Remembering Ron Ely on the anniversary of his birth.
Ely played the ape man onscreen in the 1966-68 NBC-TV series “Tarzan” and several Saturday matinee films that were edited from the series’ footage, including “Tarzan’s Deadly Silence” (1970) and “Tarzan’s Jungle Rebellion” (1971). The late child actor Manuel Padilla Jr. co-starred as Ely’s ward, Jai.
Ronald Pierce Ely was born in Hereford, Texas, on June 2, 1938, to Vernon H. and Sybil Stephen Ely. His father died when he was a toddler, and he and his sister moved with his mother to Amarillo to live with his grandparents. While at Amarillo High School, Ron played sports and won the Texas State Poetry Reading Contest in 1956. He worked summers as an oilfield roughneck, before enrolling in the University of Texas at Austin.
Eager for a film career, Ely dropped out of school and moved to Hollywood with a friend, where he signed up for dramatic lessons with Estelle Harmon and worked odd jobs to survive. He made his debut as the radioman Munson on “South Pacific” (1958), earning a contract with 20th Century Fox studios and enrolling in their New Talent program.
More film and television roles followed, including a regular part in “The Aquanauts”, later re-titled “Malibu Run” (1960-61). Having passed upon the Tarzan role previously (Jock Mahoney accepted the offer), Ely agreed to replace film Tarzan Mike Henry in the television series when Henry resigned following three tough location shoots in Mexico and Brazil. Ely’s “Tarzan” followed, suit, filming in the Latin American locales.
Determined to provide a convincing portrayal of the ape man, Ely did his own stunts and suffered numerous injuries on set, including a 25-foot fall from a vine that separated his shoulder, requiring surgery (he finished the story in a sling after producers filmed the episode’s villain shooting him off the vine).A second vine fall broke the other shoulder. His first day on set, a lion’s fangs punctured his skull during a wrestling sequence, and he was dragged by the head one hundred yards through the brush by the spooked cat before he could battle free. Fortunately Weintraub had paid $65,000 for an insurance policy on Ely with Lloyds of London, worth $3 million.
Following the cancellation of “Tarzan”, Ely worked in European films and was a popular guest star on U.S. television series like “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island”. He also worked as an emcee, on the game show “Face the Music” (1979) and the Miss America Pageant (1980-81). He portrayed another iconic pulp hero in the feature “Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze” (1975) and guest-starred on the 1990s “Tarzan” series as big-game bow-hunter Gordon Shaw, who stalks Wolf Larson’s ape man. He also battled former Tarzan Denny Miller on the pilot “The Seal” (1981), which wasn’t picked up for a series.
In 1981, while in Florida for a celebrity tennis tournament, he met future wife Valerie Lundeen, 1981’s Miss Florida USA and a Miss World finalist. They married on March 10, 1984, and Ely retired from acting to raise their three children in their Santa Barbara home, where he authored two Jake Sands mystery novels: “Night Shadows” (1994) and “East Beach” (1995). His final screen appearance came in the film “Expecting Amish” (2014). Additional film credits include “The Hunters” (1958), “The Fiend Who Walked the West” (1958), “The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker” (1959), “The Night of the Grizzly” (1966) and “The Cry of the Black Wolves" (1972).
Ron Ely died at his home, surrounded by family, on September 29, 2024. He is survived by his daughters, Kirsten and Kaitland and his grandchildren. Ely was predeceased by his wife Valerie and son Cameron in 2019.
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