Tarzan star, Ron Ely, dies aged 86

US actor Ron Ely, best known for playing the role of Tarzan in the 1960s television show of the same name, has died at 86.

“The world has lost one of the greatest men it has ever known – and I have lost my dad,” the actor’s daughter, Kirsten Casale Ely, said in an Instagram post.

She added: “My father was someone that people called a hero. He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader.
“I knew him as my dad – and what a heaven sent honour that has been. To me, he hung the moon.”

During the 1966–1968 run of Tarzan on the NBC television network, the actor broke multiple bones and was reportedly mauled by animals while doing his own stunts. Ely started writing and published two mystery novels when he retired from performing in 2001.

Ely briefly returned to acting in 2014, playing an Amish elder in the television movie Expecting Amish. He had appearances in other popular television shows in the 1980s, such as Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter and The Love Boat, which was set on a cruise ship.

Ely, who was born in 1938 in Texas, married his high school love in 1959 and got divorced two years later. In the early 1980s, he also gained notoriety as the host of the Miss America pageant where he met Valerie Lundeen, his second wife. Three children were born to the couple.

The Tarzan star died at his home in Los Alamos in Santa Barbara, California.

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