A stroke of fate 5 years ago Tarzan actor Ron Ely dead at the age of 86

dpa

24.10.2024 - 07:22

Former "Tarzan" actor Ron Ely during an interview in Los Angeles in December 1987.
Former "Tarzan" actor Ron Ely during an interview in Los Angeles in December 1987.
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He became famous as "Tarzan" in the 1960s and later filmed with Uschi Glas. In 2019, he suffered a stroke of fate. Now Ron Ely has died at the age of 86.

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  • US actor Ron Ely, best known for playing Tarzan in the 1960s, died on September 29 in California at the age of 86.
  • Ely hit the headlines in 2019 when his son stabbed his wife Valerie to death and was subsequently shot dead by police, which Ely later questioned.
  • Ely ended his acting career in 2001 to focus on his family, returning briefly in 2014 for the movie "Expecting Amish".

US actor Ron Ely is dead. One of his two daughters, Kirsten Casale Ely, told the AP news agency on Wednesday that her father had already died on September 29 at his home in Los Alamos, California.

Ely was 86 years old. He became known to a wider audience through his role as Tarzan in the NBC series of the same name in the 1960s. He also wrote two crime novels in the 1990s.

Ely did not achievethe fame of Johnny Weissmuller, a Tarzan actor of the 1930s and 1940s and Olympic swimmer.

But he helped shape the image of the jungle hero clad only in a loincloth, who was immortalized by Disney. Her father left a positive influence in every place he went, wrote Kirsten Ely in an Instagram post. "The impact he had on others is something I've never experienced with anyone else - there was something truly magical about him."

His wife was shot dead by his own son

In 2019, Ely made a tragic return to the headlines when his wife, 62-year-old Valerie Lundeen Ely, was stabbed to death by the couple's son, Cameron Ely. Police shot and killed the 30-year-old. Ron Ely later questioned the prosecution's report that the shooting was justified.

Ron Ely was at home when the shooting occurred. "If he didn't have a gun or a weapon, what was the reason to shoot him?" asked Ely's lawyer John Burris in 2020.

In the early 1980s, Ely hosted the beauty pageant "Miss America", where he also met his future wife Valerie, a "Miss Florida". The couple married in 1984 and had three children. It was the actor's second marriage.

In 2001, Ely ended his acting career to concentrate on his family. He briefly returned to the big screen in 2014 for the film "Expecting Amish".


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