox. But it was TV where he made the most impact. He went on to appear in the TV films The Night of the Grizzly with Clint Walker, and Once Before I Die with Ursula Andress, both released in 1966. In 1978 he appeared in one episode of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman and in 1991 he became Superman for the TV series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher.
“My father was someone that people called a hero,” his daughter Kirsten said upon his passing. “He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader. He created a powerful wave of positive influence wherever he went. The impact he had on others is something that I have never witnessed in any other person — there was something truly magical about him.”
Ely was born on June 21, 1938 in Hereford, Texas, and in 1959 married his childhood sweetheart. That marriage only lasted two years. He didn’t marry again until 1984 when he wed Valerie Lundeen. But the marriage ended in tragedy when the actor’s son fatally stabbed Lundeen to death in 2019. Cameron Ely, 30, was then fatally shot by police outside the Ely home.
An autopsy found that Cameron was suffering from the early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he was killed by police.
Ely is also survived by his daughter Kaitland.
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