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 aged 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.

Tarzan originally aired on NBC television network from 1966 to 1968, during which time the actor broke a number of bones and was reported to have been attacked by animals while performing his own stunts.

After retiring from acting in 2001, Ely became an author and published two mystery novels.

Ely made a brief return to acting for one television film, Expecting Amish, in 2014, where he played an Amish elder.

In the 1980s, he appeared in other hit television programmes including cruise ship-based comedy The Love Boat, as well as Wonder Woman with star Lynda Carter.

Born in Texas in 1938, Ely went on to marry his high school sweetheart in 1959, before divorcing two years later.

He was also known for hosting the Miss America pageant in the early 1980s, where he met his second wife Valerie Lundeen. The couple went on to have three children.

Lundeen was stabbed to death aged 62 by their son, Cameron, at their California home in 2019. He was then shot dead by police after being deemed a threat by attending officers.

Ron Ely filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the force, though the judge ruled the officers had acted in self-defence.

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

Announcing the death in an Instagram post on Wednesday, the actor’s daughter said: “My father was someone that people called a hero. He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader.”

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