Ronald Pierce Ely (June 21, 1938 – September 29, 2024) was an American actor and novelist, best known for portraying Tarzan in the 1966–1968 NBC series Tarzan and playing the lead role in the film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975).[1] He hosted the Miss America pageant telecast in 1980 and 1981.
During the filming of Tarzan, Ely did almost all of his own stunts,[2] and received over two dozen injuries, including two broken shoulders and several lion bites.[3]
In the 1990s, Ely's roles included a retired alternate universe variant of Superman in the Superboy episode "The Road to Hell", and hunter Gordon Shaw in the Tarzán episode "Tarzan the Hunted".[citation needed] Until about 2001, he appeared on such shows as Sheena and Renegade.[citation needed] He wrote two mystery novels featuring private investigator Jake Sands: Night Shadows (1994) and East Beach (1995).[1]
Ely retired from acting in 2001, returning with an appearance in the television film Expecting Amish (2014).[1]
Personal life and death
Ely was born in Hereford, Texas on June 21, 1938 and raised in Amarillo.[5] He married his high school sweetheart, Helen Janet Triplet,[6] in 1959. Both natives of Hereford, Texas, they divorced in July 1961.[7]
In 1984, Ely married Valerie Lundeen, who won the Miss Florida USA title in 1981,[7] and they had three children.[1] On October 15, 2019, she was stabbed to death in Hope Ranch, California, a coastal residential community in Santa Barbara where they resided.[8] Police officers were called to the scene for a "family disturbance"[1][9] and killed the couple's son, Cameron.[2] In October 2020, Ely challenged the Santa Barbara district attorney who called it a justifiable homicide. No charges were filed.[10][11] An autopsy found that Cameron was in the early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy before he died.[12]
