Tarzan star Ron Ely dies aged 86

US actor Ron Ely, finest identified for taking part in the position of Tarzan within the Sixties tv present of the identical identify, has died aged 86.

“The world has misplaced one of many biggest males it has ever identified – and I’ve misplaced my dad,” the actor’s daughter, Kirsten Casale Ely, mentioned in an Instagram submit.

Tarzan initially aired on NBC tv community from 1966 to 1968, throughout which era the actor broke a variety of bones and was reported to have been attacked by animals whereas performing his personal stunts.

After retiring from performing in 2001, Ely grew to become an writer and printed two thriller novels.

Ely made a quick return to performing for one tv movie, Anticipating Amish, in 2014, the place he performed an Amish elder.

Within the Nineteen Eighties, he appeared in different hit tv programmes together with cruise ship-based comedy The Love Boat, in addition to Marvel Lady with star Lynda Carter.

Born in Texas in 1938, Ely went on to marry his highschool sweetheart in 1959, earlier than divorcing two years later.

He was additionally identified for internet hosting the Miss America pageant within the early Nineteen Eighties, the place he met his second spouse Valerie Lundeen. The couple went on to have three kids.

Lundeen was stabbed to loss of life aged 62 by their son, Cameron, at their California dwelling in 2019. He was then shot useless by police after being deemed a menace by attending officers.

Ron Ely filed a wrongful loss of life lawsuit towards the power, although the decide dominated the officers had acted in self-defence.

The Tarzan star died at his dwelling in Los Alamos in Santa Barbara, California on 29 September.

Asserting the loss of life in an Instagram submit on Wednesday, the actor’s daughter mentioned: “My father was somebody that individuals referred to as a hero. He was an actor, author, coach, mentor, household man and chief.”

She added: “I knew him as my dad – and what a heaven despatched honour that has been. To me, he hung the moon.”